Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. is an American Actor. He was born on January 2, 1968. He has received Academy Awards, A Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Emmy nomination. He starred in, A Few Good Men in 1992, The Tuskegee Airmen in 1995, Outbreak in 1995, and Jerry Maguire in 1996, for which he has won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His breakthrough role as Tre Styles in, Boyz n The Hood in year 1991, that was his amazing performance.
His performance in Men of Honor, was amazing, he gained more popularity after this film, the film was released in 2000 he portrayed the role of Carl Brashear, and in Michael Boy’s world War ll epic Pearl Harbor in 2001, The Fighting Temptations 2003, American Gangster in 2007, Gifted Hands in 2009, as Ben Carson, Lee Daniel’s The Butler in 2013, and Selma in 2014, as civil rights lawyer Fred Gray. Cuba, gave the voice over to, Buck The Horse in the animated feature movie Home On The Range in year 2004.
He portrayed, O. J. Simpson in 2016, in the FX drama series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, recieved a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding main Actor In a limited series or films, and co-starred in the 6th season of the FX anthology series American Horror Story, subtitled Roanoke.
He was born in, Bronx, New York City. His mother, Shirley Sullivan, is a vocalist, and his father, named, Cuba Gooding Sr. was the main singer of Soul group The Main Ingredient. He has a 3 siblings : April, Omar and Thomas. His grandfather, Dudley MacDonald Gooding, was a native of Barbados.
Cuba’s family moved to L.A. in 1972 his father’s music group had their hit single “Everybody Plays the Fool”, later 2 years, the older Gooding left the family. He himself was raised by his mother and he attended 4 different high schools : North Hollywood High school, Tustin High School, Apple Valley High School, and John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills in Los Angeles.
He began his career as a break-dancer, performing with singer Lionel Richie at the closing ceremonies of 1984, Summer Olympics in LA. When he completed high school, he studied Japanese Martial arts for 3 years prior turning his focus towards acting.
He began his acting career from, early on, as guest starring on shows like, Hill Street Blues in 1987, Amen in 1988, And MacGyver in 1988 to 1990 and also did a small role in popular comedy, Coming To America in 1988. His first ever major role was in John Singleton’S Inner City Crime Drama Boyz n the Hood in 1991, where he played the lead Tre Styles. The movie was a box office surprise and critical hit, and it took as a modern classic.
He rise to prominence after the supporting roles such as, A Few Good Men and Gladiator in 1992, Judgement Night in 1993, Lighting Jack in year 1994, and Outbreak in 1995.
He become more famous on a new level of prominence when he cast as an arrogant yet charismatic football player in Cameron Crowe’s dramatic sports comedy, Jerry Maguire in 1996, with co-star Tom Cruise, which was a critical and commercial success and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His ebullient, “Show Me The Money! ”, line in the film became a world wide catch phrase.
He continued with supporting characters, and his notable supporting character in the acclaimed Academy Award winning comedy, As Good As It Gets in 1997, but in the same year his career was Inconsistently success, in 1997. Some of Cuba’s best performance include turns in films such as the mystical drama What Dreams May Come in 1998, and the US Naval Drama Men Of Honor in 2000, where he played the main role and co-starred with Robert De Niro.
Cuba also gained fame after his performance in the epic Pearl Harbor in 2001, as Doris Miller, the ensemble farce Rat Race in 2001, musical dramedy The Fighting Temptations in 2003, and the Football Drama Radio in 2003, where he portrayed the lead role.
Also, not good received critically, the family comedy, Snow Dogs, in 2002 was a commercial success. His some other roles such as, Theo Caudler in the psychological thriller Instinct in 1999, and he gave voice over to Buck in the Disney animated movie, Home On The Range in 2004.
However, at the time of his career starting, he starred in a series of movies which was not that successful, like, Chill Factor in 1999, Boat Trip in 2002, Norbit in 2007 and Daddy Day Cramp In 2007, all of which gained really negative response and reviews, and with the exception of Norbit, portrayed worst at the box office.
He got married in year 1994, with his high school girlfriend, Sara Kapfer, the duo had shared, three children, Spencer Gooding, Piper Gooding, and Actor Mason Gooding. His wife filed for legal separation from Gooding in 2014. In January, 2017, Gooding filed for divorce.
He was allegedly accused for misdemeanor forcible touching and Harassment in the 3rd degree in New York City, relating to an incident happened where he allegedly groped a lady at a bar in Times Square, the incident took place on June 13, 2019.
As of August 2020, Thirty women have accused, Gooding of harassment and sexual abuse. He was formally accused for three incidents, and each charges are of forcible sexual touching and 3rd degree sexual abuse.
A lady filed a case against Gooding, for raping her in 2013, she filed the case on August 19, 2020. Both parties came to a settlement agreement on June 6,2023. Gooding will not face trial after the settlement. His lawyer insisted that he and the lady had agreed sex and that the lady splurged afterward that se had a sex with a celebrity.
