Early Years
On January 7, 1964, Nicolas Kim Coppola gave birth to Nicolas Cage in Long Beach, California. His father, August Coppola, was a literature professor, and his mother, Joy Vogelsang, was a dancer and choreographer. August died after a heart attack in 2009. Cage grew up in Beverly Hills, where he also attended the UCLA School of Theatre and Beverly Hills High School.
Through his father, Cage is related to actors Jason Schwartzman, Sofia Coppola, and Roman Coppola as well as filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire. To avoid the impression of nepotism, Cage changed his surname to Luke Cage, like the Marvel Comics character.
Nicolas Cage’s Net Worth
Nicolas Cage is a $25 million dollar net worth American actor. Nicolas Cage’s net worth was formerly far greater, easily exceeding $100 million, after earning at least $200 million in film earnings alone.
Nick’s extravagant spending is rather well-known today. Despite being one of Hollywood’s highest-paid performers, Nicolas Cage found himself in major financial trouble as a result of both his inability to pay his taxes and some disastrous real estate transactions, forcing Cage to sell not just his Ferrari Enzo but also other valued assets.
His most well-known possession was a copy of Action Comics #1, one of the most valuable comic books ever, which sold at auction for an astounding $2.16 million. Later in this post, we will go into his years-long incredibly crazy spending binge.
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Acting Career
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, released in 1982, was Cage’s film debut. He worked steadily throughout the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, appearing in movies like “Valley Girl,” “Raising Arizona,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Face/Off,” “Con Air,” “Gone in Sixty Seconds,” “The Rock,” and “The Family Man,” to name a few.
National Treasure, his second-highest-grossing picture to date, was released in 2004. Despite his success in several of his big-budget action pictures, most of his lesser-known films have been box office duds in comparison to his action/adventure popular hits. Wicker Man, his 2006 adaptation, failed to recoup its $40 million budget and received mostly poor reviews.
Cage was discovered during a wrestling exhibition in 2007 while auditioning for the lead part in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. He later withdrew out of contention for the role. For his performance of the title character, Mickey Rourke was nominated for an Academy Award. Cage had an appearance in the 2009 movie The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans by Werner Herzog. The picture garnered overwhelmingly good reviews, and Cage was praised for his performance as the main.
In 2012, he made $585 million at the box office with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Joe, his second picture, was a box office disappointment. In 2018, he featured in Mandy, an action thriller produced by Elijah Wood that gained critical acclaim. Wood planned wanted the picture to garner Oscar support for Cage, but it was eventually disqualified for a late-year release. Cage agreed to star in Richard Stanley’s 2018 film Color Out of Space. It was Stanley’s first major motion picture since 1996.
Financial Difficulties and Recovery
Nick made more than $150 million in acting wages between 1996 and 2011. He was paid $16 million for Snake Eyes, $20 million for Gone in Sixty Seconds, $20 million for Windtalkers, and $20 million for National Treasure, just to name a few. Unsurprisingly, when his money rose, so did his spending preferences.
To be honest, as Nick’s income increased, so did his expenditures. Between 2000 and 2007, Nick went on a buying spree that would make the Sultan of Brunei blush. He bought 15 personal dwellings (including TWO castles), a $7 million private island in the Bahamas, four luxury boats, a fleet of exotic automobiles, a $30 million private plane, hundreds of pieces of art and diamonds, and a 67 million-year-old dinosaur skull.
The IRS filed a federal tax lien on a property Cage owned in New Orleans in 2009. Cage was accused of failing to pay more than $6.2 million in federal income taxes. Cage then sued his business manager for $20 million, accusing him of incompetence and fraud. He was still apparently paying off his debts as of May 2017.
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Other Businesses
Sonny was Cage’s directing debut (2002). He is the creator of Shadow of the Vampire and The Dresden Files.
Cage has voiced characters in Teen Titans Go! To The Movies and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Universe. He narrated the 2019 documentary Love, Antosha, filmed by Viktor and Irina Yelchin about their late son Anton Yelchin.
Cage, an ardent comic book collector, auctioned off a collection of 400 antique comics for more than $1.6 million in 2002. In 2007, he co-created the comic book Voodoo Child with his son Weston. Cage is a fan of underground comic artist Robert Williams’ work.
Accolades
Nicolas Cage received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his main performance in the film “Leaving Las Vegas” in 1996. He received a Golden Globe for the part the same year. He was nominated for his performance in 2002’s Adaptation as screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. He has also been nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards, BAFTAs, and other honors.
Cage has also received praise for his performance in “Adaptation” by winning the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor. At the Toronto International Film Festival, Cage’s performance in Color Out of Space earned him the Creative Coalition Spotlight Initiative Award (2018). Cage received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998 as a mark of respect. He received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from California State University in 2001, and he delivered a commencement address.
Philanthropy
Cage is a highly charitable Hollywood celebrity. He gave $2 million to Amnesty International for rehabilitation centers, and physical and psychiatric treatment for youngsters forced to fight in conflicts throughout the world. He gave Hurricane Katrina victims a million dollars. He backs ArtWorks, an organization that champions fundamental labor rights. For his humanitarian work, Cage was given the United Nations Humanitarian Award.
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Private Life
For several years, Cage dated actress Christina Fulton, with whom he had a son, Weston (b. 1990.) He was married four times, the first time to actress Patricia Arquette from 1995 until 2001. Cage married Lisa Marie Presley on August 10, 2002, and divorced 107 days later. In July 2004, Cage married Alice Kim in California. Kal-El, their son, was born in 2005. They separated in late 2016. Cage married Erika Koike for the second time in March 2019, however, the marriage was annulled four days later. Their divorce was completed in June 2019.
