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| Jamie Foxx |
"I'm the artist when I'm doing music that I am when I'm acting. I'm everything".
Eddie Murphy
There are very few entertainers in the world today that are
as versatile as Eddie Murphy. When you sit down and consider how successful he
is at every endeavor, it can be mind boggling. From Saturday Night Live to
Nutty Professor and Shrek, even the ventures he might consider flops are
projects that others would love to have placed on their biographies. Eddie
Murphy also performs and records music. Click HERE to view a previous post featuring Murphy in
Weekly Music Commentary. Eddie Murphy is not the only entertainer to travel the
diverse path to success. This week I chose to feature a similar artist who has
made the seamless jumps from television, to films, and music in between. The
featured artist this week is none other than the amazing Jamie Foxx.
Foxx of course did not just arrive on the scene as the
multi-talented artist you see today ready for the world. No, Jamie Foxx had an
interesting climb to the top of Hollywood and the music industry.
Born Eric Marlon Bishop on December 13, 1967, in Terrell,
Texas, Jamie Foxx has emerged as one of the most diversely talented
entertainers of his generation. A singer, comedian, and actor, Academy
Award-winner Jamie Foxx has proved to be a triple threat in the entertainment
industry. After his parents' marriage dissolved, Foxx was adopted by his
maternal grandparents when he was less than a year old. He has often
acknowledged his grandmother's influence in his life as one of the greatest
reasons for his success. Like so many musicians before him, Foxx began playing
the piano when he was five years old. Throughout his high school years Foxx
displayed his natural talent for music and comedy, as well as displaying
athletic talent while playing both basketball and football.
After receiving a scholarship, Foxx enrolled at Alliant
International University in San Diego where he majored in music. It was during
college in 1989 that he was encouraged by friends to take the open mike one
night at a comedy club, and his career in entertainment began.
Interestingly, Jamie Foxx got his start in comedy instead of
in his major field of study: music. However, he seemed to be very comfortable
on the stage, regardless of his mode of performance. Just two years later
following a move to Los Angeles, Jamie Foxx joined the cast of the Fox comedy
variety show In Living Color. It was then that a very large audience discovered
a hilarious comic destined for a long, and successful career. In 1994, Foxx
left In Living Color, but he soon returned to television. Because of his huge
popularity on the show, the network gave him his own series, The Jamie Foxx
Show, in 1996. Foxx played a struggling Los Angeles actor who lived in a hotel
owned by his aunt and uncle. During the show’s run until 2001, Jamie Foxx got
the chance to show his growing television audience that he possessed musical
talent. On several occasions Foxx played the piano and sang, giving us all a
glimpse of some startling musical possibilities. More was to come.
Television opened the door to opportunities in the film
industry for Jamie Foxx. Very big opportunities. His first dramatic role came
in Oliver Stone's 1999 film "Any Given Sunday", where he was cast as a
hard-partying American football player, partly because of his own football
background. Foxx later played taxi driver Max Durocher in the film "Collateral" alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews and a
nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The door soon opened wider for Jamie Foxx to display more of
his talent as a serious actor, as well as his musical abilities. Foxx would portray
Ray Charles in the biographical film Ray (2004), for which he won the Academy
Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Foxx
is the second male in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the
same year for two different movies, "Collateral" and "Ray" (the only other male
actor to achieve this feat being Al Pacino).
Finally, after the great deal of film success, Jamie Foxx
got the opportunity to seriously give his music career a shot. Foxx released
his second studio album, Unpredictable, in December 2005. It debuted at number 2,
selling 598,000 copies in its first week, rising to number 1 the following week
and selling an additional 200,000 copies. To date, the album has sold 1.98
million copies in the United States, and was certified double Platinum by the
RIAA. The album also charted on the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at number 9.
Foxx made history once again as he became the fourth artist to have both won an
Academy Award® for an acting role and to have achieved a number 1 album in the
U.S, joining Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Barbra Streisand.
After firmly establishing himself as a true entertainment
triple threat, Foxx recently released his fifth studio album, Hollywood: A
Story of a Dozen Roses, on May 18, 2015. It debuted atop the Top R&B/Hip-Hop
Albums charts and at number 10 on the Billboard 200. Foxx is joined by some of
the premier artists of today to help him create a modern sound. Chris Brown,
Wale, Kid Ink and Pharrell all contribute to what promises to be another great
album.
Have you ever met someone who appears to be able to do everything
well? It might seem that way but we know that’s not the case. I’m sure there
are a few things that Jamie Foxx cannot do well. However, when it comes to the
entertainment industry, the Academy and Grammy Award winning
actor/musician/comedian can do it all.
* photo by Don Monick