Born on December 19, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, Jake Gyllenhaal worked as a child actor in films like City Slickers and A Dangerous Woman before starring in the indie classic Donnie Darko in 2001. He later starred opposite Heath Ledger in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, for which Gyllenhaal received a supporting actor Oscar nomination. Other films on the Gyllenhaal roster include Proof, Jarhead, Prisoners and Nightcrawler as well as the Broadway production Constellations.
Early Life
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. The young Gyllenhaal graduated from Los Angeles’ Harvard-Westlake High School and studied for a year at Columbia University in New York before dropping out to pursue acting.
