CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY SPOTLIGHT

Jeffrey Goldblum
Born: October 22, 1952
Place: West Homestead, PA

Jeff Goldblum moved to New York City at 17 to become an actor. He worked on the stage and studied acting at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse under the guidance of acting coach Sanford Meisner. He made his Broadway debut in a production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. He is an excellent jazz piano singer and declared that if he did not act, he would be performing musically as a career.

His film debut was playing a thug in the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish. He briefly appeared as a protester in the TV movie Columbo: A Case of Immunity (1975).

Goldblum has had leading roles in films such as The Fly and The Tall Guy. Goldblum's strong supporting roles include those in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Big Chill (1983), Into the Night (1985), Earth Girls are Easy (1988), Jurassic Park (1993), and The Lost World (1997). Goldblum delivers the same line, "must go faster", in very similar situations in both Jurassic Park and Independence Day. In Jurassic Park, he says it when he is sitting in the back of a Jeep with a broken leg while being chased by a Tyrannosaurus rex. He says it in Independence Day when he and Will Smith are in the spaceship trying to escape the mother ship.

He teaches acting at Playhouse West in North Hollywood, along with Robert Carnegie. In September 2006, it was announced that Goldblum was one of the founding members of a new theater company in New York called The Fire Dept. According to press materials, "The Fire Dept is made up of established and emerging writers, directors, actors and designers who have come together to create and produce work that cannot be replicated inside a television box or on a movie screen. The work of The Fire Dept combines the rigor and structure of great narrative storytelling with the vitality of formal experimentation to immerse audiences in a total experience that leaves them awake, alive and transformed." The company will devote energy into developing new live theater works as well as interpreting old favorites.

On June 26, 2008, it was announced that Goldblum will replace Chris Noth as a Senior Detective on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In the series, Goldblum will play the role of Detective Zach Nichols.

He has been married twice. He was married to Patricia Gaul from 1980 to 1986. He was later married to Geena Davis from November 1, 1987 to October 1990.