Nicolas Cage (born Nicholas Kim Coppola on January 7, 1964) is an Academy Award-winning American actor. He has also worked as a director and producer, through his production company Saturn Films.As of 2007, Cage has been nominated twice for an Academy Award as Best Actor in a Leading Role, winning the award for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas.Cage was born in Long Beach, California. His father, August Floyd Coppola, is a writer, comparative literature professor and a pioneer of studies for the blind, while his mother, Joy Vogelsang, is a choreographer and ballet dancer who suffered from chronic depression;the two divorced in 1976. Cage's mother is of part German descent and his father is Italian American, with his paternal grandparents being Carmine Coppola and Italia Pennino, an actress. Through his father, Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, as well as the cousin of director Sofia Coppola and actors Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman. Cage's two brothers are Christopher Coppola, a director, and Marc "The Cope" Coppola, a New York radio personality. Cage was raised Catholic.
Cage, who went to Beverly Hills High School (the same high school as fellow entertainers Albert Brooks, Angelina Jolie, Lenny Kravitz, Slash, Rob Reiner, and David Schwimmer), aspired to act from an early age. His first (non-cinematic) acting experience was in a school production of Golden Boy. He is also good friends with fellow actor Johnny Depp whom he advised to get into acting.
In his early 20s, he dated E.G. Daily for two years, and was later involved with Uma Thurman. In 1988, Cage began dating Christina Fulton, mother of their son, Weston Coppola Cage (b. 26 December 1992); Weston appeared in Cage's film Lord of War as Vladimir, a young Ukrainian mechanic who quickly disarms a Mil Mi-24 helicopter. Christina is raising their son in Los Angeles CA.
Cage has been married three times:
- Patricia Arquette (married on April 8, 1995 – divorce finalized May 18, 2001) Cage proposed to her on the day he met her in the early 80s. Arquette thought he was strange, but played along with his antics by creating a list of things Cage would have to do to "win her hand", including obtaining the autograph of reclusive author J.D. Salinger. However, when he seriously started working through the list of demands, Arquette became scared and avoided him. They met again many years later and went on to marry.
- Lisa Marie Presley (married on August 10, 2002 and separated after four months in December 2002; their divorce was finalised on May 16, 2004) — the daughter of Elvis Presley, of whom Cage is a fan and based his performance in Wild at Heart on. He later said they shouldn't have been married in the first place.
- His third (and current) wife, Korean-American Alice Kim, is a former sushi restaurant waitress, with whom he has a son, Kal-El (born October 3, 2005). She had a minor role in the 2007 movie Next which he produced.
Cage had a Malibu home where he and Kim lived, but in 2004 he bought a property on Paradise Island, Bahamas. In 2005, he sold his Malibu home for $10 million. In May 2006, he bought a 40-acre island in the Exuma archipelago which had been on the market for $3 million, some 85 miles southeast of Nassau and close to a similar island owned by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
On July 19, 2006, Cage bought the old medieval castle of Schloss Neidstein (see de:Schloss Neidstein) in the Oberpfalz region in Germany. His grandmother was German, living in Cochem an der Mosel.[9]
In August, 2007, Cage purchased a home in Middletown, Rhode Island. The 24,000-square foot, brick-and-stone country manor, on 26 secluded acres, has 12 bedrooms, 10 full bathrooms and sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean from its perch bordering the Norman Bird Sanctuary. Cage sale ranks in the state’s most expensive residential purchases, eclipsed by the $17.15 million sale last December of the Miramar mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport.
The name of his second child, Kal-El, is also the birth name of Superman in the DC Comics universe. Nicolas said in a radio interview with Ryan Seacrest that he liked the name Kyle, but his wife wanted a more unique name. Cage is a long-time fan of comics and considers them to be the modern equivalent of mythology. He was once attached to play Superman in a film to be directed by Tim Burton. Cage even did costume fittings, but the project died due to budget and screenplay concerns. Nicolas was director Sam Raimi's first choice to play Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in the movie Spider-Man. (Apparently this was before he met Willem Dafoe.) Cage has a tattoo of Ghost Rider on his body (which, in an ironic twist, had to be covered with makeup when he played the character in a big-budget film adaptation). He has even created a comic book, with his son Weston, called Voodoo Child, which is published by Virgin Comics.
He is an ambassador and a spokesperson for the luxury items manufacturer Mont Blanc. He appears in many of its posters and attends many events.