Raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by his no-nonsense mother and grandmother, Jackson took school seriously and was accepted at Atlanta's Morehouse College as an architecture student. Jackson, who had struggled with a stutter since childhood, followed a speech therapist's advice and auditioned for a college musical. He landed a part, found he enjoyed performing enough to pursue further acting gigs, and eventually switched his major to drama. Jackson's family, however, remained unconvinced of the professional merits of his new vocation until a Southern fast-food chain, Krystal Hamburgers, cast him in a television commercial in which he smacked his lips while eating an onion burger. His first actor's paycheck was in the bank. Jackson graduated from college in 1972 (despite a temporary expulsion for participating in a student demonstration), and moved to New York to ply his craft in more serious projects.

During his first decade in the Big Apple, Jackson distinguished himself among the city's community of not-quite-starving actors as a diligent, disciplined thespian with capable performances at the Negro Ensemble Company and at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He later hedged closer to the mainstream by subbing for Bill Cosby during rehearsals of the comedian's hit sitcom, and by appearing in a handful of small film and television roles. In retrospect, two important events stand out as milestones along his path to fame: the first was attracting the eye of a young, hungry director named Spike Lee during a 1981 stage performance of A Soldier's Story - their subsequent introduction launched a mutually rewarding professional relationship. Jackson's second turning point was losing the lead in a Broadway production of August Wilson's Two Trains Running - a role that he had originated off-Broadway - because, as he puts it, he was "showing up to too many auditions with red eyes and smelling of beer." Realizing he had blown a huge career opportunity, Jackson set about kicking his addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol.

Ironically, Jackson's first post-sobriety gig was as Wesley Snipes' crack-addicted brother in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991). His relatively brief performance was so authentic that the Cannes Film Festival jury bestowed upon him a Supporting Actor award - a category of acting it had never honored in the past. Nineteen years after beginning his journey, Jackson had finally broken away from the pack and onto every casting director's hot list. He seized the moment and became one of Hollywood's hardest-working supporting actors: he has rounded out the casts of dozens of films since the beginning of the decade.

Still, audiences were waiting for Jackson to deliver on all that Pulp Fiction leading-man promise. Though he impressed them in films of mixed success (Kiss of Death and Losing Isaiah, both 1995) and in one box-office smash (Die Hard With a Vengeance, 1995), it was the 1996 summer blockbuster A Time To Kill that provided Jackson with his first nibble of outright movie-star status. The following year brought a mixed bag of supporting and starring opportunities, including the critically appreciated Southern Gothic tale Eve's Bayou; writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's compelling thriller Hard Eight; and the eagerly anticipated Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino's glib adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch. Jackson's asking price has grown apace of his burgeoning star profile (he banked $5 million for his lead role in the 1998 Warner Bros. actioner The Negotiator), and his roles continue to grow more varied and interesting: 1999 witnessed the record-busting release of the eagerly anticipated Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace, in which he portrayed Jedi Master Mace Windu; and he bit into the role of a sharklike financier in Renny Harlin's ocean frightener Deep Blue Sea. Coming down the pike for Jackson is a title turn as private dectivek John Shaft in director John Singleton's Shaft Returns, a film adapted from the Ernest Tidyman novel and a continuation of the popular movie and TV series that starred Richard Roundtree.

As for Jackson, he would likely argue that the trappings of superstardom will ever be his primary motivation: after all, he is an actor who ranks performance above prominence. And he is more than content to hang out at home with his wife of many years, LaTanya Richardson, and their daughter, Zoe, and to indulge his far healthier addiction: playing golf.

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