Jake Gyllenhaal Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Jake Gyllenhaal
OCCUPATION: Film Actor
BIRTH DATE: December 19, 1980 (Age: 32)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Los Angeles, California
Full Name: Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal
ZODIAC SIGN: Sagittarius

Best Known For

Jake Gyllenhaal is an Oscar-nominated actor known for his work in films like Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, Jarhead and Zodiac.

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Jake Gyllenhaal

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Jake Gyllenhaal. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 04:39, May 21, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/jake-gyllenhaal-16242387.

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Jake Gyllenhaal. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jake-gyllenhaal-16242387 [Accessed 21 May 2013].

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"Jake Gyllenhaal," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/jake-gyllenhaal-16242387 [accessed May 21, 2013].

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"Jake Gyllenhaal," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/jake-gyllenhaal-16242387 (accessed May 21, 2013).

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Jake Gyllenhaal [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 21] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jake-gyllenhaal-16242387.

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Jake Gyllenhaal, http://www.biography.com/people/jake-gyllenhaal-16242387 (last visited May 21, 2013).

AMA Style

Jake Gyllenhaal. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/jake-gyllenhaal-16242387. Accessed May 21, 2013.

Synopsis

Born on December 19, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, Jake Gyllenhaal worked as a child actor in films like City Slickers and A Dangerous Woman before starring in the indie classic Donnie Darko in 2001. He later starred opposite Heath Ledger in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, for which Gyllenhaal received an Oscar nomination. Other films on the Gyllenhaal roster include Proof,

Zodiac and Jarhead.

Early Life

Actor Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal, better known as Jake Gyllenhaal, was born on December 19, 1980, in Los Angeles, California. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, Jake and his sister, Maggie, have been acting since childhood. He graduated from Los Angeles' Harvard-Westlake High School and studied for a year at Columbia University in New York before dropping out to pursue acting.

Acting Career

In order to make the trandformation from child to adult actor, Gyllenhaal purposefully passed over teen fare for such films as 1999's October Sky and Drew Barrymore's Donnie Darko, for which he earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination. The roles that followed echoed in complexity: Jennifer Aniston's troubled love interest in 2002's The Good Girl, 2002's Lovely & Amazing and 2005's Brokeback Mountain, a love story of two cowboys caught in a homosexual liaison that earned him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination in addition to winning him the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

In spring 2002, Gyllenhaal starred on the London stage in Kenneth Lonergan's revival of This Is Our Youth. The actor received an Evening Standard Theater Award for his portrayal.

Personal Life

Gyllenhaal dated actress Kirsten Dunst from 2002 to 2004. He was linked to actress Reese Witherspoon in 2007 and has subsequently been romantically linked to singer Taylor Swift in 2010.