Topic: Jon Voight

Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight (born December 29, 1938) is an American film and television actor. He came to prominence at the end of the 1960s, with a performance as a would-be gigolo in 1969's Best Picture winner, Midnight Cowboy, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination. Throughout the following decades, Voight built his reputation with an array of challenging roles, appearing in such landmark films as Deliverance (1972), and Coming Home (1978), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Actor. Voight's portrayal of sportscaster/journalist Howard Cosell, in the 2001 biopic Ali, earned critical raves and his fourth Oscar nomination. He starred in the seventh season of 24 as the villain Jonas Hodges.

Voight is the father of actor James Haven and actress Angelina Jolie, as well as brother of singer-songwriter Chip Taylor and geologist Barry Voight. He's also the ex-husband of late american actress Marcheline Bertrand, mother of his two sons.

Voight was born in Yonkers, New York, the son of Barbara (Born Kamp; January 7, 1910 - December 3, 1995) and Elmer Voight (October 29, 1909 – June 1973), a professional golfer. His maternal grandparents were German, and his paternal grandfather was an immigrant from the city of Košice (German: Kaschau) in Slovakia, then Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Voight was raised Catholic and attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, where he first took an interest in acting - playing the comic role of Count Pepi Le Loup in the school's annual musical, The Song of Norway. After graduating from high school in 1956, he went to college at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he majored in art and graduated with a B.A. in 1960. At CUA, he demonstrated his artistic skill by designing the cardinal that adorned the center of the floor of the basketball court. This section of floor now resides on display in the school's Pryzbyla University Center.