To celebrate his birthday today, we look back on the career of beloved American actor and comedian Jack Black.
Born Thomas Jacob Black – in Santa Monica, California – Jack Black (as we all know and love him) was born to satellite engineers Thomas William Black and Judith Love Cohen. Black was raised Jewish and attended a Hebrew school when he was younger.
After his parents divorced when he was ten, Jack moved to Culver City with his father. In 1982, his first stint at TV stardom was after appearing in an advert for the Pitfall! Game show. However, his talent started to shine through in drama when he attended Crossroads School. Yet, although this talent was excelling, he dropped out in his sophomore year to pursue a career in entertainment.
In 1987, Jack Black joined the “Actor’s gang” – a theatre group founded by the University of California students, including The Shawshank Redemption star Tim Robbins. This led to Jack Black starring in various theatre productions.
Black’s TV career began in small roles including Northern Exposure, Mr Show, Picket Fences, The X-Files and various others. His film career then began in 1992 after Tim Robbins cast him in Bob Roberts, and from there he appeared in other smaller film roles including Demolition Man (1993), Waterworld (1995), Dead Man Walking (1995), The Cable Guy (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996), The Fan (1996) and others.
The big break for Jack came in 2000, landing his first leading role in High Fidelity (2000). After that, the leads came one after another in films including: Shallow Hal (2001), Nacho Libre (2006), Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2006), Year One (2009) and Gulliver’s Travels (2010).
A memorable role – especially to people our age – Black has played is as Dewey Finn, a struggling rock star who disguises himself as a teacher at a prep school, in School of Rock (2003). The kids “teaches” surprise him with their musical talents and he trains them with his amazing rock knowledge to bring them to win the Battle of the Bands competition – and pay his rent.
This film wasn’t only a success in terms of popularity, but it earned him critical acclaim and even a Golden Globe nomination for “Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.”
Other notable roles Black has played include his character in the 2005 remake of King Kong and the voice of everyone’s favourite panda Po Ping in the Kung Fu Panda trilogy.
More recent roles have included Goosebumps in 2015, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). And in 2018, Black was rightfully inducted in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Unfortunately, as a teenager, Black suffered with substance use after hanging out with some rough people when he was younger.
In January 2006, Jack got engaged to Tanya Haden and married in March 2006. Both attended Crossroads School, however after graduating they lost touch with each other and met again 15 years later at a party. Together the pair have two sons, the first born in June 2006 and the second born in May 2008.
Image credit: Answerafrica
Jack Black will forever be the comedic actor that brought laughter to our screens and tears of joy to our eyes. And to most of us, he will always be Dewey Finn teaching a bunch of school kids to rock…
By Katie Green
Feature image: USA Today