Academy Award-nominated thesp Don Cheadle began gaining mainstream recognition in the late 90s with meaty supporting roles in several high-profile prestige projects – among them Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” and a string of Steven Soderbergh films. He is now regarded as one of Hollywood’s finest actors, and received an Oscar nomination for his intense performance in 2004’s “Hotel Rwanda.”
Cheadle began acting in the mid-80s after graduating from the California Institute of the Arts where he studied theatre. The road to success was long for the talented actor, and he spent most of the 80s in bit parts on television despite a notable performance in the Vietnam film “Hamburger Hill.” Like many African-American performers in Hollywood, Cheadle struggled to find roles on screen. 1993 proved to be a watershed year for Cheadle when he was cast as District Attorney John Littleton in the popular David E. Kelley-created TV drama “Picket Fences.” Film roles finally came, most notably his turn in the Denzel Washington vehicle “Devil in a Blue Dress,” for which he received a Best Supporting Actor award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle. His profile was raised in 1997 with a powerful performance alongside Mark Wahlberg and Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Boogie Nights” and a role in the big-budget disaster picture “Volcano” with Tommy Lee Jones. The next year Cheadle appeared in Warren Beatty’s “Bulworth” with Halle Berry as well as Soderbergh’s grossly underrated caper “Out of Sight.” Cheadle gave one of his most memorable performances in the latter film, playing a long-winded gangster causing trouble for stars Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney.
Now a respected character actor, Cheadle starred as Sammy Davis Jr. in the TV film “The Rat Pack,” the ill-fated sci-fi adventure “Mission to Mars,” Soderbergh’s phenomenal “Traffic,” the Nicolas Cage drama “The Family Man,” and the John Travolta-Hugh Jackman thriller “Swordfish.” In 2004 Cheadle achieved his greatest critical success to date in “Hotel Rwanda” and the Best Picture-winning drama “Crash.” He is currently on screen with Adam Sandler, Donald Sutherland, Liv Tyler, and Jada Pinkett Smith in “Reign Over Me,” and can be seen later this year in a biopic of legendary DJ Ralph Waldo ‘Petey’ Greene titled “Talk to Me.” And, of course, there’s “Ocean’s 13.”