John Cusack
Born: 28th June 1966
Where: Evanston, Illinois, USA
Cusack first came to the attention as slippery conman Roy Dillon in Stephen Frears' deliciously black comedy The Grifters.
Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, he has forged a career seemingly without compromise.
High points include Grosse Pointe Blank (which he co-scripted), Being John Malkovich and Nick Hornby's High Fidelity.
Left-of-centre, he turned down a role in Tom Hanks' Apollo 13 because he disagreed with the space programme.
Coming from an acting family - dad Dick Cusack is an actor and filmmaker as well as John's siblings Joan, Ann, Bill and Susie - he became a member of Chicago's Piven Theatre Workshop while still in primary school.
By age 12, he already had several stage productions, voiceovers for adverts, and industry films under his belt.
He made his feature film debut at 17, acting alongside Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy in the teen sex comedy Class.
After several minor roles, John hit new heights with a 1989 starring role in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.
After The Grifters, Cusack's high school friends Steve Pink and DV DeVincentis joined him to form film company New Crime Productions.
Their first feature Grosse Pointe Blank with Minnie Driver started off a career renaissance for Cusack, whose intervening films, including The Road to Welville and Money for Nothing, hadn't performed well.
A succession of box office hits, including Con Air, The Thin Red Line and Pushing Tin, followed until his arthouse favourite Being John Malkovich.
He quickly followed that with High Fidelity (for which he co-wrote the screenplay).
He showed his romantic side in the convoluted America's Sweethearts and the cloying Serendipity opposite Kate Beckinsale.
Cusack also played a retired cop in the accomplished thriller Identity with Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet.
He has always been determined to avoid burn out, claiming: "I'm here for the long haul, directing, producing, everything...
"I don't want to be involved in anything that's jingoistic or sensationalistic...
People in Hollywood don't think about the moral ramifications of what they do. They're trying to make a buck, and they continually whitewash history."
As if to underline his offside approach to cinema, Max saw him play a friend and mentor to a young Hitler.
In 2003, he starred in the John Grisham thriller Runaway Jury in which he played a juror who his own agenda for rigging the verdict.
Recent work includes the romantic comedy Must Love Dogs alongside Diane Lane.
