Don Cheadle

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Don Cheadle
Born	November 29, 1964 (age 42) Kansas City, Missouri,  United States
Notable roles	"Mouse" Alexander in Devil in a Blue Dress Sammy Davis, Jr. in The Rat Pack Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda Det. Graham Waters in Crash
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Actor 2004 Hotel Rwanda
Golden Globe Awards
Best Supporting Actor - Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television 1999 The Rat Pack

Don Cheadle (November 29, 1964) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Personal life 2 Filmography 3 Television series 4 Footnotes 5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri to Betty, a bank manager, and Donald Cheadle, a child psychologist. He has a sister, Cindy, and a brother, Colin. Cheadle attended East High School in Denver, Colorado and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts.

[edit] Career

Cheadle got his film break through playing the role of 'Rocket' in the 1988 movie Colors. He can be noticed in the opening minutes of the film when he shoots a rival gang member. Damon Wayans also received a motion picture breakthrough in the same film. In 1989, he appeared in a video for Angela Winbush's #2 hit single "It's The Real Thing".

Cheadle first became well-known for playing the district attorney on the television series Picket Fences. Since then he has appeared in films including Rosewood, The Family Man, Boogie Nights, Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven (2001). These last three were directed by Steven Soderbergh, who has said that Cheadle is one of his favorite actors to work with.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, Cheadle was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda, a story about a Hutu hotel manager in Rwanda who sheltered hundreds of Tutsis and other refugees from murderous militias during the Rwandan genocide in mid-1994. He also starred in, and was one of the producers of Crash, which won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture.

Cheadle will make his directorial debut with the adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Tishomingo Blues. He also appeared in NFL commercials promoting the Super Bowl from 2002–2005. He so regularly appeared for the NFL in its Super Bowl advertising that in 2006 (in a drive to have fans submit their own ad ideas) the NFL sought his permission to reference his previous commercials to portray themselves as having no new ideas -- "he quickly signed off on the idea and found it funny." Abe Sutton (along with Etan Bednarsh), one of the finalists in this NFL contest, played on this commercial by proposing an ad where an entire team of football players are comprised of Don Cheadle.^[1]

[edit] Personal life

Cheadle has been in a relationship with actress Bridgid Coulter since the early-90s; they have two daughters, Ayana and Imani.

According to the director of the film After the Sunset, Cheadle is an expert player of the game of Go, and advised Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek for a scene in the film in which they play it.

[edit] Filmography

• Moving Violations (1985)
• Hamburger Hill (1987)
• Colors (1988)
• Roadside Prophets (1992)
• The Meteor Man (1993)
• Lush Life (1993) (TV movie)
• Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)
• Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
• Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996) (TV movie)
• Volcano (1997)
• Rosewood (1997)
• Boogie Nights (1997)
• Out of Sight (1998)
• The Rat Pack (1998)
• Bulworth (1998)
• A Lesson Before Dying (1999) (TV movie)
• Traffic (2000)
• Mission to Mars (2000)
• Fail-Safe (2000) (TV movie)
• The Family Man (2000)
• Things Behind the Sun (2001)
• Manic (2001)
• Swordfish (2001)
• Rush Hour 2 (2001) (uncredited)
• Ocean's Eleven (2001) (uncredited)
• The United States of Leland (2003)
• Ocean's Twelve (2004)
• After the Sunset (2004)
• The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)
• Hotel Rwanda (2004)
• Crash (2005)
• Reign Over Me (2007)
• Talk to Me (2007)
• Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
• Toussaint (2008) (pre-production)

[edit] Television series

• Fame 2 episodes (1986)
• L.A. Law (1986)
• Hill Street Blues (1987)
• The Bronx Zoo (1987)
• Night Court (1988)
• Hooperman (1988)
• Booker (1989)
• China Beach (1990)
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)
• Hangin' With Mr. Cooper 2 episodes (1992)
• The Golden Palace (1992-1993)
• Picket Fences (1993-1995)
• The Simpsons in episode: "Faith Off" (2000)
• The Bernie Mac Show (2002)
• ER 4 episodes (2002)
• MAD TV 2 episodes (2002-2003)
• The Colbert Report 1 episode (2006)

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Don Cheadle at the Internet Movie Database
• Don Cheadle interview