Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola; January 7, 1964) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. Known for his versatility as an actor, Cage's work across diverse film genres has gained him a significant cult following.

Born into the Coppola family, Cage began his career in films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Valley Girl (1983), as well as various films by his uncle Francis Ford Coppola such as Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). He received critical success for his roles in Moonstruck and Raising Arizona (both 1987), before earning an Academy Award for Best Actor for the dramatic film Leaving Las Vegas (1995). He was Oscar-nominated for playing twins Charlie and Donald Kaufman in the comedy-drama film Adaptation (2002).

Cage established himself in mainstream action films, such as The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997), Face/Off (1997), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), the National Treasure film series (2004–2007), the Ghost Rider film series (2007–2011), and Kick-Ass (2010). He also took on dramatic roles in City of Angels (1998), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), The Family Man (2000), Matchstick Men (2003), and Joe (2013), voiced characters in The Ant Bully (2006), Astro Boy (2009), The Croods film series (2013–2020), Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018), and played Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Spider-Noir (2026), and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (2027). He earned renewed critical recognition for his starring roles in Mandy (2018), Pig (2021), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), Dream Scenario (2023) and Longlegs (2024).

Cage owns the production company Saturn Films and has produced films such as Shadow of the Vampire (2000) and The Life of David Gale (2003), and has directed Sonny (2002). For his contributions to the film industry, he was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998. Cage was also voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine.

Nicolas Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola on January 7, 1964 in Long Beach, California, to August Coppola, a professor of literature, and Joy Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer. He was raised in a Catholic family. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of mainly German and Polish descent with some English and Scottish ancestry on her father's side. His paternal grandparents were composer Carmine Coppola and actress Italia Pennino, and his paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata. Through his father, he is a nephew of both director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, and a cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Robert and Jason Schwartzman.

Cage is the youngest of three sons. His two brothers are New York radio personality Marc "The Cope" Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. He attended Beverly Hills High School, which is known for its many alumni who became entertainers. He aspired to act from an early age and also attended UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of Golden Boy. He said he started acting because he "wanted to be James Dean. I saw him in Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden. Nothing affected me—no rock song, no classical music—the way Dean affected me in Eden. It blew my mind. I was like, 'That's what I want to do'."

Cage made his acting debut in the 1981 television pilot The Best of Times, which was never picked up by ABC. His film debut followed in 1982, with a minor role as an unnamed co-worker of Judge Reinhold's character in the coming-of-age film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, having originally auditioned for Reinhold's part. His experience on the film was marred by cast members endlessly quoting his uncle's films, which inspired him to change his name. Cage's first starring role came opposite Deborah Foreman in the romantic comedy Valley Girl (1983), in which he played a punk who falls in love with the titular valley girl, a plot loosely inspired by Romeo and Juliet. The film was a modest box office success and has been branded a cult classic. He auditioned for the role of Dallas Winston in his uncle's film The Outsiders, based on S.E. Hinton's novel, but lost to Matt Dillon. Cage, however, would co-star in Coppola's adaptation of another Hinton novel, Rumble Fish, in that year.

In 1984, Cage appeared in three period films, none of which fared well at the box office. In the drama, Racing with the Moon (1984), Cage featured opposite Sean Penn as friends who are awaiting deployment to the United States Marine Corps. In Coppola's crime drama The Cotton Club he portrayed a fictionalized version of mob hitman Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, earning praise from critic Paul Attanasio for "artfully [using] his few moments to sketch a brawny, violent thug." His final release of the year was Alan Parker's drama Birdy, in which he starred with Matthew Modine. Cage lost weight for the role and had two of his front teeth pulled out to appear disfigured. Despite massively underperforming at the box office, the film, and Cage and Modine's performances, received positive reviews, with The New York Times critic Janet Maslin writing, "Mr. Cage very sympathetically captures Al's urgency and frustration. Together, these actors work miracles with what might have been unplayable."

In 1986, Cage starred in the little-seen Canadian sports drama The Boy in Blue and his uncle's fantasy comedy Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) as the husband to Kathleen Turner's character. He then starred in the Coen brothers' crime comedy Raising Arizona (1987) as a dim-witted ex-con. Cage's biggest breakthrough came in 1987 with the romantic comedy Moonstruck, in which he starred alongside Cher as a hot-tempered baker. The film was a hit with critics and audiences alike, earning Cage a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy In his retrospective review, Roger Ebert wrote that he felt Cage's performance was worthy of an Oscar.

In 1989, Cage starred in the black comedy Vampire's Kiss as a man who falls in love with a vampire and soon begins to believe himself as a vampire. The film was a major box office flop but has developed a cult following largely due to Cage's surrealistic and over-the-top performance appearing in internet memes. Critic Vincent Canby felt the film was "dominated and destroyed by Mr. Cage's chaotic, self-indulgent performance." After filming the Italian drama Time to Kill (1989) in Zimbabwe, he starred in David Lynch's romantic crime film Wild at Heart (1990) with Laura Dern. Cage was drawn to the project because he was "always attracted to those passionate, almost unbridled romantic characters" and it allowed him to impersonate one of his heroes, Elvis Presley, in scenes in which he sang. Wild at Heart received mixed reviews upon release, despite controversially winning the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Cage would reunite with Lynch and Dern for the avant-garde concert performance Industrial Symphony No. 1.

Also in 1990, he starred as a helicopter pilot in the action film Fire Birds, which was panned by critics and negatively compared to Top Gun (1986). Cage's next film, the erotic thriller Zandalee (1991), was released direct-to-video in the United States, where it did not receive a theatrical release. His "goofy 'everyman'" performance in the romantic comedy Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) garnered some positive critical notices, including from Roger Ebert, who defended Cage amidst some critics finding his acting "excessive" and earned Cage his second Golden Globe nomination. He hosted an episode of the variety show Saturday Night Live to promote the film, his only time hosting the show.

None of Cage's three films in 1993—Deadfall (directed by his brother Christopher), Amos & Andrew and Red Rock West—performed well at the box office. The comedy Guarding Tess (1994) paired Cage with Shirley MacLaine as a Secret Service agent protecting a former First Lady; however, it was dismissed as being derivative by some critics. He next starred alongside Bridget Fonda in the romantic comedy It Could Happen to You as a cash-strapped police officer who offers to share his lottery winnings with a waitress and then the much-criticized box office flop Christmas comedy Trapped in Paradise with the Saturday Night Live actors Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey. According to Lovitz, Cage directed portions of the film because its director, George Gallo, offered little direction.

In his second-highest-grossing film to date, National Treasure (2004), Cage played an eccentric historian who goes on a dangerous adventure to find treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers of the United States. In 2005, two films he headlined, Lord of War and The Weather Man, failed to find a significant audience despite nationwide releases and good reviews for his performances. The 2006 remake of The Wicker Man was very poorly reviewed, and failed to make back its $40-million budget. In early December 2006, Cage announced at the Bahamas International Film Festival that he planned to curtail his future acting endeavors to pursue other interests. On The Dresden Files for the Sci-Fi Channel, Cage is listed as the executive producer. The much-criticized Ghost Rider (2007), based on the Marvel Comics character, fared better, earning more than $45 million (the top earner) during its opening weekend and over $208 million worldwide through the weekend ending on March 25, 2007. Also in 2007, he had a small but notable role as the Chinese criminal mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu in Rob Zombie's fake trailer Werewolf Women of the S.S. from the B-movie double feature Grindhouse, starred in Next, which shared the concept of a glimpse into an alternate timeline with Cage's previous film, The Family Man, and reprised his role as a treasure hunter in National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

In November 2007, Cage was spotted backstage at a Ring of Honor wrestling show in New York City researching for the lead role for The Wrestler. However, Cage dropped out of production shortly afterward because he felt that he did not have enough time to prepare for the role and director Darren Aronofsky preferred Mickey Rourke for the lead role. Rourke would go on to receive an Academy Award nomination for his performance. In an interview with /Film, Aronofsky said of Cage's decision to leave the film that "Nic was a complete gentleman, and he understood that my heart was with Mickey and he stepped aside. I have so much respect for Nic Cage as an actor and I think it really could have worked with Nic but ... you know, Nic was incredibly supportive of Mickey and he is old friends with Mickey and really wanted to help with this opportunity, so he pulled himself out of the race."

In 2008, Cage appeared as Joe, a contract killer who undergoes a change of heart while on a work outing in Bangkok, in the film Bangkok Dangerous. The film is shot by the Pang Brothers and has a distinctly South-East Asian flavor. In 2009, Cage starred in the science fiction thriller Knowing, directed by Alex Proyas. In the film, he plays an MIT professor who examines the contents of a time capsule unearthed at his son's elementary school. Startling predictions found inside the capsule that have already come true lead him to believe that the world is going to end at the close of the week and that he and his son are somehow involved in the destruction. The film received mixed reviews but was the box office winner on its opening weekend.

Also in 2009, Cage starred in the film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, directed by acclaimed German director Werner Herzog. He portrayed a corrupt police officer with gambling, drug and alcohol addictions. The film was very well received by critics, holding a rating of 87% positive reviews on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Cage was lauded for his performance, with Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune writing "Herzog has found his ideal interpreter, a performer whose truth lies deep in the artifice of performance: ladies and gentlemen, Nicolas Cage, at his finest." This film reunited Cage with Eva Mendes, who played his love interest in Ghost Rider. In 2010, Cage starred in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, in which he played the sorcerer, and the next year, headlined the period piece Season of the Witch, as a 14th-century knight transporting a woman accused of causing the Black Plague to a monastery. In 2011, Cage reprised his role in Ghost Rider's sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

In 2013, Cage was involved in many projects. Notable films including animated film The Croods, in which he voiced a character named Grug Crood. The Croods received positive reviews from critics and was a box-office success grossing $585 million against a budget of $135 million. He starred as main character in The Frozen Ground, a thriller crime drama film directed and written by Scott Walker in his directorial debut, based on the crimes of real-life Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen. The film, reunited him with Cusack, depicts an Alaskan State Trooper, played by Cage, seeking to apprehend Hansen, played by Cusack, by partnering with a young woman who escaped from Hansen's clutches. The film has received mixed reviews though Cage's performance was cited as a highlight and solid. He also starred in Joe, an independent crime drama film directed and co-produced by David Gordon Green, adaptation from Larry Brown's 1991 novel of the same name. In this film Nicolas Cage is a tormented man who hires a 15-year-old boy (played by Tye Sheridan) and protects him from his abusive father. The film premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival on August 30, 2013, with a subsequent screening at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. It was a box office flop, grossing only $2.36 million from a $4 million budget, but received critical acclaim from critics, who praised Cage's performance and Green's direction.

The 2016 black comedy Dog Eat Dog, Cage's second film with Paul Schrader, reunited him with Willem Dafoe (after Wild at Heart) as a pair of ex-convicts hired to kidnap a baby. The film had its premiere as the closing entry for the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2016. It was released on November 4, 2016, in the United States. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars, writing, "It's the right director for the right project and the result is Schrader's best for years: a lairy, nasty, tasty crime thriller built on black-comic chaos." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "A rare film to have been shot in Cleveland, Dog Eat Dog definitely looks like it was shot on the cheap but puts what it needs to up on the screen with vigor and wit."

Cage starred alongside Selma Blair and Anne Winters in Brian Taylor's horror comedy film, Mom and Dad, which premiered in the Midnight Madness section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in theaters on January 19, 2018, and received positive reviews from critics, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes defining his performance as "over-the-top." Director John Waters appreciated the film, naming Mom and Dad as one of the best movies of 2018, placing it fourth on his personal top list.

"Nouveau Shamanic" is a style of acting developed by Cage. He has said it is to increase one's imagination without restraint, in avoidance of experiencing the sense of being ingenuous.

The process itself is about: How do you augment your imagination in a healthy way? So that you can believe you're these characters... You don't feel like you're acting, you feel like you're being.

In the film Vampire's Kiss Cage moved from method acting to "Nouveau Shamanic". The scene where Cage recites the alphabet to his psychiatrist was a result of acting out of impulse. Raising Arizona showcased the physicality of Nouveau Shamanic. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is a display of how the method leads to impulse decisions fueled by an energy one could only garner naturally. Cage was asked if any of his numerous pets influence his acting, to which he replied "The cobras, definitely. They would try to hypnotize you by going side to side, and when I did Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, that's something my character does before he attacks. Animals are fun places to get inspiration."

According to The Guardian film critic Luke Buckmaster, "any casual observer can see that Cage is entertaining, charismatic and wildly flamboyant." Attributing it partly to the "well-cultured" background of Cage's family, Buckmaster said the actor "is clearly attracted to grotesque characters and is celebrated for his wild and unhinged approach to them. He has the presence of a leading man, and the eccentricities of a character actor." Actor Ethan Hawke stated in 2013 that Cage is "the only actor since Marlon Brando that's actually done anything new with the art", crediting him for taking film audiences "away from an obsession with naturalism into a kind of presentation style of acting that I imagine was popular with the old troubadours." In 2018, Italian cartoonist Zerocalcare dedicated a comic strip to Nicolas Cage, describing him as one of the incarnation of the outcasts of 1990s films.

Film director David Lynch described him as "the jazz musician of American acting." Many critics have accused Cage of overacting. Others, including Cage himself, have described his intentionally extreme performances as "mega-acting". After the actor's series of mainstream-marketed thriller films during the late 1990s, Sean Penn told The New York Times in 1999 that Cage was "no longer an actor" but "more like a performer." Despite this, in his speech after winning the Oscar for his performance in Mystic River, Penn described Cage's performance in Matchstick Men as one of the best of 2003.

During the 2010s, a growing number of critics described Cage as one of the most underrated actors of his generation. In the same years, his performance in various horror films, like Drive Angry, Mom and Dad, Mandy, Color Out of Space, Prisoners of the Ghostland, Willy's Wonderland, Arcadian,

Renfield, Dream Scenario, and Longlegs, made him a scream king.

Cage's work across diverse film genres has gained him a significant cult following. He has gained renewed critical recognition for his starring roles in films in the 2020s, such as Mandy (2018), Pig (2021), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), Dream Scenario (2023), and Longlegs (2024).

For his contributions to the film industry, Cage was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998 with a motion pictures star located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. In May 2001, Cage was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Fullerton. He spoke at the commencement ceremony. Cage has also been nominated for an Academy Award twice. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the film Leaving Las Vegas in 1995. He was nominated for a second one for his role in the film Adaptation in 2002.

He also won a Golden Globe award, Screen Actors Guild award, and many more awards for Leaving Las Vegas. He has received nominations by the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA for his films Adaptation, Honeymoon in Vegas, and Moonstruck. He has also won and been nominated for many other awards.

In 1988, Cage began dating actress Christina Fulton, with whom he has a son, Weston Coppola Cage (born in 1990). Weston has been the vocalist of two symphonic black metal bands, Eyes of Noctrum and Arsh Anubis. Weston also appeared in his father's film Lord of War as a helicopter mechanic, and in the 2014 film Rage as Nicolas' character's younger self. Through Weston, Cage has two grandsons born in 2014 and 2016. In July 2024, Weston was arrested for assaulting numerous people with a deadly weapon, including his mother and his best friend; he was released on a $150,000 bond and was later sentenced to two years in a mental health diversion program.

Cage's first wife was actress Patricia Arquette, whom he married in April 1995 and divorced in 2001.

Cage grew up in a family of Catholic background, but he does not talk about religion publicly and refuses to answer religion-connected questions in his interviews. When asked about whether he could relate to his character's lack of religious belief in Knowing, Cage replied, "You know, any of my personal beliefs or opinions run the risk of impinging on your own relationship with the movie. I think movies are best left enigmatic. Left raising more questions than answers. I don't want to ever preach, so that's what you get from a movie; that's far more interesting than anything I could offer."

During his visit to University of California, Santa Cruz, he stated that he is not a politically active actor and that he can do it in his work as he learned "more about nuclear power from the movie The China Syndrome." Cage endorsed Andrew Yang for president during the 2020 election.

At one point in his life, Cage had decided that he wanted to develop the philosophical aspect of his nature, and he went on a quest to find the Holy Grail. Cage traveled to England to look for it, but also looked at some areas of the United States.

Cage has been called one of the most generous stars in Hollywood. He donated $2 million to Amnesty International for them to use to offer rehabilitation shelters, medical services and psychological and reintegration services to some of the 300,000 children forced to fight in conflicts across the world. He has also donated $1 million to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He became the first artist to support ArtWorks, an artist engagement program to raise awareness of fundamental rights at work, including freedom from slavery and from child labor. During 2023, while filming The Surfer in Western Australia, Cage personally phoned in an AU$5,000 donation to the Channel Seven Perth Telethon.

Cage has also been honored with a Humanitarian award from the United Nations for his works and appointed as a UN ambassador for Global Justice in 2009 and again in 2013. He led a campaign around the film Lord of War to raise awareness about international arms control, supported "Heal the Bay", the United Negro College Fund efforts, and the Royal United Hospital's Forever Friends Appeal to build intensive care units for babies.

Cage, an avid comic book fan, auctioned a collection of 400 vintage comics through Heritage Auctions for over $1.6 million in 2002. In 2007, he created a comic book with his son Weston, called Voodoo Child, which was published by Virgin Comics. Cage is a fan and collector of painter and underground comic artist Robert Williams. He has written introductions for Juxtapoz magazine and purchased the painting Death on the Boards.

Saturn Films is a production company referred to by one source as "the production shingle of Nicolas Cage" and often referred to as "Cage's Saturn Films". Michael Nilon has been referred to as Cage's "producing partner through" Saturn Films. Norm Golightly was president of the firm for twelve years, ending in 2009. In 2001, Saturn was referred to as "Intermedia-based", suggesting it was part of Intermedia, which was defunct as of 2006.

Cage was once considered one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors, earning $40 million in 2009 according to Forbes, although he failed to make Forbes' Top 10 List in 2014. In 2004 he bought a property on Paradise Island, Bahamas. In May 2006, he bought a 40-acre (16 ha) island in the Exuma archipelago, some 85 miles (137 km) southeast of Nassau and close to a similar island owned by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. He bought the medieval castle Schloss Neidstein in the Oberpfalz region in Germany in 2006 and sold it in 2009 for $2.5 million. His grandmother was German, living in Cochem an der Mosel.

In August 2007, Cage purchased "Grey Craig", a 24,000-square-foot (2,200 m2) brick-and-stone country manor in Middletown, Rhode Island. With an estate occupying 26 acres (11 ha), the home has 12 bedrooms and 10 full bathrooms and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. It borders the Norman Bird Sanctuary to the west. The sale ranked among the state of Rhode Island's most expensive residential purchases. Also in 2007, Cage purchased Midford Castle in Somerset, England. Shortly after selling his German castle, Cage also put his homes in Rhode Island, Louisiana, Nevada, and California, as well as a $7-million island in the Bahamas, on the market.

On July 14, 2009, the Internal Revenue Service filed documents in New Orleans in connection with a federal tax lien against property owned by Cage in Louisiana, concerning unpaid federal taxes. The IRS alleged that Cage failed to pay over $6.2 million in federal income tax for the year 2007. In addition, the Internal Revenue Service had another lien for more than $350,000 in unpaid taxes dating from 2002 to 2004. Cage filed a $20-million lawsuit on October 16, 2009, against his business manager, Samuel J. Levin, alleging negligence and fraud. Reuters said that the lawsuit stated that Levin "had failed to pay taxes when they were due and had placed [Cage] in speculative and risky real estate investments 'resulting in (the actor) suffering catastrophic losses.'" Cage also faced separate lawsuits from East West Bank and Red Curb Investments for unpaid, multi-million dollar loans.

Samuel Levin filed a counter-complaint and responded to the lawsuit in a filing stating that he warned Cage that he was living beyond his means and urged him to spend less. Levin's filing states that "instead of listening to Levin, cross-defendant Cage (Coppola) spent most of his free time shopping for high ticket purchases, and wound up with 15 personal residences." Levin's complaint continued: "Likewise, Levin advised Coppola against buying a Gulfstream jet, against buying and owning a flotilla of yachts, against buying and owning a squadron of Rolls Royces, against buying millions of dollars in jewelry and art."

In his filing, Levin said that in 2007, Cage's "shopping spree entailed the purchase of three additional residences at a total cost of more than $33 million; the purchase of 22 automobiles (including 9 Rolls Royces), 12 purchases of expensive jewelry, and 47 purchases of artwork and exotic items." One of those items was a dinosaur skull of a Tarbosaurus. After discovering that it was stolen, he returned it to the Mongolian authorities.