Shia Saide LaBeouf[According to the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com] (
"SHY-uh luh-BUFF"; born June 11, 1986) is an
American actor and
comedian.
After growing up in
California, LaBeouf became known with a starring role in the
Disney Channel series
Even Stevens. He made the transition to film roles with
Holes, a box office success, and supporting roles in
Constantine and
I, Robot.
Following LaBeouf's lead role in
The Greatest Game Ever Played, film producer and director
Steven Spielberg cast him in starring roles in the 2007 films
Disturbia and
Transformers. LaBeouf also worked with Spielberg in 2008's
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and
Eagle Eye. Several media publications have speculated that LaBeouf, whose screen persona was described by
Time magazine as that of the "scrappy kid next door",
would become a major film star throughout 2008.
Early life
Family
LaBeouf was born in
Los Angeles, California, the only child of Shayna (
née Saide), a dancer and
ballerina turned visual artist and clothing/jewelry designer, and Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf, a
Vietnam War veteran who "drifted" from job to job, working as a
mime at a circus and as a
rodeo clown.
Shia LaBeouf's
New York-born mother is
Jewish and his father is a
Cajun (once described by LaBeouf as a "Ragin' Cajun"). LaBeouf was raised in the
Jewish religion and had a
Bar Mitzvah.
The name Shia is
Hebrew for "gift from God",
and the surname LaBeouf is a variation of "le boeuf", the French term for "the ox" or "the beef".
LaBeouf has said that he comes from "five generations of performers" and was "acting when
[1] came out of the womb."
LaBeouf's maternal grandfather, who shared his first name, was a
comedian who worked in the
Borscht Belt of the
Catskill Mountains, and his paternal grandmother was a
Beatnik poet and
lesbian who associated with
Allen Ginsberg.
LaBeouf has described his parents as "
hippies", his father as "tough as nails and a different breed of man", and his upbringing as similar to a "hippy lifestyle", stating that his parents were "pretty weird people, but they loved me and I loved them."
LaBeouf's father used to grow
cannabis, and the two smoked
marijuana together when LaBeouf was ten.
LaBeouf has also said that his father was "on drugs" during his childhood, being addicted to
heroin and placed in
drug rehabilitation for
heroin addiction, while LaBeouf's mother was "trying to hold down the fort."
His parents eventually divorced, and he had what he has described as a "good childhood", growing up poor with his mother (who worked selling fabrics and brooches) in
Echo Park, Los Angeles, California.
Education
LaBeouf attended a predominantly
Latino and
African-American school.
Theatrically, LaBeouf attended 32nd Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet school in Los Angeles (LAUSD)
and
Alexander Hamilton High School, although he received most of his education from tutors.
Following high-school, LaBeouf was accepted to
Yale University but declined, later remarking that he is "getting the kind of education you don't get at school,"
although he would like to attend college.
Career
Comedian
LaBeouf would "create things, story lines and fictitious tales" during his childhood, and practiced
stand-up comedy around his neighborhood as an "escape" from a hostile environment.
He began performing stand-up and "talking dirty" at
comedy clubs (including the
The Ice House in Pasadena) at the age of ten (describing his appeal as having "disgustingly dirty" material and a "50-year-old mouth on the 10-year-old kid").
LaBeouf subsequently found an agent through the
Yellow Pages, being taken on after doing his stand-up act for her and pretending to be his own manager, promoting himself in the third person.
Actor
[
] on the set of
Transformers.]]
LaBeouf has said that he initially became an actor because his family was broke, not because he wanted to pursue an acting career.
He became well known among young audiences after playing Louis Stevens in the
Disney Channel weekly program
Even Stevens, a role for which he was cast three months after being signed by his agent. LaBeouf also appeared in the Disney Channel hit
Tru Confessions, where he played a mentally challenged kid with a sister who made a documentary about his disability.
His father, at the time just released from rehab, served as his on-set parent and the two bonded.
LaBeouf was awarded a
Daytime Emmy Award for the role of Louis
and has said that he "grew up on that show" and that his childhood was "kind of lost," although his being cast in the show was the "best thing" that has happened to him.
During this time period, LaBeouf also appeared in sketch shows on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
In 2003, he appeared in another
Disney production,
Holes, as Stanley "Caveman" Yelnats IV, opposite
Sigourney Weaver,
Jon Voight and
Tim Blake Nelson. While filming
Holes, Voight gave LaBeouf a book on acting, and this made LaBeouf realize acting could be more than a job.
The film was a moderate box office success.
Steven Spielberg was also a fan of LaBeouf in
Holes, saying he reminded him of a young
Tom Hanks.
That same year, he was heavily featured in the
HBO documentary show
Project Greenlight, which chronicled the making of the independent film
The Battle of Shaker Heights. He also appeared in
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle as Max Petroni, an orphan whom the Angels end up protecting. Off-screen, LaBeouf co-wrote and directed Let's Love Hate, a short drama and winner of the
Children's Jury Award in 2004 and the
Children's Audience Award in 2005.
[IMDb.com Shia LaBeouf on the Internet Movie Database Retrieved October 14 2007] He had a small role in
I, Robot (2004) and appeared in the action-
horror film Constantine (2005), opposite
Keanu Reeves and
Rachel Weisz, and in the Disney film
The Greatest Game Ever Played, playing
Francis Ouimet, a real-life golf player from a poor family who won the 1913 U.S. Open Championship.
In 2006, LaBeouf co-starred in the ensemble film drama
Bobby, which called for him to do his first
nude scene when he strips naked while on an
LSD trip. He also played a young
Dito Montiel in
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, in the younger version of the same role as
Robert Downey, Jr. in a semi-autobiographical account of Montiel's upbringing in 1980s
Astoria, Queens. LaBeouf has said that he is not the "All-American Disney role model"
and chose to appear in some of his film roles in order to "curse as much as possible"
and "age
[2] publicly" after his Disney roles, specifying that Disney is "great and all" and a "nurturing place"
but "dehabilitating for an actor", being "one constant string of same".
He has also said that he enjoyed being a
child actor and hated school.
[
051844 040807 shia.jpg|thumb|left|200px|LaBeouf in [[Disturbia (film)|Disturbia], 2007]]
In 2007, LaBeouf starred in
Disturbia, a thriller released on April 13. He played a teenager under
house arrest who suspects that his neighbor, played by
David Morse, is a
serial killer. The film was a hit and LaBeouf received positive reviews for the role, with
the Buffalo News stating that LaBeouf "has grown into an appealing, bright young actor who is able to simultaneously pull off
character's anger, remorse and intelligence",
of
MTV writing that LaBeouf "gets his star ticket decisively punched",
and the
San Francisco Chronicle noting that LaBeouf is "fast becoming the best young actor in Hollywood".
In comparing the film with
Rear Window, The
New York Daily News described LaBeouf's appeal as "more
John Cusack than
Jimmy Stewart".
Also in 2007, LaBeouf provided a voice role as
Cody Maverick in the animated film
Surf's Up and played teenager Sam Witwicky, who becomes involved in the
Autobot-
Decepticon war on
Earth, in
Michael Bay's
Transformers, released on July 3. LaBeouf has said that he is a fan of
The Transformers television series and the 1986
The Transformers: The Movie,
and
executive producer Steven Spielberg cast him in the role having been impressed by his performance in
Holes.
was the most important film to LaBeouf of his three 2007 films, because it was a "character-driven" role.
LaBeouf hosted
Saturday Night Live on April 14, 2007 and May 10, 2008.
[SNL Archives | Episode. Retrieved August 31, 2007.] He was named 2007's "star of tomorrow" by the ShoWest convention of the National Association of Theater Owners,
and in February 2008 he was awarded the
BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award, which was voted for by the British general public.
Impressed by his performance in
Transformers,
in April 2007 Spielberg cast LaBeouf in
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which began filming that June for a May 22, 2008 release date.
LaBeouf has stated that he would subsequently like to appear in a smaller-scale role.
His next film was
Eagle Eye, a thriller directed by
D. J. Caruso and released in September 2008.
He has also signed on for two
Transformers sequels.
Personal life
LaBeouf bought his own two-bedroom house at the age of 18,
lives in
Burbank, California, and remains close to both his parents;
his mother now lives nearby in
Tujunga, Los Angeles, California and his father in
Montana.
LaBeouf is a
smoker,
drives a
Nissan Maxima,
and has two
bulldogs named Brando and Rex.
He has said that "sports are so big in my life"
and that he is a "film junkie".
He enjoys the music of
The Shins,
CKY, and the
hip-hop label
Definitive Jux.
LaBeouf has cited actors
Dustin Hoffman,
,
Jon Voight, and
John Turturro as inspirations,
and has said that he is "very serious" about his career and has made "a calculated effort to stay away from the party scene," believing that "if the industry takes you lightly because you're always partying, then they will take your work lightly as well."
Interviewer Jamie Portman of
The Vancouver Sun described LaBeouf as seeming to have a "love-hate relationship with the teenage culture that has spawned him."
LaBeouf has said that although he does not devoutly practice
Judaism, he has a "personal relationship with God that happens to work within the confines of Judaism".
Arrests
On November 4, 2007, LaBeouf was arrested early in the morning for misdemeanor criminal trespassing in a
Chicago Walgreens after refusing to leave when asked by a security guard. LaBeouf was due in court on November 28, 2007.
The criminal charges were dropped on December 12.
In March 2008, an arrest warrant was issued for LaBeouf after he failed to turn up to a court appearance. The hearing was in relation to a ticket he received for unlawful smoking in Burbank, California in February 2008. When neither LaBeouf nor a lawyer turned up at the court at 8:30 a.m., a $1000 bench warrant was issued for his arrest,
however the court commissioner in California recalled this warrant on March 19, 2008 after the actor’s attorney arrived a day late to plead not guilty on LaBeouf's behalf, and a pre-trial hearing was set for April 24, 2008.
The charge was dismissed after the actor paid a $500 fine.
In the early morning hours of July 27, 2008, authorities arrested LaBeouf on misdemeanor drunk driving charges in
Los Angeles, after the actor was involved in a car collision in which he injured his hand. His passenger (
Isabel Lucas) and another driver also suffered minor injuries.
Two days later, a
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman announced that La Beouf was not at fault in the accident, saying that the other driver had run a red light.
revealed that LaBeouf's injury had been written into the plot of
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which he was filming at the time, and that they wanted to ensure that his hand was protected for the remainder of the shoot.Filmography
