Jeff Goldblum

Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum was born to Jewish parents on October 22, 1952, in West Homestead, Pennsylvania. He is of Austrian-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent.[1][2] His mother, Shirley Jane Goldblum (née Temeles; 30 October 1926 – 9 January 2012),[3] was a radio broadcaster who later ran a kitchen equipment and appliances sales firm; his father, Harold Leonard Goldblum (25 April 1920 – 23 February 1983), was a medical doctor and major in the U.S. Army during World War II.[4][5][6] He has a sister, Pamela, and an older brother, Lee. Another older brother, Rick, died of kidney failure at age 23.[7]

During his childhood, Goldblum belonged to an Orthodox synagogue and had a bar mitzvah ceremony.[8] His parents were interested in show business.[9] His father nearly studied acting before deciding to pursue medical studies.[10] Goldblum moved to New York City at 17 to become an actor. He worked on the stage and studied acting at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse under the guidance of acting coach Sanford Meisner. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist and declared that if he did not act, he would have become a professional musician.

Goldblum made his film debut as a home-invading thug in the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish. He briefly appeared as a protester in the TV movie Columbo: A Case of Immunity (1975). He has a brief part as a party guest in Annie Hall (1977); Goldblum is seen saying into the telephone at a Hollywood party, "This is Mr. Davis. I forgot my mantra."[11] Goldblum has had leading roles in films such as The Fly (1986), Jurassic Park (1993), Earth Girls Are Easy, The Tall Guy, Vibes (1988) and Into the Night (1985). Goldblum's strong supporting roles include those in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Big Chill (1983), and Independence Day (1996), as well as the Wes Anderson films The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and the cult films The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984) and Igby Goes Down (2002).

For several years, Goldblum was the voice for most U.S. Apple commercials, including advertisements for the iMac and iBook. He also voices some U.S. Toyota commercials as well as Procter & Gamble's facial cream line. He has recently appeared on Irish TV in commercials for the National Lottery.

Goldblum taught acting at Playhouse West in North Hollywood with Robert Carnegie. It was with several actors from this acting company that he improvised and directed the live action short film Little Surprises, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996.

Goldblum got the role of Adam in Adam Resurrected, a film adaptation of the Yoram Kaniuk novel about a former German entertainer who becomes the ringleader to a group of Holocaust survivors in an asylum after World War II.

He made a guest appearance on Sesame Street in 1990 as Bob's long-lost brother Minneapolis (parody of Indiana Jones), in a sketch where Big Bird's friend Snuffleupagus had "the golden cabbage of Snuffertiti" hidden in his cave. He has also appeared on Tom Goes to the Mayor, The Colbert Report, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, and Portlandia.

In September 2006, it was announced that Goldblum was one of the founding members of a new theater company in New York called The Fire Dept.

Goldblum replaced Chris Noth as a senior detective on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.[12] In the series, Goldblum plays Detective Zack Nichols. In August 2010, media outlets reported that Goldblum had decided not to return to Criminal Intent due to persistent concerns about the program's future.[13][14]

In 2014, Goldblum's jazz band, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, did a weekly show at the Carlyle Hotel.[15] Also in 2014, Goldblum appeared in an episode of Last Week Tonight parodying his role in Law & Order. In 2016, he reprised his role of David Levinson in Independence Day: Resurgence, the sequel to Roland Emmerich's 1996 alien invasion/disaster film Independence Day.

In November 2015, he joined the ensemble cast of Shane Carruth's third film, The Modern Ocean[16] alongside Anne Hathaway, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Radcliffe, Chloë Grace Moretz, Tom Holland, Asa Butterfield, and Abraham Attah. Goldblum played The Grandmaster in the Marvel superhero film Thor: Ragnarok (2017).[17] He also reprised his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm in the franchise's fifth film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).[18]

He was featured in a Currys Christmas advert campaign in November 2015.[19] Goldblum does the commercials for Apartments.com.[20] In 2017, Goldblum also did a series of online commercials for the Australian food ordering app Menulog.[21]

On 29 May 2018, Billboard announced that Goldblum had signed to Decca Records to release a studio album later that year.[22] The Capitol Studios Sessions was released on 9 November 2018.[23] In July 2018, a 25 ft (7.6m) statue of Goldblum, a temporary installation, appeared next to London's Tower Bridge to mark 25 years of Jurassic Park.[24]

At Disney's D23 Expo in 2019, Disney announced the show The World According to Jeff Goldblum would feature Goldblum and be available at the launch of the Disney+ streaming service on November 12, 2019.[25]

From 1980 to 1986, Goldblum was married to Patricia Gaul, with whom he appeared in Silverado (1985). From 1987 to 1990, he was married to Geena Davis, his co-star in three films: Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), The Fly (1986), and Earth Girls Are Easy (1988).

In mid-2014, Goldblum became engaged to Emilie Livingston, a Canadian Olympic gymnast 30 years his junior; the couple married on November 8, 2014.[26][27] On January 9, 2015, Goldblum announced on the Late Show with David Letterman that the couple was expecting a son who was born on July 4, 2015.[28][29][30] Goldblum announced on the January 11, 2017, episode of Conan that Emilie was pregnant with their second child who was born on April 7, 2017.[31][32]

• Jeff Goldblum on IMDb
• Jeff Goldblum on Box Office Mojo
• Jeff Goldblum at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jeff Goldblum at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Jeff Goldblum on NETFLIX
• Jeff Goldblum on Playbill
• Interview with Goldblum from New York Magazine (April 2005)
• Goldblum resurrects fond memories, a July 2004 article (with accompanying audio commentary) from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• Jeff Goldblum: the Buddha of Hollywood from The Guardian, July 12, 2010.