James
Woods

Biography

An acclaimed American stage and screen actor, James Woods has had a distinguished career spanning over 40 years and including over 120 screen credits. He has been awarded two Emmy awards and has been nominated for the Academy Award on two occasions.

Having started studying Political science at Boston's prestigious MIT University, Woods turned to acting after participating in the universities Dramashop student theatre group. He claimed that it was the guidance of Tim Affleck (father of Ben Affleck) who was the stage manager at the Theatre Company of Boston whilst he was studying that lead him to consider acting as a serious profession and he would go on to work on Broadway in the early 1970's.

A well recognised character actor, Woods has had many roles on television and only began to get more prominent roles in feature films after he starred as Gregory Ulas Powell in the film The Onion Field (1979). He would go on to have key roles in films such as Once Upon a Time in America (1984) and Against All Odds (1984), however in 1986 he would be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the American journalist Richard Boyle in Salvador.

He would go on to gain many successful character roles in feature films with some standout performances in The Getaway (1994), The Specialist (1994), Casino (1995), and Nixon (1995). In 1996 he would be nominated for another Academy Award, this time for Best Supporting actor for his portrayal of Byron De La Beckwith in the film Ghosts of Mississippi. 

In the last decade he has appeared in many successful films including True Crime (1999), The Virgin Suicides (1999), The General's Daughter (1999), Any Given Sunday (1999), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), and John Q (2002).

In 2006, Woods was once again put into the spotlight when he was given his own television show Shark where he starred as the lead character Sebastian Stark, a hot shot defence attorney who becomes disillusioned with his life of defending criminals and becomes a public prosecutor.

Woods is a notorious Poker player and competes in the World Poker Tour regularly.