Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum was born October 22, 1952 in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, one of four children of Shirley (Temeles), a radio
broadcaster who also ran an appliances firm, and Harold L. Goldblum, a
doctor. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was of
Austrian Jewish ancestry.
Goldblum began his career on the New York stage after moving to the
city at age seventeen. Possessing his own unique style of delivery,
Goldblum made an impression on moviegoers with little more than a
single line in Woody Allen's
Der Stadtneurotiker (1977), when he fretted
about having forgotten his mantra. Goldblum went on to appear in the
remake
Die Körperfresser kommen (1978)
and co-starred with Ben Vereen in the
detective series
Die Schnüffler (1980)
before a high-profile turn in the classic ensemble film
Der große Frust (1983).
The quirky actor turned up in the suitably quirky film
Buckaroo Banzai - Die 8. Dimension (1984),
which became a 1980s cult classic, starred in the modern-day film noir
Kopfüber in die Nacht (1985), then went
on to a breakthrough role in the
David Cronenberg remake
Die Fliege (1986), which also featured
actress Geena Davis, Goldblum's wife from
1987-1990 and co-star in two additional films:
Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)
and Julien Temple's
Mein Liebhaber vom andern Stern (1988).
Goldblum was the rather unlikely star of some of the biggest
blockbusters of the 1990s:
Steven Spielberg's dinosaur adventure
Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequel
Vergessene Welt: Jurassic Park (1997),
as well as the alien invasion film
Independence Day (1996). These
films saw Goldblum playing the type of intellectual characters he has
become associated with. More recently, roles have included critically
acclaimed turns in
Igby (2002) and
Wes Anderson's
Die Tiefseetaucher (2004).
In 2009, he returned to television to star in his second crime series
Criminal Intent - Verbrechen im Visier (2001).
