Samuel L. Jackson has the ability to light up any screen.
Despite being cast as a supporting character in Pulp Fiction , anyone could argue that he was really the lead. He did the same thing with the Marvel and Star Wars’ universes.
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Yep, he is definitely one captivating man. Here are 10+ random facts fans didn’t know.
1. He grew up in segregation.
“It was normal,” the actor told Esquire .
“That was the way of the world. I lived in a black world. My teachers were black. I went to school with black kids. I only interacted with white people when I went to work with my grandfather, who worked for white people.”
2. He started acting as a child.
While growing up in Tennessee, Jackson’s aunt, who was a performing-arts teacher, cast him in plays and got him into dance classes.
He soon fell in love with the crowd’s applause.
3. He got his big break at 45.
For years, he was mulling around New York, doing stage plays.
“I used to call my agent every day, and my greeting for her was always ‘Did Hollywood call?'” he told Vanity Fair .
“She’d say ‘No.’ But one day, in 1991, I checked in with her, and she said, ‘You know, funny thing—Hollywood did call today.'”
Everything changed when he landed the unforgettable role of hitman Jules in Pulp Fiction .
This was his big break into mainstream movies.
4. He’s been with his wife, LaTanya Richardson, for 50 years.
It was love at first sight when they met in 1974 at a student rehearsal in Atlanta.
“We started talking, and boom! I knew she was the person for me. From then on, we were always together, and we’ve stayed that way,” he told Parade .
The couple have one daughter together.
Her name is Zoe, and she even works in the entertainment industry — as a producer.
Since Samuel’s dad was absent from his life, he’s done his best to be a present father .
5. He struggled with addiction.
His trouble with substance abuse started in college.
But things really came to a head when his daughter found him lying on the kitchen floor with his substances all around him.
Despite this, he was still able to work as an actor.
He told The Guardian that he “showed up on time, knew my lines, hit my marks. I just wasn’t making a lot of money, but I was very satisfied artistically.'”
6. He credits his family for getting him sober.
His wife was the one who took him to rehab.
“I credit her because she could have just taken Zoe (their daughter), and walked out and been done with me,” he said.
“But she didn’t,” he said.
“That’s a greater love than I will ever know. Because I don’t know that I would’ve done that.”
Thankfully, this love has healed him, as the actor is sober these days.
7. He was an usher at Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral.
Samuel was a sophomore at Morehouse College in Atlanta when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
He told The Hollywood Reporter that the day after this happened, he flew to Memphis.
He went to march with the garbage workers who weren’t going to be paid for missing work to go to the funeral.
While he was there, he was asked to help people find their way around campus.
This led to him becoming an usher.
8. He wanted to be in *Black Panther*, but producers wouldn’t let him.
The actor desperately wanted Nick Fury to crossover into the iconic film.
He told Ellen DeGeneres that he asked the producers: “‘Can I just walk down the street in Wakanda so they know that I know it’s there?’”
“Because I know it’s there. I mean, Nick Fury knows every black thing that’s on the planet, so he’s gotta know about Wakanda.”
Sadly, they refused. But Samuel hasn’t given up hope for a sequel. “Eventually I may end up in Wakanda.”
9. He doesn’t care that he hasn’t won an Oscar yet.
“If I cared about that, I could have made a big fuss and gone all OscarsSoWhite and all that for Stephen in Django,” he told The Guardian .
“But I don’t think an Oscar is gonna validate my career,” he continued.
Besides, he already feels like a winner with his career.
“You ask the average person, you know what they’re probably gonna say? ‘He already has one!’”
10. He’s worked with director Quentin Tarantino in six of his movies.
They’re a match made in filmmaking heaven, just like Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.
Jackson even received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as Jules in Pulp Fiction .
11. He was once under surveillance by the FBI.
While in college, he was heavily involved in student activism.
In preparation for a race war, he would steal white people’s credit cards and use them to stockpile weapons.
Two FBI officials ended up visiting Jackson’s mother.
They told her that if her son didn’t leave Atlanta, he would be dead within months.
This led him to move to Los Angelos where he lived for a while before getting back into acting in NYC.
