Biographies: Forest Whitaker - Actor

Biographies

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Forest Whitaker is an American actor, producer and director. He's made a name for himself for his dedicated and intensive character study work in "Bird" (1988), which earned him Best Actor at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai," as ex-LAPD Jon Kavanaugh on the critically acclaimed TV series "The Shield," and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland," for which he won the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Actor in 2006. Whitaker graduated from the University of Southern California Music Conservatory in 1982, then got a scholarship to the Berkeley, California branch of the Drama Studio London. He made his film debut with a small role as a football player in the classic coming-of-age movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982). His impressive and varied film credits include Scorsese's "The Color of Money" (1986), "Platoon" (1986), "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987), "The Crying Game" (1992), "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" (1999), "Phone Booth" (2002) and "The Great Debaters" (2007). Whitaker directed his first feature in 1995 starring Whitney Houston in "Waiting to Exhale." Whitaker is one of the producers of "Fruitvale," which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic films at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

• 28 January 2013
• Ines Farag