1980–2000: Early life and career beginnings of the noble house
Gyllenhaal|alt=Coat of arms of the noble house Gyllenhaal Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal was born on December 19, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, United States, to screenwriter
Naomi Foner () and film director
Stephen Gyllenhaal. of Swedish and English descent and is a descendant of the Swedish noble
Gyllenhaal family. His last ancestor to be born in Sweden was his great-great-grandfather, Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal's mother is Jewish, and was born in New York City into an
Ashkenazi Jewish family from Russia and Poland. Gyllenhaal has said that he considers himself Jewish. Gyllenhaal was born with a
lazy eye and has been wearing corrective lenses since he was 6. On his 13th birthday, Gyllenhaal performed a "
Bar Mitzvah-like act, without the typical trappings", volunteering at a
homeless shelter because his parents wanted to give him a sense of gratitude for his privileged lifestyle. As a child, Gyllenhaal was regularly exposed to filmmaking due to his family's ties to the industry. He made his acting debut as
Billy Crystal's son in the 1991 comedy
City Slickers. His parents did not allow him to appear in
The Mighty Ducks (1992) because it would have required him to leave home for two months. In subsequent years, his parents allowed him to audition for roles but regularly forbade him to take them if he were chosen. He was allowed to appear in his father's films several times. Gyllenhaal appeared in 1993's
A Dangerous Woman (along with sister Maggie), in "
Bop Gun", a 1994 episode of
Homicide: Life on the Street; and in the 1998 comedy
Homegrown. Along with their mother, Jake and Maggie appeared in two episodes of
Molto Mario, an Italian cooking show on the
Food Network. Prior to his senior year in high school, the only other film not directed by his father in which Gyllenhaal was allowed to perform was the 1993 film
Josh and S.A.M., a little-known children's adventure. His parents insisted that he have summer jobs to support himself, and he thus worked as a lifeguard and as a
busboy at a restaurant operated by a family friend. Gyllenhaal graduated from the
Harvard-Westlake School, a private school in Los Angeles in 1998, then attended
Columbia University, where his sister was a senior and from which his mother had graduated, to study
Eastern religions and philosophy. At Columbia, he was a resident of
John Jay Hall. Gyllenhaal dropped out after two years to concentrate on acting but has expressed intentions to eventually finish his degree.
2001–2004: Donnie Darko to the London stage Donnie Darko, in which Gyllenhaal played his second lead role on film, was not a box office success on its initial 2001 release; eventually, the film became a
cult favorite. Directed by
Richard Kelly, the film is set in 1988 and stars Gyllenhaal as a troubled teenager who experiences visions of a rabbit named Frank who tells him that the world is coming to an end. Gyllenhaal's performance was well received by critics; Gary Mairs of
Culture Vulture wrote that he "manages the difficult trick of seeming both blandly normal and profoundly disturbed, often within the same scene." Gyllenhaal's next role was as Pilot Kelston in 2002's
Highway alongside
Jared Leto. His performance was described by one critic as "silly, clichéd and
straight to video". In both films he plays an unstable character who begins a reckless affair with an older woman. Gyllenhaal later described these as "teenager in transition" roles. Gyllenhaal later starred in the
Touchstone Pictures romantic comedy
Bubble Boy, which was loosely based on the story of
David Vetter. The film portrays the title character's adventures as he pursues the love of his life before she marries the wrong man. The film was panned by critics, with one calling it "stupid and devoid of any redeeming features". Following
Bubble Boy, Gyllenhaal starred opposite
Dustin Hoffman,
Susan Sarandon and
Ellen Pompeo in
Moonlight Mile (2002), as a young man coping with the death of his fiancée and the grief of her parents. The story, which received mixed reviews, is loosely based on writer-director
Brad Silberling's personal experiences following the murder of his girlfriend,
Rebecca Schaeffer. In his theatrical debut, Gyllenhaal starred on the London stage in
Kenneth Lonergan's revival of
This Is Our Youth at the
Garrick Theatre in 2002. Gyllenhaal said, "Every actor I look up to has done theatre work, so I knew I had to give it a try." The play ran for eight weeks in London's
West End; Gyllenhaal received favorable reviews and the
Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer category. Gyllenhaal was almost cast as
Spider-Man for 2004's
Spider-Man 2, due to director
Sam Raimi's concerns about original
Spider-Man star
Tobey Maguire's health. Maguire recovered, however, and the sequel was shot without Gyllenhaal. The actors later starred together in
Brothers (2009), and resemble each other enough that Gyllenhaal has jokingly complained about cab drivers often calling him "Spider-Man". In 2003, he also auditioned for the role of Batman in the superhero film
Batman Begins and came close being offered the part, but it was given to
Christian Bale. Gyllenhaal subsequently appeared in the science fiction
blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow in 2004, co-starring
Dennis Quaid as his father.
2005–2011: Brokeback Mountain and leading roles '' at the
2005 Toronto International Film Festival|alt=Gyllenhaal attending the premiere of Proof, 2005 In 2005, Gyllenhaal was cast in the drama
Proof, with co-stars
Gwyneth Paltrow and
Anthony Hopkins, where he played a graduate student in mathematics who tries to convince Paltrow's character to publish a revolutionary
proof to a problem puzzling the mathematicians' community. The film received a generally positive response. He also starred in
Sam Mendes's
Jarhead, where Gyllenhaal played a
U.S. Marine during the first
Gulf War. The film garnered a favorable response;
Stephen Hunter of
The Washington Post praises Gyllenhaal's performance, writing, "He makes us see his character's intelligence", adding "he doesn't seem jealous of the camera's attention when it goes to others". In
Brokeback Mountain (2005), Gyllenhaal and
Heath Ledger play young men who meet as sheep herders and embark upon a sexual relationship that begins in the summer of 1963 and lasts for 20 years. The film was often referred to in the media with the shorthand phrase "the gay cowboy movie", although there was
differing opinion on the sexual orientation of the characters. The film won numerous accolades, including the
Golden Lion prize at the
Venice Film Festival. The film won three Academy Awards, and earned Gyllenhaal a nomination for
Best Supporting Actor, but he lost to
George Clooney for
Syriana. The film also won four
Golden Globes, and four
British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), in which Gyllenhaal won for
Best Supporting Actor. He and Ledger won an
MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss in 2006. Shortly after the
2006 Academy Awards, Gyllenhaal was invited to join the
Academy in recognition of his acting career. Gyllenhaal expressed mixed feelings about the experience of being directed by
Ang Lee in
Brokeback Mountain but generally had more praise than criticism for his directorial style. While critical of the way Lee tended to disconnect from his actors once filming began, Gyllenhaal praised his encouraging direction of the actors and sensitive approach to the material. At the
Directors Guild of America Awards on January 28, 2006, Gyllenhaal also praised Lee for "his humbleness and his respect for everyone around him". When asked about his kissing scenes with Ledger in
Brokeback Mountain, Gyllenhaal said, "As an actor, I think we need to embrace the times we feel most uncomfortable." When asked about the more intimate scenes with Ledger, Gyllenhaal likened them to "doing a
sex scene with a woman I'm not particularly attracted to". based on
Mordicai Gerstein's book of the same name about
Philippe Petit's famous stunt. In January 2007, as host of
Saturday Night Live, he put on a sparkly evening dress and sang "
And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the musical
Dreamgirls for his opening monologue, dedicating the song to his "unique fan base... the fans of
Brokeback". Later, Gyllenhaal starred in
David Fincher's mystery thriller
Zodiac (2007), based on the
Zodiac Killer. He played
Robert Graysmith, a
San Francisco Chronicle political cartoonist. In preparation for his role, Gyllenhaal met Graysmith, and videotaped him to study his mannerisms and behavior. The film received a positive response; writing for
The Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Byrnes opined that it was "poignant, provocative and haunting", and called Gyllenhaal "terrific". He next starred opposite
Meryl Streep,
Alan Arkin and
Reese Witherspoon in 2007's
Rendition, a
Gavin Hood-directed political thriller about the U.S. policy of
extraordinary rendition. Although it garnered a mixed response,
New York magazine's
David Edelstein called Gyllenhaal "compelling ... he's a reticent actor. But he builds that limitation into the character". Two years later, he co-starred with Tobey Maguire and
Natalie Portman in
Jim Sheridan's
Brothers, a 2009 remake of
Susanne Bier's Danish film
of the same name. It was met with mixed reviews and moderate box office returns, but Anthony Quinn of
The Independent thought Gyllenhaal and Maguire gave "honest performances". Gyllenhaal has also claimed that Maguire's performance in the film influenced his acting throughout his career. The following year, Gyllenhaal played the lead role in
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, an adaptation of the video game
of the same name, produced by
Jerry Bruckheimer and released by
Disney. He starred opposite
Anne Hathaway in the romantic-comedy
Love & Other Drugs, released on November 24, 2010, which gained him a Golden Globe Award nomination.
The Guardian Philip French welcomed Gyllenhaal's choice of a comic role, in contrast to his previous film roles, but thought the film "stumbles badly". For his sole project in 2011, he portrayed Colter Stevens, a
U.S. Army Aviation captain, in the 2011 time-travel thriller
Source Code. Despite noting the film's unrealistic plot, Peter Howell of the
Toronto Star praised the prime performances of the cast.
2012–2018: Critical acclaim and Broadway debut Gyllenhaal starred alongside
Michael Peña in
David Ayer's action thriller
End of Watch, about two Los Angeles street cops. The film, for which Gyllenhaal was also an executive producer, was released in September 2012 and received positive reviews, with
Roger Ebert deeming it "one of the best police movies in recent years, a virtuoso fusion of performances and often startling action" and
Salons Andrew O'Hehir stating that the film was "at least the best cop movie since
James Gray's
We Own the Night, and very likely since
Antoine Fuqua's memorable
Training Day (which, not coincidentally, was written by Ayer)". To prepare for the role, Gyllenhaal took tactical training and participated in actual police ride-alongs with co-star Peña to help establish the language of the characters. , where he served as a jury member|alt=Gyllenhaal at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, 2012 He served as a jury member for the
62nd Berlin International Film Festival that was held in February 2012. Also in 2012, Gyllenhaal made his
Off-Broadway debut in
Nick Payne's play ''
If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet'' at the
Roundabout Theatre Company's Laura Pels Theatre. 2013 saw Gyllenhaal appear in two films directed by
Denis Villeneuve, whom Gyllenhaal describes as "an older brother". The first, the thriller
Prisoners, starred Gyllenhaal as a detective named Loki in search of the abductor of two young girls.
Rolling Stone critic
Peter Travers praised Gyllenhaal's "exceptional" performance in the film. In their second collaboration, Gyllenhaal portrayed the dual role of a history teacher and his
doppelgänger in the thriller
Enemy. The following year, he produced and starred in the crime thriller
Nightcrawler, earning
Golden Globe Award,
Actor Award, and
BAFTA Award nominations for his performance. His miss in the
Best Actor Oscar category was considered by many to be a snub. Ben Sachs of the
Chicago Reader called Gyllenhaal's performance "attention-grabbing" and said that he "creates a memorable screen presence". Gyllenhaal debuted on
Broadway in Payne's
Constellations at the
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre opposite
Ruth Wilson, also in her Broadway debut. The production opened in January 2015 and closed in March of the same year. That same year, he starred in the comedy
Accidental Love, which was filmed in
South Carolina with
Jessica Biel, as well as Antoine Fuqua's sports drama
Southpaw. Writing for
The Independent, Geoffrey Macnab called his portrayal of a boxer in
Southpaw "plausible" and complimented his "emotional vulnerability", despite an unoriginal plot. He then portrayed
Scott Fischer in
Baltasar Kormákur's
Everest, based on the
1996 Mount Everest disaster; the film was a commercial success, grossing $203 million worldwide. Finally, he appeared in
Jean-Marc Vallée's comedy-drama
Demolition, playing an
investment banker Davis Mitchell, who rebuilds his life after losing his wife.
The Village Voices Bilge Ebiri praised his performance, writing, "He nails Davis's boyish curiosity, the quiet, wide-eyed uncertainty of someone discovering the world for the first time." He also served as a jury member for the main competition of the
2015 Cannes Film Festival. In 2016, he starred in
Tom Ford's neo-noir thriller
Nocturnal Animals, based on the 1993 novel
Tony and Susan by
Austin Wright. The film received positive reviews, and Gyllenhaal was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
The Sydney Morning Heralds
Sandra Hall praised Gyllenhaal's brilliant portrayal of his two roles, while
Justin Chang of the
Los Angeles Times wrote that his performance contained "rich emotional shadings" and escalating intensity that becomes overwhelming. In October 2016, he appeared in four benefit concert performances of the
Stephen Sondheim and
James Lapine musical
Sunday in the Park with George at the
New York City Center as the titular character. Alexis Soloski of
The Guardian gave the performance a perfect five-star review and hailed Gyllenhaal's superb singing. Starting in February 2017, Gyllenhaal reprised the role at the reopened
Hudson Theatre on Broadway.
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times praised his "searing theatrical presence, in which his eyes are his center of gravity." However, a new production of
Burn This took place in 2019 with
Adam Driver appearing, with Gyllenhaal's production having reportedly been abandoned. In 2017, Gyllenhaal starred as astronaut David Jordan in the science fiction horror film
Life; He also had a supporting role in the action-adventure film
Okja and starred in the drama
Stronger, based on
Boston Marathon bombing survivor
Jeff Bauman. The following year, he co-starred in the drama
Wildlife opposite
Carey Mulligan, in which he plays a father who temporarily abandons his family to take a dangerous job. It is based on the
1990 novel of the same name by
Richard Ford. Ella Kemp, writing for
Sight & Sound magazine, praised the chemistry of the lead actors which "fizzes with an effortless dynamism". He also had a role in the Western drama
The Sisters Brothers (2018). The film premiered at the
2019 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by
Netflix.
Varietys Peter Debrudge opined that Gyllenhaal was "relishing another of those cartoonishly camp performances". That same year, Gyllenhaal played
comic book villain
Mysterio / Quentin Beck in the superhero film
Spider-Man: Far From Home, a sequel to
Spider-Man: Homecoming, set within the
Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was one of the highest-grossing films of the year. He appeared alongside
Tom Sturridge in
Sea Wall/A Life, a double bill of
monologues by Nick Payne and Simon Stephens, at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway in 2019. He garnered a
Tony Award nomination for
Best Actor in a Play for his performance. Gyllenhaal also lent his voice for the animation
Spirit Untamed (2021). That same year, he played detective Joe Baylor in the crime thriller
The Guilty, a remake of the
Danish film of the same name. In 2022, he starred as a criminal in
Michael Bay's action thriller
Ambulance; the film received mixed reviews from critics. Gyllenhaal also voiced a farmer in the Disney animation
Strange World. He appeared in
Guy Ritchie's
The Covenant (2023) and
Doug Liman's action film
Road House (2024). Following the success of
Road House, his production company, Nine Stories, signed a first-look deal with
Amazon MGM Studios. In 2024 it was announced that Gyllenhaal would return to Broadway playing
Iago in the 2025 revival of
William Shakespeare's tragedy
Othello starring opposite
Denzel Washington. In June 2024, he joined the cast of the upcoming
science fiction monster film The Bride! in an undisclosed role. ==Public image==