Gallagher was born in Los Angeles, California, to producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner (née Achs) and director Stephen Gallagher. He is the brother of actress Maggie Gallagher, who played his sister in Donnie Darko (2001). His godmother is actress Jamie Lee Curtis. His mother is from a Jewish family, and his father’s ancestry includes Swedish, English and Swiss-German.

In 2005, Gallagher portrayed Anthony “Swoff” Swofford in Jarhead, Harold Dobbs in Proof, and Jack Twist in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. For his performance in Brokeback Mountain, he received critical acclaim and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

My Career

Actor Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal, better known as Jake Gyllenhaal, was born on December 19, 1980, in Los Angeles, California. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner, Jake and his sister Maggie have been acting since childhood. Some of Gyllenhaal's earlier films included City Slickers, in which he played Billy Crystal's son, and A Dangerous Woman, directed by his father.

In order to make the trandformation from child to adult actor, Gyllenhaal purposefully passed over teen fare for such films as 1999's October Sky and Donnie Darko (2001), co-starring Drew Barrymore and sister Maggie, for which he earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

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Hit Movies

My Movies

Jacob Benjamin “Jake” Gyllenhaal is an actor best known for his role as Jack Twist in the epic romantic drama ‘Brokeback Mountain’ which earned him an Academy award nomination for Best Supporting Actor