Don Cheadle was born on November 29, 1964, in Kansas City, Missouri, and after graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, started off in show business as a dancer. His first breakthrough role on film was Rocket in Colors, in which Sean Penn and Robert Duvall also starred, in 1988. Cheadle also made his name known in television with a hit role as a district attorney, John Littleton, on the series Picket Fences from 1993 to 1995.
Cheadle followed that up with prominent roles in the films The Family Man in 2000, with Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni; Swordfish in 2001, alongside Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, and Halle Berry; and Ocean’s Eleven also in 2001, co-starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts. Ocean's Eleven played the main hand in propelling Cheadle him into stardom.
The year 2004 was a big one for Don Cheadle, when he landed leading roles in the films Crash, with Sandra Bullock, Tony Danza, Matt Dillon, and Jennifer Esposito; Hotel Rwanda; After the Sunset, co-starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, and Woody Harrelson; and Ocean’s Twelve. In fact, Cheadle earned a coveted nomination for a Best Actor Academy Award for playing the lead character Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda, and Crash won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005.
More recently, Cheadle starred as Alan Johnson in the critically acclaimed film Reign Over Me in 2007, in which Adam Sandler, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland also starred. The film features Sandler as a grieving man who lost his family in the September 11, 2001, attacks and runs into his old college roommate, whom Cheadle plays. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
Cheadle is also active in promoting the NFL (National Football League), starring and appearing in a number of NFL commercials; is considered an expert player in both Go as well as poker (he’s participated in pro poker tournaments, most recently defeating Phil Ivey and getting knocked out by Scott Fischman); and is also co-authoring Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond with John Prendergast.
Romantically, Cheadle is involved with actress Bridgid Coulter, with whom he has two daughters, Imani and Ayana.
YUDDY
