Nicolas Cage (born January 7, 1964) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and an exemplar of method acting. He has also worked as a director and producer, through his production company Saturn Films. blank">Saturn Films, Cage's production company As of 2007, Cage has been nominated twice for an _Academy Award as Best Actor in a Leading Role, winning the award for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas.

The son of comparative literature professor August Coppola (a brother of director Francis Ford Coppola) and dancer/choreographer Joy Vogelsang, Cage changed his name early in his career to make his own reputation, succeeding brilliantly with a host of classic, quirky roles by the late 1980s. Initially studying theatre at Beverly Hills High (though he dropped out at 17), he secured a bit part in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) -- most of which was cut, dashing his hopes and leading to a job selling popcorn at the Fairfax Theater, thinking that would be the only route to a movie career. But a job reading lines with auditioners for uncle Francis' Rumble Fish (1983) landed him a role in that film, followed by the punk-rocker in Valley Girl (1983), which was released first and truly launched his career. His one-time passion for method acting reached a personal limit when he smashed a street-vendor's remote-control car to achieve the sense of rage needed for his gangster character in Cotton Club, The (1984). In his early 20s, he dated Jenny Wright (I) for two years and later linked to Uma Thurman. After a relationship of several years with Christina Fulton, a model, they split amicably and share custody of a son, Weston Coppola Cage (b.1992).