Half German,
half Italian.
Withdrew
his divorce papers that were filed in February. [April 2000]
Ranked
#40 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Was engaged to
Kristen Zang.
Nephew of Francis Ford Coppola.
Nephew of Talia Shire.
Got Johnny Depp his first acting job.
Close friends
with Tom Waits.
Stage name
taken from comic book character Luke Cage.
Owns a
Lamborghini that used to belong to the Shah of Iran.
Brother of Marc Coppola and Christopher Coppola.
Grandson of Carmine Coppola.
Proposed to Patricia Arquette on the day he met her in the early 1980s. Arquette thought he was a bit strange
but played along with his antics by creating a list of things Cage would have to fulfill to win her. When he started to work
his way through the list, Arquette got scared and avoided him. They met again many years later and later went on to marry.
He lives
in a fake castle on the outskirts LA. He wants to import an authentic one from overseas. [1997]
Loves to
improvise, ocassionally to the annoyance of other cast members.
Collects
comic books and sees them as being today's equivalent of mythology.
The Wild at Heart (1990) movie poster lists his name as both "Nicolas Cage" and "Nicholas Cage".
Ranked
#37 in Premiere's 100 most powerful people in Hollywood in 1998.
Listed
as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1984" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 36. [1984]
Cousin of Jason Schwartzman.
Suffers
from vertigo.
Tim Burton cast Cage in his doomed Superman project. Cage even did fittings of the costume.
Ate a live roach
in Vampire's Kiss (1989).
On his
upper back he has a tattoo of monitor lizard with a top hat.
Announced that
he is dating Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the late Elvis Presley. [Summer 2001]
Cousin of Robert Schwartzman, who changed his name to Robert Schwartzman-Cage inspired by Nicolas.
Given an
Honory Doctorate in Fine Arts by California State
University, Fullerton
in May, 2001. Cage spoke at the commencement.
Father
August Coppola, formerly a professor at Cal State Long Beach and Dean of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University
During an A&E
Biography on him, the host explained that Nicolas was Director Sam Raimi's first choice to play Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in the movie Spider-Man (2002). Apparently this was before he met Willem Dafoe.
Graduated
UCLA School
of Theater, Film, and Television.
Cousin of Sofia Coppola and Roman Coppola.
On "The Tonight Show
with Jay Leno" (1992), he told Jay that he took the name "Cage" from a comic book character named
Luke Cage, the "first black superhero." (The REAL first black superhero is a character named "Lobo" of Dell Comics, 1965.
Luke Cage appeared in Marvel, 1972.) When asked which of the powers he would prefer to have, he said flight was his desire.
Has a son, Weston
Coppola-Cage (with actress Christina Fulton), born 26 December, 1990.
Together with
actors Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou (1965)) and Peter Sellers (_Dr. Stranglove (1964)_ ) , he is the only actor with an Oscar nomination for playing
multiple characters in a film (in Adaptation. (2002), he plays two characters, Donald and Charlie). Marvin is the only one who
actually won one for a double role.
Former cousin,
by marriage, of director Spike Jonze.
Met wife Alice Kim at a sushi bar where she was a waitress. She was only 20-years-old at the time
they married.
Went to the same
High School as Angelina Jolie, Michael Klesic, Lenny Kravitz, David Schwimmer, Jonathan Silverman, Gina Gershon, Rhonda Fleming, Jackie Cooper, Rob Reiner, Antonio Sabato
Jr., Pauly Shore, Michael Tolkin, Betty White, Corbin Bernsen, Elizabeth Daily, Albert Brooks and Crispin Glover.
Close friends
with Crispin Glover.
Ate a real cockroach
in the film Vampire's Kiss (1989), it reportedly took three takes. He once said about the experience, "Every
muscle in my body didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway."
Attended
Justin-Siena High School in Napa, California. During the early 80s.
His is (along
with his cousin Sofia Coppola) the third generation of Oscar winners in the Coppola family. His uncle, Francis Ford Coppola and his grandfather, Carmine Coppola, are the other two generations. They are the second family to do so, the first family
is the Hustons - Anjelica Huston, John Huston and Walter Huston.
Nick and
his wife, Alice, had a son, Kal-el Coppola Cage, on October 3, 2005 in New York City.
Just as Nick was named after a comic book character, Luke Cage, so has he named his son after the comic book character Kal-el
(aka Superman).
Trains in Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu under Royce Gracie
Referred to as
the "Jazz musician of acting" by David Lynch.
Former stepfather
of Patricia Arquette's son Enzo
Former stepfather
of Danielle Riley
Keough.
Bought
Schloss Neidstein, a mini castle in the Bavarian village of
Etzelwang (July 2006).
After his first
film role (in Fast Times at Ridgemont
High (1982)), he adopted the stage name of Cage, because he wanted to assure himself that
any success he had was based on his own merits, not the fame of his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola.
Was a very close
friend of late Johnny Ramone.
Close friends
with Rush drummer Neil Peart.
Big fan of Elvis Presley.
Considered
"Blue" before settling on "Cage" as his surname.
2006 he
bought Castle Neidstein near Etzelwang, Germany.
His grandmother
originates from Cochem/Mosel, Germany.
In 2006, purchased
a record setting 24 million dollar home on John Wayne's former property in Newport Beach,
California.
Said in
a Reader's Digest interview that his wife, Alice, is into designing jewelry and has no interest whatsoever in being an actress.
Offered the role
of Green Goblin/Norman Osborn in Spider-Man (2002).
Was originally
considered for the role of Brad Hamilton in Fast Times at Ridgemont
High (1982), but after his audition the studio thought his performance was too dark and the
role went, instead, to Judge Reinhold. Additionally, Cage was 17 at the time and could not work as many hours as actors
over 18. In this film, he is credited under the name Nicolas Coppola for the first and only time.