Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American actor and film producer, who is best known for his role as Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels. He also reprised this role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (albeit not in the series itself) and voiced Mace's Force Ghost in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Archive recordings of him can be heard in the Star Wars: Clone Wars episode "Shattered".
Apart from said roles, Jackson voiced Frozone in the 2004 Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles and its 2018 sequel, and reprised this role in the video game of the same name based on the first film. He was also the narrator of the 2011 Disneynature film African Cats.
He also played Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, What If...?, Secret Invasion, and The Marvels. He reprised his role as Nick Fury in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in two episodes of the first season.
He also provided the speaking voice of Nick Fury in Disney Infinity: 2.0, and played the role of Elijah Price in Unbreakable and Glass. Additionally, he voiced Agent Joseph in The Proud Family. Other Disney roles include portraying Jules Winnfield in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 Miramax crime film Pulp Fiction (in which he earned a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Ordell Robbie in Jackie Brown, and Rufus in Kill Bill Vol. 2.
Outside of Disney, Jackson is well-known for portraying Detective John Shaft II in the Shaft film series (alongside Richard Roundtree), P.K. Highsmith in The Other Guys, Stephen Warren in Django Unchained, and Major Marquis Warren in The Hateful Eight. He also voiced Whiplash in DreamWorks' Turbo and Frank Tenpenny in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game. Additionally, he voiced Vic, Garfield's estranged father in the 2024 computer-animated film The Garfield Movie.
Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 1948, the only child of Elizabeth Harriett (née Montgomery) and Roy Henry Jackson. He grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father lived away from the family in Kansas City, Missouri, and later died of alcoholism. Jackson met him only twice during his life. He was raised by his mother, a factory worker and later a supplies buyer for a mental institution; he was also raised by his maternal grandparents, Edgar and Pearl Montgomery, as well as extended family. According to DNA tests, Jackson partially descends from the Benga people of Gabon, and he became a naturalized citizen of Gabon in 2019. He attended several segregated schools and graduated from Riverside High School in Chattanooga. He played the French horn, piccolo, trumpet, and flute in the school orchestra. He developed a stutter during childhood and learned to "pretend to be other people who didn't stutter". He still uses the word "motherfucker" to get through a speech block. He still has days where he stutters. Initially intent on pursuing a degree in marine biology, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. After joining a local acting group to earn extra points in a class, he found an interest in acting and switched his major. Before graduating in 1972, he co-founded the Just Us Theatre.
After Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Jackson attended King's funeral in Atlanta as one of the ushers. He then traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to join an equal rights protest march. In a 2005 Parade interview, he said, "I was angry about the assassination, but I wasn't shocked by it. I knew that change was going to take something different—not sit-ins, not peaceful coexistence." In 1969, Jackson and several other students held members of the Morehouse College board of trustees (including Martin Luther King Sr.) hostage on the campus, demanding reform in the school's curriculum and governance. The college eventually agreed to change its policy, but Jackson was charged with and eventually convicted of unlawful confinement, a second-degree felony. He was suspended for two years for his criminal record and his actions. He would later return to the college to earn a BA in drama in 1972. While he was suspended, he took a job as a social worker in Los Angeles. He decided to return to Atlanta, where he met with Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, and others active in the Black Power movement. He began to feel empowered with his involvement in the movement, especially when the group began buying guns. However, before he could become involved with any significant armed confrontations, his mother sent him to Los Angeles after the FBI warned her that he would die within a year if he remained with the group. In a 2018 interview with Vogue, he denied having been a member of the Black Panther Party.
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Trivia[]
- Samuel L. Jackson was uncredited for his appearances in Iron Man and Thor, being cameos in post-credit scenes.
- Despite his surname, he is not related to Michael Jackson.
- He appeared in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "The Magical Place", using stock footage from The Avengers.
- He worked again alongside his fellow MCU star Chris Pratt in the 2024 computer-animated film The Garfield Movie. Pratt voiced the titular character, whilst Jackson voiced Vic, Garfield's estranged father.[1]
