John Leguizamo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| John Leguizamo | |
|---|---|
Leguizamo in July 2013.
|
|
| Birth name | John Alberto Leguizamo |
| Born | July 22, 1964 Bogotá, Colombia |
| Nationality | American |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Spouse | Yelba Osorio (1994–1996; divorced) Justine Maurer (2003–present; 2 children) |
| Partner(s) | Carolyn McDermott (1986–1991) |
| Children | Allegra Sky (1999-) Ryder Lee (2000-) |
Contents
Early life
John Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, Colombia, to Alberto and Luz Leguizamo. According to Leguizamo, his paternal grandfather was of Puerto Rican and Italian descent[1] and his maternal grandfather was Lebanese.[2] Leguizamo has also described himself as being of Amerindian and Mestizo heritage.[3][4] Leguizamo's father was once an aspiring film director and studied at Cinecittà, but eventually dropped out due to lack of finances.[5] When Leguizamo was four years old, his family immigrated to the United States[6] and lived in various neighborhoods of Queens in New York City, including Jackson Heights.[3][7]He later credited growing up as one of the first Latino children in his Jackson Heights neighborhood as formative in his acting ability: "It was tough. There were lots of fights. I would walk through a park and be attacked, and I had to defend myself all the time. But this helped me to become funny so that I wouldn’t get hit."[8] Leguizamo attended the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School (I.S.145) and later the Murry Bergtraum High School. As a student at Murry Bergtraum, Leguizamo wrote comedy material and tested it out on his classmates. He was voted "Most Talkative" by his classmates. After graduating from high school, he began his theater career as an undergraduate at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts from which he eventually dropped out in favor of a career in stand-up comedy. Post NYU Leguizamo enrolled at Long Island University C.W. Post Campus where he took theater classes.
Career
Early career
Leguizamo started out as a stand-up comic doing the New York nightclub circuit. In 1984, he made his television debut with a small part in Miami Vice. His other early roles include: an extra in Madonna's Borderline video (1984) playing a friend of Madonna's boyfriend; Mixed Blood (1985); Casualties of War (1989); a terrorist in Die Hard 2 (1990); Hangin' with the Homeboys (1991); the robber in Regarding Henry (1991) and Night Owl (a.k.a. Nite Owl) (1993), which was filmed from 1989–1991.Film
Leguizamo also starred in Romeo + Juliet as Tybalt Capulet, as Violator in Spawn, Cholo in Land of the Dead and Pestario 'Pest' Vargas in The Pest. In 1995, he starred as drag queen Chi-Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and in the 1996 action film Executive Decision as Captain Rat. In 2002, he starred in the movie Empire. To promote the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge!, he appeared on a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with Kelly Ripa, Kevin Sorbo, Alfre Woodard, Martin Short and Chevy Chase. Appearing as the first celebrity to sit in the hot seat, he eventually tried for $125,000, but got the answer wrong. Later in 2002, on the syndicated version, a question about the movie featured his character and Meredith Vieira mentioned that Leguizamo had played Lautrec and had been on the show.
In 2002 he voiced Sid the Sloth for the film Ice Age, reprising the role for the sequels Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Ice Age: Continental Drift. The game versions of the films also used his voice. In 2003, he voice-acted Globox from Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. Leguizamo portrayed Paul in the Brad Anderson thriller film Vanishing on 7th Street.[9] In 2007 he played Michael Beltran in the movie The Babysitters.
Television
In 1995 Leguizamo created, produced, wrote, and starred in the 1995 Latino-oriented variety show called House of Buggin' on Fox Television. Some audiences saw this as the Latino version of In Living Color. The show showcased Leguizamo's well-known ability to assume a wide variety of colorful, energetic characters, but due to poor ratings the show ran less than one season.In 2000, Leguizamo portrayed both Genies in "Arabian Nights", a TV mini-series adaptation of the medieval epic, "One Thousand and One Nights"; a collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age.
During the 2005–06 television season, Leguizamo joined the cast of the show ER, playing the emotionally disturbed Dr. Victor Clemente, a new attending who is keen on introducing the staff of County General to better ways of treating patients and cutting-edge technology. Clemente, however, was plagued with personal problems and was fired from the hospital near the end of the season. Dr. Clemente's departure from the show was a blessing for Leguizamo. He revealed to CraveOnline that he was not happy working on the television program. "I was depressed doing ER," he admitted, "I started gaining weight, I was eating donuts, I started smoking again. I’m eating McDonald's, things that I know when I’m depressed I do. I tried to kill myself internally."[10]
In 2005, he guest starred on Dora the Explorer as Captain Pirate Piggy. In 2006, Leguizamo starred in the television pilot for Edison, a 2006 CBS drama about an Los Angeles detective (played by Leguizamo) who relied on impersonations and disguises to solve crimes. Other cast members included Currie Graham and Deidrie Henry. Kevin Rodney Sullivan directed from a script by Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes. Leguizamo and David Hoberman also served as executive producers.
In July 2007, Spike TV aired their drama series The Kill Point, starring Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg and Michael Hyatt. The show was an eight-part series revolving around ex-war veterans whose bank robbery went wrong, thus ending in a hostage situation. Despite high ratings, The Kill Point was not renewed for a second season.
In 2010, Leguizamo also guest starred on The Electric Company as himself, rhyming about commas and quotation marks.
In 2012, Leguizamo was cast as Derek Trotter in the American remake of the British BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses.
Broadway and theater
In 1993, Leguizamo wrote and participated in Spic-O-Rama, where he made fun of the stereotyping of Latinos in the United States. The production won a Drama Desk Award and four Cable ACE Awards. Both Mambo Mouth and Spic-O-Rama were later filmed for presentation on HBO.
In 1998, he debuted on Broadway in the production of Freak, a semi-autobiographical one-person play also recorded for release in the year 2000 on HBO, with Spike Lee sitting in as director. The show won him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show.
In 2002, he wrote and performed in Sexaholix... A Love Story which explained his love life and how he started his own family.
In June 2010, Leguizamo opened his semi-autobiographical one-man theater show, Klass Klown (later renamed Ghetto Klown), based on his memoir Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends: My Life. After the show ran at various theaters in the United States and Leguizamo performed an 'unplugged' version of it under the title John Leguizamo Warms Up at a Chicago theater, it opened on Broadway in March 2011 at the Lyceum Theatre.[11][12][13][14] The show, about Leguizamo's path from obscurity to stardrom, opened to many positive reviews and was extended through July 10, 2011. A CD of the show was released. In 2011, Leguizamo received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance[15] and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for his performance in the show.[16] In September 2011, Leguizamo began an international tour of Ghetto Klown in Los Angeles.[17] On July 13, 2012, PBS debuted Tales From a Ghetto Klown, a documentary about Leguizamo's life and the show's development. On November 16, 2013 John taped Ghetto Klown at The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ for HBO![18]
On record
John Leguizamo LIVE (2001) on RCA Records. The live CD features the best of Leguizamo's stage routines at the time. Leguizamo gives his audience a primer on the history and culture of Latinos in America. The story starts with the dubious tale of the mating of an Inca princess with a Spanish conquistador, thus creating the original dysfunctional Latin family with Leguizamo providing all the voices.The CD includes a musical intermission, with two salsa/hip-hop tunes, "The Night Before Christmas" and "Gotta Get Some". The Mac-and-PC compatible enhanced CD includes footage from John on tour at various US locations and two interactive games; "Spanish Fly Pick-Up Line", which lets the person at the keyboard click to choose an appropriate response to a number cheesy pickup lines, delivered by an animated version of Leguizamo, and "Six Degrees of Leguizamo", a drag-and-drop brain-teaser modeled on the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" phenomena. The number of correct answer sequences to this game attest to Leguizamo's prolific career.
Personal life
Leguizamo married Justine Maurer, (costumer on Carlito's Way[19]) on June 28, 2003, in a Catholic-Jewish ceremony (he is Catholic and his wife is Jewish).[20] They have two children, daughter Allegra Sky (born in 1999) and son Ryder Lee (born 2000),[21][22] and live in Manhattan. In 2008, Leguizamo received the Rita Moreno HOLA Award for Excellence from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA). He was a recipient of the 2011 Made in NY Award from the City of New York.[23][24]Ethnicity
On June 10, 2011, Alberto Leguizamo, John's father, declared in an interview published in a New York Hispanic newspaper El Diario Newspaper, that he (the father) was not Puerto Rican, that he is Colombian and therefore his son (John) was not half Puerto Rican as he has always stated.[25] John Leguizamo had always declared that he was Puerto Rican on his father's side which was one of the reasons that he was selected as the Puerto Rican Day Parade Global Ambassador of the Arts. In response to his father's allegations, Leguizamo stated that his grandfather was of Puerto Rican descent.[25] A spokesman for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade has stated that Leguizamo would not be stripped of his ambassadorship. Leguizamo marched in the parade on June 12, 2011.[26]Memoirs
In October 2006, Leguizamo's memoir, Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends: My Life, was released. During an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Leguizamo stated that his memoir was very frank about odd experiences involving other celebrities and co-stars he had worked with. He stated that working with Arnold Schwarzenegger on Collateral Damage was one of the most enjoyable experiences he had as an actor. He also said that Arnold's accent let him say things that others would think were sexist or homophobic if said by someone else, that Steven Seagal was an egotist with diva tendencies, Kurt Russell continuously called him a "faggot", and that Leonardo DiCaprio was a "patron of prostitutes."[27]As of 2009, Leguizamo has produced over 10 films (including the film Piñero), starred or co-starred in over 75 films, starred on Broadway in several productions winning several awards, made over a dozen TV guest appearances and has helped produce or star in many other similar television shows.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Mixed Blood | Macetero | |
| 1989 | Casualties of War | PFC Antonio Diaz | |
| 1990 | Street Hunter | Angel | |
| 1990 | Gentille Alouette | Ortiz | |
| 1990 | Revenge | Ignacio | |
| 1990 | Die Hard 2 | Burke | |
| 1991 | Poison | Chanchi | Credited as Damien Garcia |
| 1991 | Hangin' with the Homeboys | Johnny | |
| 1991 | Out for Justice | Boy in alley | |
| 1991 | Regarding Henry | Liquor store gunman | |
| 1991 | NYPD Mounted | Unknown | |
| 1992 | Puerto Rican Mambo (Not A Musical) | "Guess my nationality" guy | |
| 1992 | Whispers in the Dark | John Castillo | |
| 1992 | Time Expired | Ruby | |
| 1993 | Night Owl | Angel | |
| 1993 | Super Mario Bros. | Luigi Mario | |
| 1993 | Carlito's Way | Benny Blanco | |
| 1995 | A Pyromaniac's Love Story | Sergio | |
| 1995 | To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar | Chi-Chi | Nominated – Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture |
| 1996 | Executive Decision | Rat | |
| 1996 | The Fan | Manny | |
| 1996 | Romeo + Juliet | Tybalt Capulet | |
| 1997 | The Pest | Pestario "Pest" Vargas | |
| 1997 | A Brother's Kiss | Lefty | |
| 1997 | Spawn | Clown/Violator | |
| 1998 | Frogs for Snakes | Zip | |
| 1998 | Body Count | Chino | |
| 1998 | Freak | Himself | Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program |
| 1998 | Dr. Dolittle | Rat | Voice |
| 1999 | Joe the King | Jorge | |
| 1999 | Summer of Sam | Vinny | |
| 2000 | Arabian Nights | Genie | |
| 2000 | Titan A.E. | Gune | Voice |
| 2000 | King of the Jungle | Seymour | |
| 2001 | Moulin Rouge! | Toulouse-Lautrec | |
| 2001 | What's the Worst That Could Happen? | Berger | |
| 2002 | Sexaholix... A Love Story | Himself | |
| 2002 | Collateral Damage | Felix Ramirez | |
| 2002 | Zig Zag | Dean Singer | |
| 2002 | Ice Age | Sid the ground sloth | Voice |
| 2002 | Point of Origin | Keith Lang | |
| 2002 | Empire | Victor Rosa | |
| 2002 | Spun | Spider Mike | |
| 2003 | Undefeated | Lex Vargas | |
| 2004 | Crónicas | Manolo Bonilla | |
| 2005 | Assault on Precinct 13 | Beck | |
| 2005 | The Honeymooners | Dodge | |
| 2005 | Land of the Dead | Cholo DeMora | |
| 2005 | Sueño | Antonio | |
| 2006 | AKA | Sean Edison | |
| 2006 | The Alibi | Hannibal | |
| 2006 | Ice Age: The Meltdown | Sid the ground sloth | Voice |
| 2006 | The Groomsmen | T.C. | |
| 2007 | Where God Left His Shoes | Frank Diaz | |
| 2007 | The Babysitters | Michael Beltran | |
| 2007 | The Take | Felix De La Pena | |
| 2007 | Love in the Time of Cholera | Lorenzo Daza | |
| 2008 | Paraiso Travel | Roger Pena | |
| 2008 | The Happening | Julian | |
| 2008 | Miracle at St. Anna | Enrico | |
| 2008 | Righteous Kill | Det. Simon Perez | |
| 2008 | Nothing Like the Holidays | Mauricio Rodriguez | |
| 2008 | Surviving Sid | Sid the ground sloth | Voice |
| 2009 | The Ministers | Dante / Perfecto Mendoza | |
| 2009 | Rage | Jed | |
| 2009 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | Sid the ground sloth | Voice |
| 2009 | Gamer | Freek | |
| 2010 | Repo Men | Asbury | Uncredited |
| 2010 | Vanishing on 7th Street | Paul | |
| 2010 | Big Balls | Unknown | Short film |
| 2011 | One for the Money | Jimmy Alpha | |
| 2011 | Fugly! | Jesse | |
| 2011 | The Lincoln Lawyer | Val Valenzuela | |
| 2012 | Ice Age: Continental Drift | Sid the ground sloth | Voice |
| 2012 | El Paseo 2 | Lucho Calvo[28] | |
| 2013 | Kick-Ass 2 | Javier | |
| 2013 | The Counselor | Randy | |
| 2013 | Don't Break the School | John Isac 'Ezac' Pine Leguizamo, The Dog (voice) | |
| 2013 | Walking with Dinosaurs | Alex | |
| 2014 | Ride Along | Santiago | |
| 2014 | Chef | Martin | |
| 2014 | Cymbeline | Post-Production | |
| 2014 | A Conspiracy on Jekyll Island | Post-Production | |
| 2015 | The Nest | Filming | |
| 2015 | American Ultra | Rose | Filming |
| 2016 | Ice Age 5 | Sid |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986–1989 | Miami Vice | Ivan Calderone | 3 episodes |
| 1991 | Mambo Mouth | Various characters | |
| 1993 | Spic-O-Rama | Various characters | |
| 1995 | House of Buggin' | Various characters | Creator/Producer/Writer 10 episodes |
| 2000–2003 | The Brothers Garcia | Narrator | 5 episodes |
| 2002 | Sesame Street | Himself | 1 episode |
| 2004 | Dora the Explorer | Silly mail bird | Voice 1 episode |
| 2005–2006 | ER | Dr. Victor Clemente | 12 episodes |
| 2006 | My Name Is Earl | Uncle Diego | 2 episodes |
| 2007 | The Kill Point | Mr. Wolf | 8 episodes |
| 2008 | American Buffalo | Walter Cole[29] | |
| 2011 | Ghetto Klown | Himself | |
| 2012 | Kings of Van Nuys | Del Boy | Unaired pilot |
| 2013 | American Dad! | Luis Ramirez | (voice) "The Full Cognitive Redaction of Avery Bullock by the Coward Stan Smith" |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc | Globox | Voice |
| 2006 | Ice Age: The Meltdown | Sid | Voice |
| 2009 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | Sid | Voice |
Web
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | The Annoying Orange | Jumping Bean | Voice 1 episode |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered