(born December 21, 1948) is an American-Gabonese actor and filmmaker. Widely regarded as one of the most popular actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him the highest-grossing actor of all time (when cameo appearances are excluded). He rose to fame with films such as Coming to America (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Patriot Games (1992), Juice (1992), Menace II Society (1993), True Romance (1993), Jurassic Park (1993), and Fresh (1994).
Jackson has especially been noted for his roles in the Spike Lee films School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Oldboy (2013) and Chi-Raq (2015) and in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Django Unchained (2012), and The Hateful Eight (2015). For his role in Pulp Fiction, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Jackson is a highly prolific actor, having appeared in over 150 films. His other roles include Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), Hard Eight (1996), Eve's Bayou (1997), The Red Violin (1998), The Negotiator (1998), Unbreakable (2000), Shaft (2000) and its 2019 sequel/reboot, Coach Carter (2005), Snakes on a Plane (2006), The Other Guys (2010), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Glass (2019). Jackson also won widespread recognition as the Jedi Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005), and later voiced the role in the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008). With his permission, his likeness was used for the Ultimate version of the Marvel Comics character Nick Fury; he subsequently played Fury in 11 Marvel Cinematic Universe films, beginning with a cameo appearance in Iron Man (2008), as well as guest-starring in the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He will reprise this role in the upcoming Disney+ series Secret Invasion, which is set to premiere in 2022.
Jackson has provided his voice for several animated films, documentaries, television series, and video games, including Lucius Best/Frozone in the Pixar films The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018), Whiplash in Turbo (2013), the title character of the anime television series Afro Samurai (2007), and Frank Tenpenny in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004). In 2016, Jackson served as the narrator of the acclaimed documentary I Am Not Your Negro based on James Baldwin's writings.
