Jack Black is a multi-talented artist. He's best known for his acting career, but Black is also a musician, singer, songwriter, and YouTuber. At UCLA, he met a troupe of actors, led by Tim Robbins, and the experience kick-started his career in theater, until being offered, by Robbins, a small part in Bob Roberts, his film debut.
Since then, he's done it all. Live-action movies, animations, television shows, and commercials. Although he didn't win, Jack Black was nominated for two Golden Globes, for The School Of Rock (2003) and Bernie (2011). Black is currently 51 years old, married, and has two sons.
His Name Isn't Jack
Although Jack is now considered a proper name, it used to be a diminutive form of a different name, like Jackson or John. In Black's name, Jack is short for Jacob. However, Jacob is not his first name, either.
The actor's full name is Thomas Jacob Black. He got his name after his father, whose full name is Thomas William Black, and he chose to use his nickname to be known in the celebrity world.
He Was Born In Hermosa Beach, California
Jack Black is a proud Californian. He was born and raised in the beach city of Hermosa Beach, south of Santa Monica. Growing up, Black felt like a fish out of water for not fitting in the dominant surf culture, even though he admitted to having tried.
He also liked being close to Hollywood because it was inspiring to feel the entertainment industry's creative juices flowing through Los Angeles. In 2015, Jack Black participated in the project "California Inspires Me" and talked about his experience in an animated video.
He Has Three Half-Siblings
Jack Black is the youngest of Judith Love Cohen's four children, but he is his father's only child. Judith was previously married to Bernard Siegel and gave birth to Howard Siegel, Niel Siegel, and Rachel Siegel.
His second-oldest brother, Niel, is a well-known computer scientist and system engineer. His older brother, Howard, died at age 31 from an AIDS-related illness.
His Parents Were Intellectuals
Thomas William Black and Judith Love Cohen were very successful satellite engineers who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, a satellite launched from Earth in 1990. Jack didn't follow his parents' career in science, and, in fact, studying was not an easy task for him as a young kid. When he was in secondary school, his parents transferred him to a special school dedicated to struggling teens.
His Acting Debut Was At 13
Jack Black's first acting role was in 1982 when he was only 13 years old. He starred in a TV commercial for an Atari 2600 video-game named Pitfall. The commercial is still available on YouTube, and in it, we can see that Jack Black's features didn't change much with age, and neither did his acting style.
Coincidentally, the game had the player collect treasures in a jungle, and Jack Black was wearing a hat pretty similar to the one he wore in the Jumanji franchise.
He Struggled With Cocaine At Age 14
When Jack was only 14 years old, he went through a dark period. He found himself struggling with cocaine abuse and hanging out with a pretty bad crowd. He even got caught stealing money from his mother's purse.
He shared with ABC News, in 2015, that he found the strength to get better after talking to a school therapist and sharing his guilt about misbehaving.
He's An Atheist, But Also Jewish
Jack Black's mother, Judith, was of Russian Jewish descent, and his father has converted to Judaism after marrying Judith. Black was raised in the Jewish faith, attending a Jewish school and celebrating his own bar mitzvah. As an adult, Black has said to be an atheist, but when his two sons were born, he decided to raise them in the Jewish faith as well.
He Met His Wife In High School
Jack Black is happily married to Tanya Haden, daughter of jazz bassist Charlie Haden, since 2006, and they have two kids. But the two first met in an arts High School in Santa Monica, California. They didn't date while in school, but they met again 15 years later and started a family.
He Just Got A Star On The Walk Of Fame
On September 18th, 2018, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored Jack Black with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His was the 2645th star, and it's located next to the historic Stromberg Clock as an homage to Black's movie The House With a Clock in its Walls. Black's acceptance speech was filled with jokes about him being nervous and not used to being praised.
And Finally, How Tall Is Jack Black?
Everyone knows that Jack Black isn't very tall. But how tall is he, exactly? Black's exact height is 5'6'' (1.68 m), which puts him in a list of short actors, sharing the same height with Elijah Wood, Al Pacino, Martin Sheen, and Billy Crystal.