Cuba Gooding Jr.: Show Me The Disney!
“Show Me The Money!” is the trademark line spoken by Cuba Gooding Jr., in his Oscar-winning performance as Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire (1996). But Cuba Gooding Jr. has starred in a variety of popular films and television shows: comedies, dramas, biopics, and even two films for the Walt Disney Studios. Through every role he has played he brings a boundless amount of energy, along with a good sense of humor.
Cuba Gooding Jr. was born in The Bronx, New York on January 2nd, 1968. His parents, Cuba Gooding Sr. and Shirley Sullivan were both singers of two different groups (Gooding Sr. for “The Main Ingredient,” and Sullivan for “The Sweethearts.” His family relocated to Los Angeles when Gooding Jr. was four years old. At the age of six, his father unfortunately abandoned the family. As Gooding Jr. and his siblings (two brothers and one sister) were raised by their mother, they consistently were changing schools throughout different parts of California. Gooding Jr. attended four different high schools. Amidst the chaos, he did well in school and became class president for three of the four high schools where he attended. Although he was a good student, he was interested in pursuing a career in entertaining like his parents.
He originally began his career as a breakdancer, performing with Lionel Richie at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics. He was also a backup dancer for Paula Abdul but he decided to pursue acting after high school. As a result, he was fortunate enough to earn guest spots on Hill Street Blues (1981-1987), Amen (1986-1991), and MacGyver (1985-1992). He made his film debut in Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America (1988) and starred in the film Sing (1989) before landing his first leading role in Boyz in the Hood (1991). The success of this film led to him also having roles in A Few Good Men (1992), Lightning Jack (1994), and Outbreak (1995). Then, in 1996, his big hit (which reunited him with “A Few Good Men,” co-star Tom Cruise. After “Jerry Maguire,” Gooding also had a small part in As Good as it Gets (1997), which was co-written, co-produced, and directed by “Jerry Maguire,” producer James L. Brooks.
In 2001, Cuba Gooding Jr. was cast in the role of Dorie Miller in Touchstone’s Pearl Harbor. The very next year he played Ted Brooks in live-action Disney comedy Snow Dogs (2002). Two years after that, he was the voice of Buck the Horse in Home on the Range (2004). In between “Snow Dogs,” and “Home on the Range,” Cuba Gooding Jr. starred in the biopic Radio (2003), based on the true story of James Robert “Radio” Kennedy and his friendship with Coach Harold Jones (played by Ed Harris in the film). In 2002, Cuba Gooding Jr. made Boat Trip with Roger Moore. Interestingly, Moore thought Gooding would be a good successor to Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, but that did not work out. In 2007 he starred in both Norbit and Daddy Day Camp.
More recentlty, Gooding Jr. made his Broadway debut in a revival of the play The Trip to Bountiful opposite Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams. He also played Civil Rights Movement Attorney Fred Gray in Selma (2014) and received a Primetime Emmy Nomination for playing O.J. Simpson in the miniseries The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016).
Cuba Gooding Jr. has had a career that spans almost 30 years. He has created many characters on stage and screen but will forever remembered as the football-playing Rod Tidwell, and his famous quote: “Show me the money!”
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