Nicolas Cage is a well known American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in "Leaving Los Vegas" and became the youngest actor ever to do so. He also is a producer and director.

Nicolas Cage was born on 7th January 1964 to August Coppola and Joy Vogelsang as Nicolas Kim Coppola. He is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. Nicolas wanted to make a career on his own in Hollywood without his uncle's influence and so he changed his name to Nicolas Cage. The stage name Cage is said to be inspired by a comic book character Luke Cage.

Cage attended Beverly Hills High School and later attended the UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television. His first stint in acting was in "Golden Boy" which was a non-cinematic school production. He secured a part in the 1982 movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", but majority of his role was cut short in the film. He later took the job of reading lines with auditioners for Uncle Francis's films that later landed him roles in films "Rumble Fish" and "Valley Girl" in 1983. Valley Girl, which was released first amongst the two, launched his career.

Thereafter he went on to do varied kind of roles in "Moonstruck", "Raising Arizona", "Wild at Heart", "Bringing Out the Dead". He was nominated twice for Academy Awards. Despite these successes his low profile films failed to make big at the box office but his mainstream action and/or adventure movies went on to become box office successes. His movie "8mm" a suspense thriller although failed to make it big at the box office, is regarded as a cult film. "The Ghost Rider" became the top earner, earning more than $45 million in its opening weekend and grossed over $208 million worldwide. Cage's second highest film in terms of earnings was the "National Treasure".

He owns a production company called "Saturn Films" and started his production career with "Shadow of the Vampire" in 2000. He made his directorial debut "Sonny" in 2002 which was a low budget drama but dint do well at the box office. Cage also has a strong interest in comic books. The comic book series Voodoo Child was created by him and his son Wes Cage. He had also auctioned 400 vintage comics through Heritage Auctions for over $1.6 million.



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