Actor and musician Jack Black began his unique double career as a cult figure on the L.A. “alternative” comedy scene before he was upgraded to scene-stealing character roles in larger pictures, eventually taking the lead in some of the most quirky and endearing comedies of the early millennium. Forays into headier romantic dramas did not cultivate as much enthusiasm as Black’s signature role – that of an overconfident, smart aleck loser with an arsenal of expressive faces and a gung-ho attitude towards the most absurd plans of action. But if audiences did not lap up his subtler shades it was not because they lacked nuance; it was because Black’s offbeat, joyous, larger-than-life characters were just too unique and fun not to want to more of. He was at his most memorable when he was portraying just the type of person he might have become if he had not found a lucrative niche for his unique persona — the bitter record store clerk, the failing musician conning his way into easy day jobs, the pontificating “artist” of no discernable creative output, the guy who works the late shift thanks to fists full of speed.
Black was born Thomas Black on Aug. 28, 1969, and was anointed with the nickname Jack almost immediately. His parents were both satellite engineers (aka, rocket scientists) who split when he was 10 years old, after which Black moved from wealthy Hermosa Beach, CA, to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Culver City. The family’s academic gene apparently was not passed on to their son, who instead exhibited evidence of harboring the “need for attention” gene. School was an excruciating experience for the kid who could not sit still and focus and who dreamed of someday being adored on stage for performing sound effects with various bodily orifices. He received his first taste of the spotlight when he was cast in an Atari video game commercial at the age of 13. His follow-up was an ad for the considerably less cool Smurfberry Crunch cereal. He appeared onstage for three weeks in a production of “Inside Eddie Binstock,” directed by then-unknown Tim Robbins, before the typical distractions of youth won out and his headshots began collecting dust.
The bright but frustrated teen began hanging out on the streets with fellow metalhead burnouts, and after getting into an increasing amount of trouble with school and with the law, he was plucked from public high school and sent to a small private one for “troubled” youths. Surrounded by far bigger delinquents than himself, Black straightened out and began to regain his interest in acting. He transferred to the arts-oriented Crossroads School in Santa Monica, where he thrived in the theater department and also fronted a rock band, whose failure to win over the crowd at a high school party temporarily squashed his musical aspirations. He went on to the Theater Studies program at UCLA, and it was there that the man who would one day become known for his unbridled physical comedy and adolescent obnoxiousness surprisingly appeared onstage in heavy-hitting theatrical works by Brecht and Ionesco. He spent more and more time around Robbins’ Actor’s Gang theater group, eventually dropping out of school to devote his time to acting. And music. The sting of his high school failure safely behind him, Black met fellow musician and actor Kyle Gass through the Actor’s Gang and the two hatched the idea for the tongue-in-cheek rock duo, Tenacious D.
Black pounded the audition circuit and landed his first paying gig close to home, in Tim Robbins' directorial debut "Bob Roberts" (1992), in which he played a crazed follower of the folk singer-turned-right wing politician. Black’s unusual look (for Hollywood, anyway) and his engaging, off-the cuff humor landed him a surprising number of paying TV and film gigs over the next few years. He appeared as plaid-shirted teenage burnouts in shows like “Northern Exposure” (CBS, 1990-95), “The X-Files” (Fox, 1993-2002), and had a supporting role in the low-budget teen sports flick “Airborne” (1993). In 1994, Black and Kyle Gass (JB and KG, respectively) debuted their act at a hip skid row rock club and almost instantly gained a local following for their comic banter and brilliantly performed, tongue-in-cheek tributes to classic rock. Paying homage by aping the well-worn themes of rock music – including medieval legends and puffed up bravado – the key to D’s success was really hilarious songwriting, really good guitar playing, and Black’s fantastic vocal ability, which ranged from rakish growl to rebellious sneer to operatic bellow.
Black continued building an acting resume with character roles in "Dead Man Walking" (1995) "Bye Bye, Love" (1995) and "Waterworld" (1995), but his growing cult status as a renaissance funnyman and musician led to better opportunities to showcase his unique talent. Tenacious D fan David Cross invited Black to appear on the infamous “Mr. Show with Bob and David” (HBO, 1995-98), where he gave scene-stealing performances in several musical numbers and seemed visibly reluctant to leave the stage when they were over. Tenacious D received offers to perform their act in films like “Bio Dome” (1996) and “The Cable Guy” (1996). In 1997, HBO signed JB and KG to a six-episode deal for their own series, “Tenacious D” (1997-2000) which aired following “Mr. Show” and included Bob and David as collaborators. Only two episodes of the comedy about a struggling rock band aired that year. The rest did not surface until Black’s considerable fame years later.
In 1998, Black brought his frenetic screen presence to featured roles in the indie comedy “Bongwater,” the HBO mystery "Johnny Skidmarks" (HBO), and the big-budget action thriller "Enemy of the State." His rise continued with Robbins’ "Cradle Will Rock" (1999) and a turn as a co-worker of lead character Billy Crudup in the acclaimed "Jesus' Son" (1999), where he provided comic relief as a paranoid hospital orderly with pockets full of stolen meds. But Black’s role as a deliciously abrasive record store employee in the film adaptation of “High Fidelity” (2000) proved to be his breakout role — a major film that showcased his engaging comedic antics as well as his musical talents. The film’s final scene featured Black’s cynical character dropping his ironic shell to deliver a stunning rendition of the Marvin Gaye classic "Let's Get it On” – and with that, a star was truly born.
Following his roundly praised performance, Black inked his first major deal, signing on to star with Jason Biggs and Steve Zahn in "Saving Silverman" (2000), a film that was inconceivably awful, despite its quirky, talented cast. The following year Black’s musical career enjoyed considerably better success with the release of Tenacious D’s self-titled album, which charted internationally and led to opening slots on tours with The Foo Fighters, Beck and Pearl Jam.
With “Silverman,” Black had finally reached leading man status, but his ensuing run of films as top-billed actor were one-dimensional broad comedies that failed to capitalize on his unique talent. "Shallow Hal" (2001), from hitmakers Bobby and Peter Farrelly and co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow, seemed like a good idea on paper. But the low-brow comedy about a bland lout who suddenly sees only inner beauty after a spell is cast on him and he subsequently falls for a 300-pound woman failed to find an audience. Black found only a slightly better vehicle with Jake Kasdan’s comedy "Orange County" (2002), in which he played a fairly standard stoner brother of the more ambitious Colin Hanks. Black also provided the voice of Zeke in the popular CGI-animated comedy "Ice Age" (2002) before “Orange County” screenwriter and next door neighbor Mike White decided to write a script custom-tailored to Black’s strengths, as well as to tap into a sweeter side of him that audiences had yet to see.
The result was "School of Rock" (2003), which starred Black as a failing musician in desperate need of cash, who poses as his roommate to take a substitute teaching job. The only knowledge he has to impart to his young wards is rock knowledge, so he sets about to forming a 5th grade supergroup to compete in a local battle of the bands. Working with director Richard Linklater, Black dodged obvious cuteness, steered clear of mawkish sentimentality, and emerged as one of the best loved comic talents in Hollywood, capable of both outrageous, adolescent humor and a charmingly unbreakable confidence against all odds. Black’s next release, “Envy” (2004), had been filmed before his "School of Rock" breakthrough and had more in common with the uninspired films he did prior to the career landmark. Unfunny and incoherent to the extreme, Black came off the least scathed in the film, appearing in it far less than his billing suggested. The actor next voiced Lenny, the sweet-natured shark who hides his true personality, in DreamWorks' CGI-animated underwater underworld opus "Shark Tale" (2004).
Next, Black jumped at the opportunity to work with Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson, who was casting the lead in a remake of 1933’s “King Kong.” The comic actor might have seemed an unusual candidate for the period action drama, but the description of Carl Denham’s character as a cocky, but failing Orson Welles-type filmmaker starving for fame was certainly well within Black’s bag of tricks. The epic spectacle was a box office hit, and Black’s reigned-in performance won over another new crop of movie audiences. Continuing to experiment with what he could bring to different types of roles, Black co-starred with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet in "The Holiday" (2006), a panned romantic comedy about the friendship between an American woman and a British woman, both of whom have recently been dumped.
Black stepped into the producer’s role and certainly put his imprint on his next pair of outrageous comedies. In “Nacho Libre” (2006), he starred as a monastery cook whose inability to do no right –including make good food – leads him to earn money and find his place as a Lucha Libre wrestler – a pursuit strictly forbidden by the church elders. Despite the direction of Jared Hess, fresh off the success of Napoleon Dynamite” and helming by Black and White’s new production company (aptly, Black and White Productions), the promising film missed the mark with critics and came and went at the box office with little more than diehard Black and “Dynamite” fans in attendance.
Black traded in a big salary in exchange for creative control (along with Kyle Gass) for the highly anticipated mock rock biopic, “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny” (2006). Critics were split over the fictitious tale of the humble beginnings of “the greatest band in the world;” some unmoved by the excessive drug and bathroom humor. Abundant “inside” jokes comprehensible only to diehard Tenacious fans alienated still more moviegoers. In the end, box office showing was weak, though the accompanying soundtrack sold well and reached number eight on the Billboard charts. Off-screen, Black quietly eloped with Los Angeles musician Tanya Haden, with whom he had gone to Crossroads High School, but had not seen until the pair reconnected at a party the previous year. Their first son, Samuel, was born that summer. The following year, Black appeared in a small cameo as Paul McCartney in the biopic satire “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” before taking on a supporting role in Noah Baumbach’s “Margot at the Wedding” (2007). In the meaty family dramedy from the director of “The Squid and the Whale” (2005), Black was tapped to play the immature, overbearing “bad choice” fiancé for family black sheep Jennifer Jason Leigh, trying to mend fences with her successful author sister (Nicole Kidman). Darkly comic and bursting with complex family dynamics, the well-made film and Black’s mature performance as an insecure blowhard remained below the radar.
In 2008, Black was recruited by director Michel Gondry to co-star opposite Mos Def in “Be Kind, Rewind,” a comedy wherein junkyard worker Black accidentally de-magnetizes the stock of an entire video store and attempts to re-shoot all the films with the aid of the owner’s son and various neighborhood characters. The microbudget versions of “RoboCop” and “The Lion King” become wildly popular with the customers, transforming the video store workers into local heroes. Black was at his best with the film’s blend of outrageous physical comedy and absurd premise, but sweet subplot about the old shop’s uncertain future in the face of economic hardship. Curiously, the film had a weak box office showing, despite positive reviews. Later in the year, Black would provide the voice of the lead character in the offbeat animated tale “Kung Fu Panda” and take the lead in “Tropic Thunder,” another movie about movie-making in which he would appear as a Hollywood actor dumped from the set of a war film into a real war.