Background and career
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. Known for his performances on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, three Tony Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of film director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, and the younger brother of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal began acting as a child, making his debut in the western comedy film City Slickers (1991), followed by roles in his father's films A Dangerous Woman (1993) and Homegrown (1998). His breakthrough came as Homer Hickam in the biopic October Sky (1999), which was followed by starring roles in the thriller Donnie Darko (2001), the romantic comedy The Good Girl (2002), the disaster film The Day After Tomorrow (2004), and the war drama Jarhead (2005). Gyllenhaal won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Jack Twist in Ang Lee's romantic western drama Brokeback Mountain (2005). Gyllenhaal emerged as a leading man in films such as Zodiac (2007), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), Source Code (2011), End of Watch (2012), Prisoners (2013), Nightcrawler (2014), Southpaw (2015), Nocturnal Animals (2016), Stronger (2017), and Wildlife (2018). His highest grossing film is Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). He also starred in the action films The Guilty (2021), Ambulance (2022) and Road House (2024). He starred in the Apple TV thriller series Presumed Innocent (2024) for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Gyllenhaal has also performed on stage, starring in a West End production of the play This Is Our Youth (2002) and Broadway productions of the musical Sunday in the Park with George (2017) as well as the plays Constellations (2014) and Sea Wall/A Life (2019), the last of which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal was born on December 19, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, United States, to screenwriter Naomi Foner (née Achs) and film director Stephen Gyllenhaal. He has an older sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal's father, who was raised as a Swedenborgian, is a Christian of Swedish and English descent and is a descendant of the Swedish noble Gyllenhaal family. Gyllenhaal's mother was born in New York City to an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Russia and Poland, and Gyllenhaal considers himself Jewish. Gyllenhaal was born with a lazy eye and has been wearing corrective lenses since he was six years old. On his 13th birthday, he volunteered at a homeless shelter as a "Bar Mitzvah-like act", because his parents wanted to give him a sense of gratitude for his privileged lifestyle. As a child, Gyllenhaal was regularly exposed to filmmaking due to his family's ties to the industry. His parents encouraged his artistic expression and allowed him to audition for acting roles, but usually forbade him to accept the roles if he were cast, as they wanted him to stay in school. They also insisted that he support himself with summer jobs, which included working as a lifeguard and busboy. He was allowed to make his acting debut in the comedy City Slickers (1991) as the son of Billy Crystal's character, but was not permitted to appear in The Mighty Ducks (1992) because it would have required him to leave home for two months. Gyllenhaal was allowed to appear in his father's productions several times, including A Dangerous Woman (1993), which also featured his sister Maggie; "Bop Gun", a 1994 episode of the series Homicide: Life on the Street; and the comedy film Homegrown (1998). He appeared alongside Maggie and their mother in two episodes of Molto Mario, an Italian cooking show on the Food Network. Prior to his senior year in high school, the only other film not directed by his father that Gyllenhaal appeared in was the little-known children's film Josh and S.A.M. (1993). Gyllenhaal's first lead role in a film was in October Sky, Joe Johnston's 1999 adaptation of the Homer Hickam autobiography Rocket Boys, in which he portrayed a high school student from West Virginia who aspires to become a rocket scientist. Gyllenhaal was 17 during filming, and was tutored on set because he was still in school and taking advanced classes. The film was positively received and earned $32 million, and was described in the Sacramento News and Review as Gyllenhaal's "breakout performance". After graduating from the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles in 1998, Gyllenhaal began studying Eastern religions and philosophy at Columbia University, where Maggie was a senior; their mother had attended Columbia as well. Gyllenhaal was a resident of the John Jay Hall dormitory, and after studying Buddhism at the university, he began to practice mindfulness in his everyday life. He dropped out of Columbia after two years to concentrate on acting, and later reflected that he had probably enrolled at the university to please his parents.
Gyllenhaal's second lead film role was in Richard Kelly's science fiction psychological thriller Donnie Darko (2001). The film was not a box office success upon release, but it eventually became a cult favorite. Gyllenhaal plays Donnie Darko, a troubled teenager who experiences visions of a humanoid rabbit named Frank who tells him that the world is coming to an end. Gyllenhaal's sister Maggie plays Donnie's sister in the film. Reviewing the film for Culture Vulture, Gary Mairs wrote that Gyllenhaal "manages the difficult trick of seeming both blandly normal and profoundly disturbed, often within the same scene." Gyllenhaal's next role was Pilot Kelston in Highway (2002) alongside Jared Leto. His performance was described by one critic as "silly, clichéd and straight to video". Gyllenhaal had more success starring opposite Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl, which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival; he also starred in Lovely and Amazing with Catherine Keener. In both films he played an unstable character who begins a reckless affair with an older woman. Gyllenhaal later described these as "teenager in transition" roles. He later starred in the romantic comedy Bubble Boy, which was loosely based on the story of David Vetter. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, with Paul Clinton of CNN calling it "stupid and devoid of any redeeming features". Following Bubble Boy, Gyllenhaal starred with Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon and Ellen Pompeo in Moonlight Mile (2002) as a young man coping with the death of his fiancée. The film, which received mixed reviews, was loosely based on writer-director Brad Silberling's personal experiences following the murder of his girlfriend, Rebecca Schaeffer. In his theatrical debut, Gyllenhaal starred on the London stage in Kenneth Lonergan's 2002 West End revival of This Is Our Youth at the Garrick Theatre. He had decided to try stage acting because every actor he looked up to had done theater work. The play ran for eight weeks, with Gyllenhaal winning the Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer. Gyllenhaal was almost cast as Spider-Man for the sequel film Spider-Man 2 (2004), due to director Sam Raimi's concerns about the health of Tobey Maguire, who had played the character in Spider-Man (2002). Maguire recovered, however, and starred in the film. In 2003, Gyllenhaal auditioned for the role of Batman in the superhero film Batman Begins, and was almost offered the part, but it went to Christian Bale. Gyllenhaal subsequently appeared in the science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow (2004), with Dennis Quaid portraying his character's father.
In 2005, Gyllenhaal appeared with Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins in the drama Proof, in which he played a graduate student who seeks to publish a revolutionary mathematical proof. The film received generally positive reviews. The same year, he starred as a U.S. Marine deployed during the Gulf War in Sam Mendes's Jarhead. The film earned generally favorable reviews, with Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post praising Gyllenhaal for effectively expressing his character's intelligence. In Brokeback Mountain (2005), Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger starred as young men who meet as sheep herders and embark upon a sexual relationship that begins in the summer of 1963 and lasts for 20 years. The film was often referred to in the media as "the gay cowboy movie", although there were differing opinions about the sexual orientations of the characters. The film won numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, four British Academy Film Awards, and the Golden Lion at the 62nd Venice Film Festival. Gyllenhaal was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, an award which went to George Clooney for Syriana. Gyllenhaal and Ledger won the 2006 MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss. Shortly after the 2006 Academy Awards, Gyllenhaal was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Gyllenhaal was critical of the way Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee disconnected from the actors once filming began, although he praised Lee for his sensitive approach to the story. When asked about his kissing scenes with Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, Gyllenhaal said, "As an actor, I think we need to embrace the times we feel most uncomfortable." When asked about the more intimate scenes with Ledger, Gyllenhaal likened them to "doing a sex scene with a woman I'm not particularly attracted to". Following the release of Brokeback Mountain, rumors circulated regarding the actor's sexual orientation. When asked about such gossip during an interview, Gyllenhaal said: You know it's flattering when there's a rumor that says I'm bisexual. It means I can play more kinds of roles. I'm open to whatever people want to call me. I've never really been attracted to men sexually, but I don't think I would be afraid of it if it happened. Gyllenhaal narrated the 2005 animated short film The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, based on Mordicai Gerstein's 2003 book about Philippe Petit's famous highwire stunt. As a guest host of the sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live in January 2007, Gyllenhaal wore a sparkly evening dress and sang the song "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the musical Dreamgirls, dedicating it to fans of Brokeback Mountain. The same year, he starred as the political cartoonist Robert Graysmith in David Fincher's mystery thriller Zodiac, about the Zodiac Killer. In preparation for the role, Gyllenhaal videotaped Graysmith so he could study his mannerisms. The film received favorable reviews, with Paul Byrnes of The Sydney Morning Herald calling Gyllenhaal "terrific" in his role. Gyllenhaal next starred alongside Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin and Reese Witherspoon in Gavin Hood's Rendition (2007), a political thriller about the U.S. policy of extraordinary rendition. The film earned mixed reviews, with David Edelstein of New York magazine calling Gyllenhaal "compelling". Two years later, Gyllenhaal co-starred with Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman in Jim Sheridan's Brothers, a 2009 remake of Susanne Bier's Danish film Brothers (2004). It received generally favorable reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes stating that the three lead actors gave "rock-solid" performances. Gyllenhaal said that Maguire's intense preparation for his role in Brothers inspired Gyllenhaal to prepare in a similar way for his own roles. In 2010, Gyllenhaal played the lead role in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, an adaptation of the 2003 video game, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and released by Disney. The same year, his performance opposite Anne Hathaway in the romantic comedy Love & Other Drugs earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy. Gyllenhaal's sole performance in 2011 was as a U.S. Army Aviation captain in the time-travel thriller Source Code, which received positive reviews.
Gyllenhaal starred alongside Michael Peña in David Ayer's action thriller End of Watch (2012), about two Los Angeles police officers. The film, for which Gyllenhaal was also an executive producer, received mostly positive reviews, with Roger Ebert describing it as "one of the best police movies in recent years, a virtuoso fusion of performances and often startling action". To prepare for the role, Gyllenhaal took tactical training and participated in police ride-alongs with Peña to help establish the language of the characters.
