Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. Widely regarded as one of the most popular actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him the highest-grossing actor of all time (when cameo appearances are excluded). He rose to fame with films such as Goodfellas (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Amos & Andrew (1993), True Romance (1993), and Jurassic Park (1993), and has especially been noted for his roles in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Django Unchained (2012), and The Hateful Eight (2015). For his role in Pulp Fiction, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Jackson is a highly prolific actor, having appeared in over 150 films. His other roles includes Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), The Negotiator (1998), Deep Blue Sea (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Shaft (2000) and its sequel, XXX (2002), Snakes on a Plane (2006), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005). With his permission, his likeness was used for the Ultimate version of the Marvel Comics character Nick Fury; he subsequently played Fury in 11 Marvel Cinematic Universe films, beginning with a cameo appearance in Iron Man (2008), as well as guest-starring in the television series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He will reprise this role in a different upcoming Disney+ series.
Jackson has provided his voice to several animated films, television series, and video games, including Lucius Best / Frozone in the Pixar films The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018), Mace Windu in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), Whiplash in Turbo (2013), the title character of the anime television series Afro Samurai (2007), and Frank Tenpenny in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004).