Birthdate: Jan 7, 1964
Birthplace: Long Beach, California, USA
Nicolas Cage (birthname: Nicolas Kim Coppola) is a brand and cult unto himself. He is the rare American movie star with a genuine outsider reputation as an artist recognized for his risky and wild approach to the art form.
Although he became one of Hollywood’s wealthiest actors at one point after a string of mega-hits including The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997), National Treasure (2004), Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center (2006), John Woo’s Face/Off (1997) with John Travolta, and Ghost Rider (2007), along with its sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012), Nicolas Cage is certain to be best remembered for his more distinctive work in films that encouraged his exploratory side.
These movies tend to fall into two different camps—general audience entertainment and bold, auteur-driven, visionary movies. The former include such iconic turns as Leaving Las Vegas (1995), for which Cage won the Best Actor Oscar; John Dahl’s Red Rock West (1993); The Coen Brothers’ Raising Arizona (1987); Moonstruck (1987) with Cher; Francis Ford Coppola’s Peggy Sue Got Married (1986); Vampire’s Kiss (1989) with Jennifer Beals.
The latter includes some of the most colorful and distinctive American movies in recent history, including Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation (2002), which earned Nicolas Cage his second Best Actor Oscar nomination; Werner Herzog’s stunning Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009); David Lynch’s ultraviolent love story, Wild at Heart (1990), in what’s surely one of Cage’s most unleashed performances alongside Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe; Joe (2013), a lovely David Gordon Green film based on Larry Brown’s novel; Cage’s crazed turn in Brian Taylor’s comic horror film, Mom and Dad (2018); his lauded turn as an embittered former chef in 2021’s Pig; and, for some, Cage’s most astonishing and radical performance in Panos Cosmatos’ phantasmagorical thriller, Mandy (2018).
During the past decade, Nicolas Cage has deployed a strange yet crafty strategy of appearing in blatantly bad movies he seemed to make only for the paycheck, which was the case, as Cage was paying off millions in a decade’s worth of debts, plus unpaid back taxes. At the same time, this also earned him a newfound rep as a beloved cult actor (best exemplified in Mandy and Pig) who reveled in taking chances and working with new filmmakers, far from the reach of Hollywood studios.
Typical of this approach was Cage’s performance, playing a character named “Nick Cage” (a more bedraggled version of himself), in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). His role as Dracula in Universal’s Renfield (2023), directed by Chris McKay and co-starring Nicholas Hoult, marked one of Cage’s biggest mainstream Hollywood roles in his colorful, wide-ranging career.
Cage starred in writer-director Tim Brown’s Cayman Islands-set crime comedy, The Retirement Plan (2023), with Ron Perlman, Ashley Greene, Jackie Earl Haley, Ernie Hudson, and Lynn Whitfield, but proved a box-office failure in release (less than $1 million against $20 million costs) via Joker Films. Cage earned a Golden Globe Award for best actor as star (and a producer) of the acclaimed black comedy, Dream Scenario (2023), written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, with Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, and Dylan Baker, and which premiered at the Toronto film festival and was released by A24.
Nicolas Cage reunited with indie filmmaker Ben Brewer for the post-apocalyptic horror thriller, Arcadian (2024), with co-stars Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, and Sadie Soverall, and was released by RLJE Films after premiering at the South by Southwest film festival. Cage portrayed a serial killer in director/writer Osgood Perkins’ horror-thriller, Longlegs (2024), co-starring Maika Monroe, Alicia Witt, and Blair Underwood, and was released by Neon.
Cage starred in the Australian-Irish psychological thriller, The Surfer (date to be announced), directed by Lorcan Finnegan, followed by Cage starring in (and also producing) director/writer Andrew Niccol’s Lord of War (2015) sequel, Lords of War (date to be announced), with Bill Skarsgård and Laura Harrier.
Cage, as a “mad genius” named Ben--co-starred with Stephen Dorff, Heather Graham, Costas Mandylor, and Tzi Ma in writer-director Brian Skiba’s Western, The Gunslingers (2025), backed by Brilliant Pictures and Grindstone.
Nicolas Cage starred in the David Mamet-written drama, The Prince (2025), with Scott Haze, J.K. Simmons, Giancarlo Esposito, and Andy Garcia under Cameron Van Hoy’s direction. Cage then led the cast of the U.K.-France production written and directed by British-Egyptian filmmaker Lotfy Nathan, The Carpenter’s Son (date to be announced), co-starring Noah Jupe, Souheila Yacoub, and FKA twigs.
Nicolas Cage was born in Long Beach, California to parents August Coppola—a comparative literature professor and brother to film director Francis Ford Coppola—and choreographer-dancer Joy Vogelsang. His brothers are radio personality Marc “The Cope” Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. Cage attended Beverly Hills High School, and dropped out at age 17 to pursue acting full-time.
He also attended UCLA’s theater school. He has been married five times, to actor Patricia Arquette (1995-2001), singer Lisa Marie Presley (2002-2004), Alice Kim (2004-2016), Erika Koike (2019), and is currently married to Riko Shibata, whom he married in 2021. Nicolas Cage has two sons, rock musician Weston Coppola (with girlfriend Christina Fulton) and Kal-El (with third wife Alice Kim). He is expecting a third child with his current wife Riko Shibata. Cage’s philanthropy has earned him praise from Forbes magazine as one of Hollywood’s “most generous stars.”
He received a U.N. humanitarian award and has been named twice by the U.N. as a global justice ambassador. Cage’s numerous causes include the United Negro College Fund, Amnesty International, Heal the Bay, and his millions of dollars in donations have targeted recovery from Hurricane Katrina and child victims of global conflict. Nicolas Cage’s paternal grandfather is composer Carmine Coppola, his uncle is Francis Ford Coppola, his aunt is actor Talia Shire, and his cousins are filmmakers Sofia and Roman Coppola, producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Jason and Robert Schwartzmann.
Winner, Best Actor, Academy Awards (1996); Nominee, Best Actor, Academy Awards (2003); Two-time nominee, Best Actor, BAFTA Awards (1996, 2003); Winner, Best Actor, Golden Globes (1996); Three-time nominee, Best Actor, Golden Globes (1988, 1993, 2003); Winner, Best Actor, Screen Actors Guild (1996); Two-time nominee, Best Actor and Best Cast, Screen Actors Guild (2003); Hollywood Walk of Fame (1998).
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Key influence: Nicolas Cage cites James Dean’s performance in Elia Kazan’s film version of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden as the piece of acting that convinced them to take up the profession.
No to nepotism: Cage decided in his teen years to drop his famous Coppola family name in favor of “Cage,” in honor of both Marvel Comics’ hero Luke Cage and composer John Cage.
Endorsements: Fellow actor Ethan Hawke has observed that Nicolas Cage is “the only actor since Marlon Brando (who’s) actually done anything new with the art,” by rejecting naturalism. Filmmaker David Lynch, who directed Lynch in Wild at Heart, calls Cage “the jazz musician of American acting.”
Extreme Methods: In preparing for a love scene in Vampire’s Kiss, Cage asked that hot yogurt be poured on his toes. In preparing for his role in Birdy to experience pain, Cage had two of his teeth removed without anesthetic and later endured severe skin infections.
Cage on Cage: Nicolas Cage has described his famously wild acting style as alternately “nouveau shamanic,” “Western Kabuki,” and “German Expressionist.”
Home Owner: Cage has owned several lavish and eccentric properties, including Schloss Neidstein in Bavaria, New Orleans’ “most-haunted-house-in-America” LaLaurie Mansion, Midford Castle in Somerset, the U.K., and a beach property on Bahamas’ Paradise Island.
Shopping Spree: Though once determined to be one of Hollywood’s wealthiest actors, Nicolas Cage experienced a nightmare of legal and debt battles after an intense 2007 shopping spree that included the purchase of such items as a 40-acre island in Exuma Archipelago; home purchases exceeding $33 million; a Tarbosaurus dinosaur skull (that later proved to have been stolen from Mongolia); 22 automobiles; 47 artworks and so-called “exotic items”; and millions of dollars worth of comic books.
Comic Book Maven: Cage has owned and auctioned over 400 vintage comic books, and authored a comic book, Voodoo Child, in 2007.
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