Jeff Goldblum, 25, has forgotten his mantra. At least, his nameless party guest character – dubbed “Man on the Phone” in the screenplay – has. And it’s the way he delivered that line in 1977’s Annie Hall that made him stand out despite only having a few seconds of screen time. Somehow – just by being himself – Jeff Goldblum turned a throwaway bit into one of the funniest lines in one of the funniest films.
As for Jeff Goldblum himself, he says his mantras are “I am grateful” and “Accept, enjoy, enthuse.” And that, across 50 years on the big screen, is as truthful as it gets when it comes to Jeff Goldblum.
Jeff Goldblum was born on October 22nd, 1952 just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of a doctor and a radio broadcaster, the sort of brains and art pairing that perfectly describes the actor (his father even once considered the arts).
Goldblum developed a love of acting early on, even writing, “Please, God, let me be an actor” on steamed bathroom mirrors. And so it was, doing a few summer acting sessions at Carnegie Mellon before going to New York to study at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse under legendary coach Sandy Meisner.
Two years later, he made his Broadway debut in Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971). A natural performer, Goldblum would continue to take the stage even as he made it on TV and in movies, returning many times over the years…In 2006, he launched his own theater troupe called The Fire Dept, which isn’t surprising considering he started an acting school in the early ‘80s.
The stage actually helped him get his start. No, not as Freak #1 in Death Wish (1974; he’d play something similar in ‘76’s St. Ives, also starring Bronson) but rather California Split, as director Robert Altman saw him perform. Altman would next cast him in 1975’s Nashville as a tricycling mute, clearly recognizing the quirk Goldblum had embedded in him. Although he was still a few years off from fame, he had at least the confidence to quit his job peddling office supplies to prisons…As such, he continued with small bits on shows like Columbo and Starsky & Hutch, as well as supporting roles in Next Stop, Greenwich Village and Special Delivery (both 1976).
1977 would mark his first genuine breakthrough. Following The Sentinel, Woody Allen (who Goldblum later named his dog after) cast him in Annie Hall as a man calling his manager to tell him he forgot his mantra. It’s just one line and Goldblum is barely on the screen, but somehow it is one of the most quoted in his career and the iconic comedy. That same year, he stood out as a music critic at a low-level newspaper in Between the Lines, truly introducing us to his trademark humor and mannerisms in every scene he stole. It was like the title for his next picture was intentional…
Following the thriller Remember My Name (1978) and playing a disco owner in Thank God It’s Friday (1978), Goldblum appeared in his first mainstream supporting role, falling victim to the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). Almost a fact, this is where he defined his easily identifiable patterns, especially in speech, blowing away director Philip Kaufman – and audiences – with the delivery of the line: “I – I – I – I never thought that they would come in – in metal ships.” It was never intentional, Goldblum said, but “it became useful.”
It’s this unusual nature, this singular voice that ensured he would get a lot of voice work on shows like King of the Hill, Crank Yankers, Big Mouth, and actual play podcast Dark Dice; heck, he even voiced God on an oddball series call Happy! (2019). And certainly, we can’t forget Verminous Skumm on Captain Planet and the Planeteers, a brilliant one-off on The Simpsons “A Fish Called Selma” and The Prince of Egypt (1998). It’s no wonder he has been cast as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – a character known, at least at first, by his voice and commanding presence – in Wicked.
In 1980, he played a pitch-perfect Ichabod Crane on TV’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the same year his one-season comedy Tenspeed and Brown Shoe aired. The early ‘80s kept him busy: re-teaming with Donald Sutherland for another sci-fi, Threshold, to a Genie Award nod; playing a comic accused of murder in TV movie Rehearsal for Murder (1982); again playing a reporter in ensemble record-seller The Big Chill (1983), turning up for the faithful Philip Kaufman in an unnamed role in The Right Stuff (1983), a cowboy-topped fella named New Jersey in Buckaroo Banzai (1984); and a diverse 1985 triple feature, showing great chemistry with Michelle Pfeiffer in Into the Night, playing a heel who meets a proper fate in Silverado and leading a lousy but near-cult horror-comedy Transylvania 6-500. All the while, he kept doing TV one-offs on fare like American Playhouse, Faerie Tale Theatre and The Ray Bradbury Theatre.
But it was time to be afraid, be very afraid. In 1986, Jeff Goldblum starred in David Cronenberg’s The Fly remake. It was the most praise he had ever earned, giving the genre performance of a lifetime that should have been nominated for Best Actor. While always a scene-stealer, too rarely does Goldblum get credit for just how good of an actor he can be. Consider also 2008’s Adam Resurrected, earning some of the highest praise of his career and putting him in the middle of failed Oscar chatter, playing a Holocaust survivor committed to an institution. Another good one is 1992’s Deep Cover, showing he wasn’t afraid to steal scenes from Laurence Fishburne; and for it he earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Perhaps for too long, he spent too much time doing whatever he wanted, however good or bad, concluding his post-Fly output with virtually nothing memorable: lifetime rom-com Beyond Therapy (1987), TV drama Life Story (playing DNA structure discoverer Watson; he would only play one other real-life figure, in Spinning Boris), Cyndi Lauper-starrer Vibes (1988), former Comedy Central staple – and genuinely fun time – Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), an enjoyable enough starring role in The Tall Guy, and again playing a writer in Spanish-French production El Sueño del Mono Loco.
The ‘90s had a forgettable start, too: demented, chewy roles in Mister Frost and HBO movie Framed (1990); 1991’s The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish, which was far less entertaining than the title. 1992 brought Fathers & Sons – giving Goldblum much physical and emotional to handle – and Shooting Elizabeth.
Another resurrection waited behind the gates of Jurassic Park (1993), playing what would be his trademark role: Dr. Ian Malcolm, later reprising him for 1997’s The Lost World and 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion. Somehow – or maybe inevitably – Jeff Goldblum also became a sex symbol. This character is now so regarded that a 25-foot statue was erected in London – and even that was sexy! Jeff Goldblum was now officially in the pop culture hierarchy, a wholly unique figure in a field where it’s near-impossible to stand out. And yet there he is, becoming a guy we knew could bring something interesting to anything. Here was a guy trusted to sell everything from apartments and Apple products (even though he can barely use an iPhone) to Toyotas and German beer (even though he rarely drinks).
As he did for a lot of his post-The Fly work, very little was truly memorable, but he enhanced every project: hosting PBS series Future Quest (1994); 1995’s Hideaway, Nine Months and Powder; 1996’s The Great White Hype and Mad Dog Time. All this unmemorable fare was balanced by another defining role in Independence Day (and its 2016 sequel), as well as – fun fact here – earning an Oscar nod for Best Live-Action Short for Little Surprises. The ‘90s ended with Holy Man (1998) before the next century brought Beyond Suspicion, Chain of Fools, One of the Hollywood Ten (all 2000), Perfume (2001), the paycheck movie Cats & Dogs (2001), Igby Goes Down (2002), Dallas 362 (2003), Mini’s First Time, Fay Grim, Man of the Year (2006), The Switch, Morning Glory (both 2010), Le Week-End (2013), Mortdecai (2015), Hotel Artemis, The Mountain (both 2018)… And what of his various spots on Friends, Will & Grace (earning an Emmy nod), The Larry Sanders Show, Glee, The League, Portlandia, and Kimmy Schmidt? From 2009-2010, Goldblum replaced Chris Noth’s detective on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a show lucky to have him. But he would leave after 24 episodes, uncertain as to the show’s future. Here’s an even more uncertain future: he was the subject of a death hoax that had him falling off of a cliff. That’s so Goldblum!
In 2004, Jeff Goldblum first teamed with Wes Anderson, playing an oceanographer in The Life Aquatic, returning as a deputy in The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), a pooch in Isle of Dogs (2018), and, most recently, the alien – how fitting! – in Asteroid City (2023). He, too, has made that MCU rite of passage, having proven himself as a key supporter of blockbuster entertainment, here playing Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) after a credits cameo in Guardians 2 but before in voice form on What If…? Next, he will play Zeus in Netflix’s mythology-based Kaos.
In 2019, Goldblum said, “I still have creative choices more varied than ever. I still feel like I’m on the threshold of my best work, not only understanding it but being able to practice it.” OK, so his next movie was Boss Baby (2021), but you know what he means! That year, he hosted The World According to Jeff Goldblum, in which he somehow made denim, puzzles, and random small stuff interesting!
It’s that endless curiosity and fascination with all of it that continues to keep Jeff Goldblum in the collective consciousness of oddballs everywhere. As he once said, “There’s so much that’s delicious, precious, magnificent, mysterious and infinitely enjoyable that it would be foolish not to make every day an adventure.” And he does because, as we know, Jeff Goldblum, uh, finds a way.