Jon Voight (Jon Voight) biography, photo, his daughter 2021

The beginning of Jon Voight's acting career, first films

As an actor, Voight made his first appearance on the Broadway stage. It was a production of The Sound of Music. In A View from the Bridge he worked with Robert Duvall. John later appeared before the audience in the play A Streetcar Named Desire in Los Angeles. For his soulful performance, this dramatic actor soon began to be considered one of the best.

Jon Voight in his youth

In 1969, he received an important role for his future career in the film Midnight Cowboy. It should be noted that he got this role only after another actor who passed the audition refused it. He played Razzo and became world famous. Voight recalled that he earned pennies then, but this role was interesting to him not because of the remuneration, but because he considered it difficult, believed that he could cope with it better than many.

Critics praised him for his performance in this film, as well as for his filming in “Champion” and “Catch-22.” Audiences knew and loved Voight. He received his Oscar for his participation in the filming of the film “Coming Home.”

Childhood and youth

Jonathan (John) Vincent was born in Yonkers, New York, on December 29, 1938, the second of three sons of Barbara and Elmer Voight. The actor's older brother is Barry, a former volcanologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and his younger brother is Wesley, a famous composer.

Actor Jon Voight

Voight spent his school years at the Archdiocesan School in White Plains. It was there that he first showed interest in acting, choosing the role of a comedian. In 1956, school was over, and John became a student at Catholic University in Washington. After graduating in 1960, the future actor entered the New York school-studio “Neighborhood Playhouse”.

Jon Voight in his youth

Jon Voight worked on TV in his youth and appeared in several episodes of TV series (“Gunsmoke,” “The Naked City,” “Vertical Takeoff,” “The Defenders”). In 1965, his theatrical career took off: John received the role of Rodolfo in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge. Two years later, John was awarded the Theater of the World Award for his participation in Frank Gilroy's play This Summer This Season.

Filmography of Jon Voight

In the seventies, the most popular films were those that fell under the description of "gritty realistic cinema."
The film “Deliverance,” in which Voight played, was just like that. Thanks to this film, viewers began to perceive the actor not only as a “midnight cowboy.” In the eighties, blockbusters gained popularity. John decided not to follow fashion. More often in those years he appeared on theater stages, as well as on television. In 1985, viewers were able to appreciate his work in a new film, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar. It was a role in the movie "Runaway Train". It was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky.

Jon Voight tried himself in different genres

However, this time the actor did not receive the award. He approached filming this film very seriously. To thoroughly study the hero, he went to prison, where he spent several days among the prisoners. Voight himself recalls that he maintained friendly relations with some of them for a long time. After such an “immersion” in the life and image of the hero, John played in the film very heartfelt and believable.

Keeping up with fashion and with the times, the actor again walked into the nineties, appearing in the films of the most famous film directors. He always says that he is happy to have worked with such professionals in his life. The actor’s talent was again evident in the films “Mission: Impossible” and “Heat.”

Biography

Jon Voight is an American actor who, at his advanced age (77 years old), continues to work in the field of cinema. Angelina Jolie's father stars in films and produces TV series, delighting fans of his work with new works. At the age of 14, John played himself in the TV series “Today” and has not left the big screen since then. The most famous films with his participation are “Transformers”, “Heat”, “Anaconda”, “Enemy of the State”, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and “Mission: Impossible”.

Jon Voight today

In recent years, many films have appeared in which Jon Voight has starred.
The most significant are “Pearl Harbor”, “Anaconda”, “Student Team”, “Deliverance”. It was the film “Deliverance” that brought Voight another Oscar nomination. John's work in a number of films during this period brought him many awards. A selection of photographs of Jon Voight Separately, it is necessary about where Jon played on the same playground with his own daughter, Angelina Jolie. In the twenty-first century, the honored actor continues to work actively. He could be seen in the series “Uprising”, “The Last of the Tribe”, etc. Voight also proved himself as a director. The debut took place on cable television. His film was called "The Tin Soldier." Critics praised the work, and almost immediately after its release, this children's film received several awards at the film festival in Berlin.

The actor today continues to look for interesting images in cinema that would help him say something necessary and important to the audience, and make the world a better place.

Movies

Voight's debut film was released in 1967 - it was a parody film by Philip Kaufman "Fearless Frank" (John played the title comedy role). The same year, the western “Hour of Arms” was released, in which the actor got a cameo role. The role of the simple-minded Texas guy Joe Buck, who is involved in prostitution, is the most famous and sensational in the cinematic biography of Jon Voight.

Jon Voight in the movie Fearless Frank

In the drama Midnight Cowboy (1969), the main character Buck gets lost in New York and falls under the influence of petty thief Ratso Rizzi (Dustin Hoffman), who suffers from tuberculosis. Gradually the two become best friends. British director John Schlesinger made a film based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy. The scandalous film was given an “NC-17” rating, which meant that persons under the age of 17 were not allowed to watch it without an adult. This restriction did not prevent the film from receiving three Oscars (for best film, for directing and screenplay). Voight was also nominated but lost to John Wayne, who played Rooster in the western True Grit.

Jon Voight in the movie "Midnight Cowboy"

John was praised by critics and adored by audiences, and film producers, after another happy streak in his career, prepared a real gift for him - a role in the film “Coming Home” (1978). This ambitious but powerful film by Hal Ashby won the actor an Oscar. He was nominated for the second time for his role in Andrei Konchalovsky’s film “Runaway Train” (1985). True, then another actor beat John, and he did not receive the award.

Jon Voight in the movie "Runaway Train"

In 1972, Voight starred in John Boorman's drama Deliverance, and in 1974 in the thriller based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, The Odessa File. In this picture, John's partner was the well-known Maximilian Schell, who later became the godfather of his daughter Angelina Jolie. The famous actor, who is 189 cm tall, also has unrealized projects. John was the first choice for the role of Matt Hooper in Steven Spielberg's horror film Jaws, but the master of impersonation personally gave the job to Richard Dreyfuss.

Jon Voight in the movie "Anaconda"

With the seventies, John's glory days came to an end. In the mid-80s, the actor began to give preference to working in the theater and on TV. He even got the role of Texas Ranger Woodrow Call in the sequel mini-television series Return to Lonesome Dove (1993). In the first part of the film (“Lonesome Dove”), the same role was played by Tommy Lee Jones. The blond northerner Voight with a soft face and sky-blue gaze looked very organic in the frame after the explosive southerner Jones.

Jon Voight in the movie Heat

In 1995, Jon Voight again appeared on movie screens in Manfred Mann's film Heat, and a year later in Brian De Palma's film Mission: Impossible. In 2001, John starred alongside Angelina Jolie in the adventure film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. According to rumors, it was Jolie who got the role for her father. The actress hoped that working together would bring them closer, but there was no family idyll on the set. According to the staff, father and daughter quarreled at every opportunity.

Jon Voight in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The most popular films with John's participation, released in the early and mid-2000s, are Enemy of the State (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), National Treasure (2004) and Transformers ( 2007). In 2021, the actor’s filmography added another role: in the film based on the novel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by JK Rowling, Voight played Sir Henry Shaw.

Personal life of Jon Voight

The actor first married in 1962. His chosen one was Leary Peters. She was a dancer and actress. Five years later, the couple separated.

Jon Voight and his daughter Angelina Jolie

John's second wife was Marcheline Bertrand, who, like her husband, acted in films. This marriage lasted seven years, starting in 1971. They had a son, and then a daughter. The couple were happy. For the sake of family and raising children, Bertrand did not continue her career. The couple divorced when Angelina was only two years old, although in fact the father did not live with the family a year before the official divorce. Then the mother raised the children almost independently.

Daughter: Angelina Jolie. She became a famous actress and now acts in a lot of films. Voight's relationship with his daughter cannot be called simple. Jolie always considered him to be the culprit for the divorce from her mother, claiming that her father’s constant infidelities led to this. During the joint filming of the film about Lara Croft, they tried to somehow improve their relationship, but even during that period, quarrels constantly arose between them, which the relatives did not want to comment on. After filming, Angelina completely stopped communicating with her father. She announced this in an interview with one of the magazines. The actress did not name the reasons.

Personal life

John has always been extremely jealous of the topic of covering his personal life. Despite the fact that the actor was married twice, there is practically no information on the Internet regarding his relationships with the fairer sex. Voight met his first wife, dancer and actress Lauri Peters, in 1962 at the Broadway production of The Sound of Music. Their marriage was short-lived and lasted from 1962 to 1967.

Jon Voight and Lauri Peters

Four years later (1971), John tied the knot with the now deceased (died of ovarian cancer) little-known actress and producer Marcheline Bertrand. The couple lived together for seven years. From this union, the producer had children: son James Haven (1973) and daughter Angelina Jolie (1975).

Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand

The media blamed Jon Voight, who cheated on his wife, for the divorce. The children could not forgive this betrayal and for a long time avoided meeting their famous father.

Angelina even took her middle name – Jolie – as her acting pseudonym and official surname, so as not to bear the surname Voight. The relatives were able to make peace only after Marcheline’s death in 2007. It is reliably known that after the second divorce, John did not remarry.

Filmography

• “As different as I am” (2017);
• “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (2016);
• "Family Farm" (2016);
• "American Wrestler: The Wizard" (2016);
• Woodlawn (2015);
• “Deadly Lessons” (2014);
• "Four Christmases" (2008);
• "An American Fairy Tale" (2008);
• “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” (2007);
• "Transformers" (2007);
• "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001);
• "Mission: Impossible" (1996);
• "Treasure" (2003).

Voight, John

Origin and education Jon Voight was born on December 29, 1938 in Yonkers (New York, USA) in the family of a professional golfer. Has Slovak and German roots. The family adhered to Catholic traditions in education. Jon Voight is the middle of three sons (his younger brother is Chip Taylor, a popular country musician). During his school years, Voight actively participated in amateur performances. In 1956 he entered the Catholic University of America (Washington), first studying in the theater department, then in the art department. After graduating from university in 1960, he moved to New York, where until 1964 he mastered acting at the famous Neighborhood Playhouse school-studio (among its graduates are Gregory Peck, Grace Kelly, Christopher Lloyd, Kim Basinger, Sydney Pollack). Acting career In 1961, he made his theater debut, playing a supporting role in one of the highest-grossing Broadway musicals, The Sound of Music. In subsequent years, Voight continued to play in various theaters, and also began appearing in television series - the western Gunsmoke, the crime drama The Naked City, the drama The Defenders, etc. He first played the main role in 1967 in the low-budget melodrama Fearless Frank". Fame came to him after the release of John Schlesinger's drama Midnight Cowboy in 1969. For the role of Joe Buck, forced into gay prostitution to earn money for the treatment of a friend (played by Dustin Hoffman), Voight was awarded a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Prize in the category “Best Newcomer” (1970; the film itself received three “ Oscar" and in 2007 took 43rd place in the list of the 100 best films in the country according to the American Film Institute). The next significant work for the actor was the role of Luke Martin, who returned from the Vietnam War, obsessed with stopping the bloodshed, in the anti-war drama Homecoming by Hal Ashby (1978). Voight was awarded the Cannes Festival, Oscar and Golden Globe in the category “Best Actor”. In 1985, Andrei Konchalovsky’s adventure film “Runaway Train” was released, in which Voight played a dangerous criminal who escaped from prison. For this work he again received a Golden Globe, this time for Best Actor. In total, the actor has about 100 films, among the most famous are the sports drama “Champion” (1979), the crime drama “Heat” (1995), the action film “Mission: Impossible” (1996), the horror film “Anaconda” (1997), and the adventure film “ Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Among the latest films with Voight’s participation are the fantasy “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (2016, 2017), the drama “As Different as Me” (2017), and the adventure film “Survival in the Wild” (2018). Personal information Jon Voight has been married twice. In 1962, his wife became the dancer and actress Lauri Peters, whom he met while working in the musical “The Sound of Music.” Their marriage lasted until 1967. In 1971, Voight married French-Canadian actress and producer Marcheline Bertrand; they separated in 1976 (officially divorced in 1980). This marriage produced a son, James Haven (1973), and a daughter, Angelina Jolie (1975), both actors. According to media reports, Voight had a difficult relationship with his daughter, who for a long time blamed her father for the breakup of the family. In order not to bear his last name, Angelina took her middle name as an acting pseudonym. However, in the end they managed to smooth out the conflict. According to some reports, Jolie agreed to star in the film “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” only on the condition that one of the roles would go to Voight. On November 21, 2021, Jon Voight was awarded the National Medal of the Arts, one of the United States' most honorable humanitarian awards, for his "extraordinary ability to bring to life complex images."

'Midnight Cowboy' and Acting Fame

It was Voight's 1969 role as country boy Joe Buck in the groundbreaking film Midnight Cowboy that earned him an Oscar nomination and launched his career.

Over the next two decades, Voight's film career was a mixture of incredible highs and forgettable lows. Among his many memorable projects during this period are 1972's Deliverance and 1978's Coming Home, for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of a paraplegic Vietnam War veteran of two, opposite Jane Fonda. .

In 1985, he ended a five-year dry spell with an Oscar nod for his work in Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's thriller Runaway Train. "Spiritual Awakening" led to Voight working on a number of intellectually related and doomed film projects.

After playing Robert De Niro's underworld contact in Michael Mann's 1995 drama The Heat, Voight returned to starring in big-budget offerings, including 1996's Mission: Impossible and 1997's The Rainmaker. of the Year and Enemy of the State 1998. In 2001, he gave well-received performances as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Pearl Harbor and as the patriarch in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which starred his estranged daughter, actress Angelina Jolie. That same year, he brilliantly directed the sports actor Howard Cosell in the biopic Ali, snagging his fourth Oscar nomination.

In recent years, Voight has been reborn as one of Hollywood's most in-demand actors. He received an Emmy nomination in 2002 for his work in the acclaimed NBC miniseries Rebellion. He also had major success with the hit "Sleepers" in Holes in 2004 and Jonathan Demme's 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Voight Later co-starred with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell in Pride and Glory (2008), a story of family corruption among New York cops.

In recent years, Voight has enjoyed great success on the small screen. He appeared in the seventh season of the hit action series 24 and then landed one of the biggest roles in years. In Ray Donovan, which debuted in 2013, Voight plays Mickey Donovan, a former Boston ex-con. Liev Schrieber plays his son, the main character, who works with celebrities to solve their problems by any means necessary. Ray and Mickey Donovan have one of the most dysfunctional father-son relationships in television history. Voight won a Golden Globe in 2014 for his nuanced portrayal of this gruff, aging thug. He also received an Emmy Award nomination.