Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel Jackson is an American film and television actor. Jackson came to fame in the early 1990s, after a series of well-reviewed performances, and has since become a major film star and cultural icon, having appeared in a large numbers of high-grossing films. He has also appeared in over seventy films, including Pulp Fiction, and the Star Wars, prequel trilogy. Jackson’s many roles have made him one of the highest grossing actors at the box office. Jackson has won multiple wards for his film performance and has been portrayed in various forms of media including films, television series, and songs.

Jackson’s early memories remained with him when he entered the historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta and became increasingly involved in the black-power movement. In 1969, his junior year, he protested the absence of blacks on the board of trustees by locking several broad members in a building for two days, and was promptly expelled from the college. That same tear, Jackson watched a performance by the Negro Ensemble Company and gained a new inspiration – acting. His mother, of course, was not keen on this choice of profession. It was only when Samuel appeared in an ad for Krystal hamburgers, getting well – paid for chomping an onion burger and smacking his lips, that she realized he had some kind of future. After working as a social worker for two years in Los Angeles Jackson returned to Morehouse to pursue the study of acting and received his degree in 1972.

After graduation, Jackson remained in Atlanta for some time, doing TV ads, acting in regional theatre productions and even making a film debut, in Together for Days. Later, there’d be a short-lived TV series, and a TV movie, The Displaced Person. In 1981, while working on Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play, Jackson had two life-changing encounters: he met fellow actor Morgan J. Freeman, who became a great friend and convinced Jackson that he could be successful actor, and a New York University film student named Spike Lee, who expressed his enthusiasm for Jackson’s performances and urged him to appear in the film he planned to make.

The friendship duly paid off for Jackson, as it was his role as the drug-addicted Gator in Lee’s Jungle Fever that finally grabbed critics’ attention and inspired some well-earned praised. Judges at the Cannes Film Festival created a Best Supporting Actor category in order to give Jackson the prize.

In 1994, after establishing a reputation as one of Hollywood’s hardest-working actors, Jackson got a chance to play the pivotal role of his career in Quentin Tarantino’s instant cult classic, Pulp Fiction. Later, Jackson went on to make several big Hollywood films, including John Grisham’s A Time to Kill and action-thriller The Long Kiss Goodnight, but he continued to participate in independent endeavors, such as Steve Buscemi’s Trees Lounge. In 1993, Jackson made a much-desired return to the stage in Distant Fires, telling Premiere magazine, “I always want to get back to theater to make sure that I’m still an actor.” Quickly becoming a box office star, Jackson continued with a starring role in 1997. He joined up again with director Quentin Tarantino and received a Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear for Best Actor and a fourth Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of arms merchant Ordell Robbie in Jackie Brown.

On, January 30, 2006, Jackson was honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theater; he is the seventh African American and 191^st actor to be recognized in this manner. He said, “The only place I can go dressed as a pimp and fit in perfectly.” But, he doesn’t mean he won’t make more appearances than anyone else, or that he won’t continue to deliver some of the most intense performances in history. That fire in his eyes is still so bright – it’s impossible to imagine it ever going out.