Jake Gyllenhaal

Background

Jacob Gyllenhaal is the son of Stephen Gyllenhaal, a film director, and Naomi Foner, a screenwriter. He was born on December 19, 1980. Maggie Gyllenhaal, his older sister, is also an actress. His parents urged him to serve at a homeless shelter and perform summer jobs as a teenager because they wanted him to have a regular upbringing. He often appeared in his father’s films as a child. He attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where he received his education and graduated in 1998. He enrolled at Columbia University to study Eastern religions and philosophy but left after two years to pursue his acting career.

He played Homer Hickam, a coal miner’s kid who becomes a NASA engineer by pure determination and hard work, in his first leading role in “October Sky” in 1999. In 2001, he starred in his second major film, “Donnie Darko.” The film became a cult classic. He starred as Sam Hall in the science fiction catastrophe film “The Day After Tomorrow,” in which the devastating repercussions of global warming are depicted through a succession of extreme weather occurrences. The film was a huge box office hit. For his role in “Brokeback Mountain,” he was nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor.’ In 2005, he appeared in two more successful films. He starred alongside Anne Hathaway in the romantic comedy “Love & Other Drugs” in 2010.

Gyllenhaal supports the American Civil Liberties Union with his entire family. He recycles regularly and is a supporter of the Future Forests program. He also participates in the televised fundraiser Stand Up To Cancer, which raises funds for cancer research. Gyllenhaal and Jeanne Cadieu have kept their romance under wraps but still going strong, despite their 16-year age gap. He’s a popular bachelor who’s dated many stunning women, including Kirsten Dunst, Reese Witherspoon, and Taylor Swift.