Cuba Gooding Jr.

Cuba Gooding Jr.
Gooding in 2022
Born	Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (1968-01-02) January 2, 1968 (age 56) New York City, U.S.
Education	Apple Valley High School
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1984–present
Spouse	Sara Kapfer ​ ​ (m. 1994; div. 2017)​
Children	3, including Mason Gooding
Parent(s)	Cuba Gooding Sr. Shirley Sullivan
Relatives	Omar Gooding (brother)
Awards	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. After his breakthrough role as Tre Styles in Boyz n the Hood (1991), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor playing a football star in Jerry Maguire (1996). His other notable films include A Few Good Men (1992), Judgment Night (1993), Lightning Jack (1994), As Good as It Gets (1997), Men of Honor (2000), Pearl Harbor (2001), Snow Dogs (2002), Radio (2003), Norbit (2007), Linewatch (2008), Red Tails (2012), and The Butler (2013). He has done voice acting in Home on the Range (2004) and The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends (2007).

For his portrayal of O. J. Simpson in the FX drama series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016), he earned a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and co-starred in the FX series American Horror Story: Roanoke (2016). He played Dr. Ben Carson in the film Gifted Hands (2009).

Gooding Jr. made his Broadway debut playing Ludie Watts in the 2013 revival of the Horton Foote play The Trip to Bountiful. In 2018, he played Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago on both the West End and on Broadway.