American actor who earned several Oscar nominations for films such as “Midnight Cowboy,” 1969 “Deliverance” and a few minor pictures. In 1978, he won the Academy Award for “Coming Home.” Five years later, he won the Cannes Best Actor award for the same film. After a ten-year hiatus from films, Voight appeared in the film “Heat,” 1995, with co-stars Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. In 1996 he played in “Mission Impossible” and in 1997, “Anaconda.” Voight offered his mother’s failing health and death in 1995 as the reason for his hiatus. His dad, with whom he had been very close, was killed in an auto accident in 1974.
Jon grew up as the middle son of a story-telling golf pro. His first stage experience was as designer and actor in grammar school in a play that his mom was directing. After graduating from Catholic University in Washington, DC, Voight tried summer stock and studied at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse.
During the ’70s, Voight had intensive psychoanalysis. His search for spiritual truth and meaning began before then and intensified in the ’80s. His longing for God, spiritualism and mysticism took him into the question of life’s deep meanings. His interests extend to ecology, gay rights, solar energy, and freedom of the press.
He married for the first time in 1962, to actress Lauri Peters; the relationship lasted five years. His second marriage, to actress Marcheline Bertrand, lasted from 1971 to 1979 and resulting in a son James and a daughter, Angelina Jolie. He and Bertrand have remained friends.
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