Samuel L. Jackson
"A Way With Words"
His Beginnings
Jackson was born on December 21, 1948, in Washington, D.C., and was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, under his grandmother's strict guidance. His mother, Elizabeth, joined them when he was 10. He attended Riverside High School.
An early film enthusiast, Jackson frequently saw films at the local theater and gained exposure to the complicated messages surrounding the Black presence on screen. Versions of Band of Angels were edited for the Black audience in Chattanooga, omitting a scene in which Sidney Poitier slaps a white woman.
High school photo of Sam
Jackson's early memories remained with him when he entered the historically Black Morehouse College in Atlanta and became increasingly involved in the Black-power movement. In 1969, during his junior year, he protested the absence of Black people on the board of trustees by locking several board members in a building for two days and was promptly expelled from the college.
The Start of His Career
After college, Jackson joined the Black Image Theatre Company with his future wife, LaTanya Richardson, whom he met at Morehouse's sister school, Spelman College. They toured the country and performed skits characterized by a fiery combination of rage and humor to primarily white audiences.
In 1976, having exhausted their enthusiasm for politically charged theater, Jackson moved with Richardson to Harlem, New York City, to pursue an acting career outside such strictly defined perimeters of race. He began to act in Off-Broadway productions, including Richard Wesley's The Mighty Gents, an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, and Samm-Art Williams's Home. He also got a job substituting for Bill Cosby during The Cosby Show rehearsals.
Sam and Spike Lee
In 1981, while working on Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play, Jackson had two life-changing encounters: He met fellow actor Morgan Freeman, who became a great friend and convinced Jackson that he could be a successful actor and a New York University film student named Spike Lee, who expressed his enthusiasm for Jackson's performances and urged him to appear in the films he planned to make. Jackson consented and kept his word, appearing in several of Lee's early films including School Daze, Do the Right Thing, and Mo' Better Blues.
Blast Off
In 1994, after establishing a reputation as one of Hollywood's hardest-working actors, Jackson got a chance to play the pivotal role of his career in Quentin Tarantino's instant cult classic, Pulp Fiction. Working from any actor's dream script, Jackson played Jules Winnfield, a sermon-spewing killer with eruptive speeches up to five pages long. He moved and terrified audiences with his impassioned performance, becoming the elusive moral center of the psychologically twisted film. He received an Academy Award nomination for the role.
Sam in Pulp Fiction
Jackson has been in films such as A Time to Kill, Star Wars: Episode 1, Shaft, Unbreakable, Coach Carter, Snakes on a Plane, and many more during his career.
To add to his many successes, The Guinness Book of World Records named Jackson the highest-grossing movie actor of all time in 2011. The majority of Jackson's estimated $7.2 billion in wealth came from his big franchise films Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, and Star Wars.
CLIENTS
Home Life
Jackson and Richardson married in 1980, and they currently reside in California. They have one child together, a daughter named Zoe. When a reporter asked why his wife stayed with him during his wilder years, he replied, "She always says to me that I have now grown into the man that she always knew I could be."
Sam and his wife, LaTanya
Featured Artifact
On display to your right, Samuel L. Jackson's authentic costume from Soul Men (2008) where he played the character Louis Hinds.
"Though it's been about twenty years since they have spoken with one another, two estranged soul-singing legends agree to participate in a reunion performance at the Apollo Theater to honor their recently deceased band leader."
