Samuel L Jackson’s Early Life
Samuel L. Jackson is a famous Hollywood film actor with a recognizable presence on the silver screen. He has appeared in movies for over 40 years, and many of them were high-grossing box office successes. Some of his most notable films include the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Shaft, XXX, and the list goes on.
Jackson is a true American success story. He came from humble beginnings in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where his mother and grandmother raised him. Jackson also had an Aunt Edna who took him to the local theater to see films. This developed his interest in acting. The only problem was that Jackson had a stuttering problem, which reduced his self-confidence significantly.
In 1966, Jackson graduated from high school and attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. His original goal was to pursue a marine biology degree. However, acting was always on the back of his mind, and he couldn’t help but want to do it. One day, Jackson finally decided to switch his degree major to drama. He went on to act in numerous theater productions, which gave him a lot of acting experience and a chance to control his stutter.
Unfortunately, Jackson’s time at Morehouse University was cut short. After the assassination of famous civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson and his classmates wanted their university to undergo some significant reform. In 1969, they took hostages amongst the board of trustees and demanded their reform proposals be accepted. The outcome led to Jackson getting a 2-year suspension and an unlawful confinement conviction on his record.
Eventually, Jackson would come back to Morehouse University two years later and finish his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Drama. That was when he met another aspiring actress from Spelman College named LaTanya Richardson. She would go on to become his wife in 1980.
Before that, in the late 1970s, they moved to New York City after college to find acting work. The best that Jackson could do was get acting roles in Off-Broadway productions. As a struggling actor in New York City, Jackson became a heavy drinker and drug user. His drugs of choice were LSD and marijuana.
Even though Jackson was making connections and building a reputation in the world of theatre, there wasn’t much money coming in from his stage performances. The depression over money and bills led him to abuse drugs and develop a drug and alcohol addiction.
He continued to struggle well into the early 1980s. By this point, Jackson and his wife welcomed their daughter, Zoe, into the world. That meant he had a lot more responsibilities to think about in his personal life.
The Addiction Struggle
Throughout the 1980s, Jackson started to use new types of drugs, which only increased his addiction problem. Sometimes he would even get high on acid with his castmates before performing on the theatrical stage. Although audiences accepted his performances, the money was not coming in. This led him down a path of self-pity and depression, which only fueled his addiction problem even more.
Jackson never told his family about his addiction to drugs. At first, Jackson didn’t even think he had a drug problem because he was working and earning an honest living as an actor. After all, Jackson wasn’t out robbing and stealing to afford his drug habit as other addicts do. So, he didn’t think the problem was a serious one until years later.
When reflecting on his days as a drug addict, there is no doubt that it prevented Jackson from advancing his acting career. His performances could have been so much better if it weren’t for the drugs he was on beforehand. The realization of his drug addiction finally came after a bachelor party he attended in 1991.
Jackson came home drunk that night with cocaine and drug paraphernalia. He passed out on the kitchen floor while trying to heat cocaine on the stove. That was when his wife and young daughter finally learned about his drug addiction problem. His wife pleaded with him to get help at a rehabilitation facility, and so he did.
The Sobriety Aftermath
If you look at Jackson’s acting career up until 1991, he only had small roles in films. Sure, he made some notable appearances in Goodfellas and Coming to America, but they were not major roles that gained him any fame. But after he became sober in 1991, everything changed for him at home and in his acting career.
Two weeks after Jackson got out of rehab, director Spike Lee offered him a role in his next movie, Jungle Fever. What’s funny is that Jackson played a cocaine addict in the film, so he didn’t have to do much research for the role. But it was a role that got Jackson noticed by a lot of other prominent figures in Hollywood.
In 1994, the opportunity of a lifetime came for Jackson. Director Quentin Tarantino offered him a starring role in his next film Pulp Fiction, opposite John Travolta. It would be the movie that skyrocketed Jackson to superstardom. Suddenly, bigger movie roles were getting offered to him that paid a lot of money. They were a diverse range of movies too.
Jackson has been in everything from Die Hard with a Vengeance and A Time to Kill to Snakes on a Plane and Deep Blue Sea. In 1999, Jackson received another “once in a lifetime” opportunity after he was cast as Jedi Master Mace Windu in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. Since this was the revival of the Star Wars franchise, it was the biggest movie of the year. Jackson would go on to continue this role in the other two Star Wars prequels of the trilogy.
In more recent years, Jackson became a comic book character after getting cast as Nick Fury in as many as 11 different Marvel Cinematic Universe films, starting with a cameo role in 2008’s Iron Man. Some of his other Nick Fury movies have included Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
Jackson has a net worth of over $200 million. His movies have grossed a total of $7.1 billion in the United States and $16.7 billion throughout the world. What’s amazing is that his success never really started until the day he stepped out of rehab. He was 43 years old at the time, which is kind of late for any actor to start making it big in Hollywood.
However, Jackson defied the odds by getting sober and allowing his inner artistic abilities to shine so that everyone else could see them. If there was ever a good example of the power that sobriety can bring to someone’s life, Jackson’s sobriety story is the best example.
But hey, you don’t need to be a Hollywood actor to find an excuse to get sober. You can improve your life with sobriety no matter what you do for a living. All you need to do is believe in yourself, focus on your goals and ask for help. And if you have a family of supporters to help you through your sobriety, let them help you. Never take them for granted.
