Forest Steven Whitaker, a towering figure at 6'2" and 220 lbs, has packed a massive talent into his imposing frame. He won the Academy Award for his powerful performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the film The Last King of Scotland (2006),and received a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award for his efforts. He is the fourth African-American male to win the Best Actor Oscar, following in the footsteps of Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, and Jamie Foxx.
Born on July 15, 1961, in Longview, Texas, to Laura Francis (Smith),a special education teacher, and Forest Steven Whitaker, an insurance salesman, Forest's family moved to South Central Los Angeles in 1965. Initially, he found his way into college via a football scholarship, but later transferred to USC to focus on music and earned two more scholarships training as an operatic tenor. This led to another scholarship at Berkeley, where he refocused on acting and the performing stage.
Whitaker made his film debut at 21 in the raucous comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982),playing a footballer, and went on to play a wrestler in his second film Vision Quest (1985). He gained experience on TV with featured spots on shows like Diff'rent Strokes (1978) and Cagney & Lacey (1981),as well as the TV-movie Civil War epic North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985) and its sequel.
The movie that truly put him on the map was The Color of Money (1986),where he played a naive-looking pool player who out-hustles Paul Newman's Fast Eddie Felson. This led to more visible roles in the "A" class films Platoon (1986),Stakeout (1987),and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987),culminating in his breakout lead portrayal of the tortured jazz icon 'Charlie "Bird" Parker' in Clint Eastwood's passion project Bird (1988),for which Whitaker won the Cannes Film Festival award for "best actor" and a Golden Globe nomination.
While his "gentle giant" characters typically display innocence, indecision, and timidity along with a strong underlying humanity, he has certainly not shied away from the edgier, darker corners of life as his occasional hitmen and other menacing streetwise types can attest. Among his notable roles are the IRA-captured British soldier in The Crying Game (1992),a plastic surgeon in Johnny Handsome (1989),a gay clothing designer in Robert Altman's Ready to Wear (1994),an alien hunter in Species (1995),an absentee father confronted by his estranged son in Smoke (1995),and a Mafia hitman who models himself after the samurai warrior in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999).
As a producer and director, Whitaker has also gained respect behind the camera. He co-produced the violent gangster film A Rage in Harlem (1991),in which he co-starred with Gregory Hines and Robin Givens, and made his successful directorial debut with the soulful Waiting to Exhale (1995),showcasing a legion of distaff black stars. He also directed Whitney Houston's music video of the movie's theme song ("Shoop Shoop") and helmed the fluffy romantic comedy First Daughter (2004) with Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton.
Whitaker's greatest success to date is the 2006 film, The Last King of Scotland. His performance earned him the 2007 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, as well as the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA Award, and many critical accolades. He has also received several other honors, including the 10th Annual Hollywood Film Festival's "Hollywood Actor of the Year Award" and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's American Riviera Award.
In 2007, Whitaker co-starred in The Great Debaters with fellow Oscar winner Denzel Washington, and in 2008, he played opposite Keanu Reeves in Street Kings and Dennis Quaid in Vantage Point. In 2009, he co-starred in the Warner Bros. film "Where the Wild Things Are," directed by Spike Jonze, and appeared in "Repossession Mambo", with Jude Law, "Hurricane Season", "Winged Creatures", and "Powder Blue".
Whitaker is married to former model Keisha Whitaker and has three children by her. His younger brothers Kenn Whitaker and Damon Whitaker are both actors as well. Forest was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April 2007, and in November 2007, he was the creative mind behind DEWmocracy.com, a website that let people decide the next flavor of Mountain Dew in a "People's Dew" poll.
