Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 1948. He was an only child and grew up with his mother, who worked in a factory and soon later become buyer of supplies for a mental institution, and his grandparents and extended family. His father didn’t live with them due to alcohol issues. He attended Riverside High where he played the french horn and the trumpet for his school’s orchestra. Samuel L. Jackson was involved in the Civil Rights Movement with classmates and alongside Martin Luther King Sr. He was suspended for his actions in this movement but would later return to college to get his Bachelor of Arts in Drama. He would then join the Black Power Movement. Later, F.B.I. would tell his mom that he would die if he stayed in the movement so his mother sent him to live in L.A. He went to college to become an architecture but then decided to major in drama.   After taking roles in short films he got into acting and starting getting noticed from other directors to be in the roles they had for him. In his early career he began to be an alcoholic and do cocaine. Jackson’s addiction began to be increasing that he overdosed. After rehab and recovering, Jackson began doing roles of comedies, recovering addictions, and thrillers. He started getting starring roles with Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction and in Jackie Brown. In 2000, he made Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace and Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones as Mace Windu. In 2004, he played a mentor in the movie Twisted, he played Frozone in pixar animation film The Incredibles, and once again with Tarantino in Kill Bill, Vol. 2.

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