Jamie foxx family

1967–present

Jamie Foxx News: Actor Addresses Medical Emergency in Netflix Special

Jamie Foxx is finally opening up about his health scare. In his recent Netflix comedy special, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was..., the Oscar and Grammy winner discussed his previously undisclosed medical emergency and April 2023 hospitalization at length, revealing he suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke. He was filming his spy comedy Back in Action with co-star Cameron Diaz when he suddenly fell ill.

During the hour-long special, Foxx joked that “the internet tried to kill” him, referencing the various headlines speculating about his condition, and tearfully recounted his “near-death experience” and harrowing journey to recovery. “Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying,” he said.

The 56-year-old credits his sister, Deidra, for saving his life and rushing him to the hospital after experiencing what he thought was a bad headache. While his symptoms were initially dismissed by doctors, Deidra drove him to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, where he learned he needed emergency surgery. “My sister took me to the hospital when no one else would listen,” Foxx recalled. “That was the moment that made the difference.”

After surgery, he was in a weeks-long coma. When he woke up 20 days later, he was in a wheelchair and had limited mobility. He admitted that while it was difficult to accept his condition at first, calling it “old man stuff,” he eventually decided to stop letting his ego disrupt his recovery.

What Had Happened Was... premiered on Netflix December 10 and earned Foxx a 2025 Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television. His upcoming movie, Back in Action, arrives on Netflix January 17 after production delays due to his stroke.

Who Is Jamie Foxx?

Jamie Foxx is an award-winning singer, actor, and comedian best known for his roles in movies including Ray and Ali. Foxx started his acting career in the 1990s as a cast member of In Living Color before landing his own sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show. He then proved himself as a dramatic actor in 2004 with performances in the thriller Collateral and the biopic Ray. The latter earned Foxx an Academy Award for his portrayal of Ray Charles. His other acclaimed roles include Dreamgirls, Django Unchained, and Just Mercy. As a singer, Foxx has released five studio albums and won a Grammy Award for “Blame It.” Perhaps his most well-known musical success is his 2005 hit collaboration with Kanye West on the song “Gold Digger.” After recovering from a nearly fatal stroke in 2023, Foxx has returned to acting through Strays and Back in Action, releasing in January 2025.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Eric Marlon Bishop
BORN: December 13, 1967
BIRTHPLACE: Terrell, Texas
CHILDREN: Corrine Foxx and Anelise
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius

Early Life

Eric Marlon Bishop, better known as Jamie Foxx, was born on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, Texas, to Darrell Bishop and Louise Annette Talley Dixon. Darrell converted to Islam and renamed himself Shahid Abdula around the time of Foxx’s birth. His biological parents abandoned Foxx in his infancy, so his maternal aunt and uncle, Estelle and Mark, who he calls his grandparents, adopted Foxx when he was less than a year old.

He later told Oprah Winfrey that part of his dad’s decision to leave was due to religious beliefs. “He drew a line in the sand: ‘I’m a Muslim, and since you’re not, I can’t be your father,’” Foxx said in 2005. “During our last conversation, which was after my grandmother passed, I said, ‘Listen, I understand observing your religion, but is that worth missing out on your son’s life?’”

Even though his mother didn’t raise him, Louise remained in his life growing up, visiting him every so often. It was through these visits that he grew close to his stepfather, George Dixon, and his sisters, Deidra and DeOndra. Today, Foxx considers George his father, and though they have since divorced, both he and Louise have lived with the actor for years.

As a child, Foxx enjoyed sports and music. At Terrell High School, he played basketball and football, becoming the school’s first quarterback to pass for more than 1,000 yards. After graduation, Foxx won a classical piano scholarship to the U.S. International University in San Diego where he majored in music. “Going to that school was great for me,” Foxx told Oprah. “Especially since I’d come from a world where Blacks and whites were separated by the town’s railroad tracks... But at the university, there were people from 81 different countries.”

During college, he was encouraged by friends to perform at a comedy club’s open mic night, and his career in entertainment began. At this time, he chose the stage name Jamie Foxx. The last name is a tribute to the comedian Redd Foxx, and he chose the first name because he noticed female stand-up comedians were given top preference in lineups. He hoped the gender-neutral name would give him a leg up.

Movies and TV Shows

After college, Foxx moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy. In 1991, he was hired as a regular cast member on the TV variety show In Living Color. Foxx auditioned for the show at the famous Laugh Factory comedy club in West Hollywood, where cast members Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez, Keenan Ivory Wayans, and David Alan Grier were in the audience. The following year, he made his film debut in Toys alongside Robin Williams and Joan Cusack.

Foxx left In Living Color in 1994 and returned to television two years later with The Jamie Foxx Show, where he played a struggling Los Angeles actor living in a hotel owned by his aunt and uncle. Foxx co-created and produced the series through his company Foxxhole, and although it didn’t perform spectacularly in the ratings, it ran for five seasons and helped elevate his career.

Any Given Sunday, Ali, and Collateral

Despite earlier comedic roles in movies like The Truth About Cats & Dogs and The Players Club, Foxx gained more attention for his first dramatic performance in Any Given Sunday in 1998. The Oliver Stone–directed movie about a professional football team also starred Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, and Dennis Quaid. Foxx said he drew on his high school football experience and gave Pacino advice on how to perform during the famous monologue Pacino delivered to the team in a locker room.

His next notable film role was in Michael Mann’s Ali (2001). He played Drew Bundini Brown, the assistant trainer of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, played by Will Smith. Foxx later earned particular praise for his supporting performance opposite Tom Cruise in the 2004 Michael Mann thriller Collateral, in which he played a taxi driver kidnapped by a hitman (Cruise) and forced to transport him to his hits over the course of one night. Roger Ebertwrote of the performance: “Jamie Foxx’s work is a revelation. I’ve thought of him in terms of comedy, but here he steps into a dramatic lead and is always convincing and involving.” For the role, Foxx was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Academy Award for Ray

The actor was launched to a new level of stardom after playing soul music pioneer Ray Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray. Foxx had to earn the approval of Charles himself before winning the role: The two played blues music for each other on two different pianos, after which Charles declared, “The kid’s got it.” Foxx lost 30 pounds for the role and even allowed his eyelids to be glued shut to simulate Charles’ blindness, a procedure that caused him to hyperventilate on set.

Foxx earned Best Actor wins at both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, cementing his place on the Hollywood A-list. He thanked his late maternal grandmother during his memorable and emotional 2005 Oscars acceptance speech: “She still talks to me now, only now she talks to me in my dreams. And I can’t wait to go to sleep tonight because we got a lot to talk about. I love you.”

Jarhead and Dreamgirls

Following Ray, Foxx took an interesting array of roles with mixed results. The military action film Stealth in 2005, with Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel, was a critical and financial dud. That same year, he garnered some critical praise for his role as a marine serving in the Middle East in Jarhead with Jake Gyllenhaal, but the movie failed to attract much of an audience.

Foxx teamed up with Colin Farrell for Michael Mann’s movie adaptation of the popular 1980s cop show Miami Vice in 2006. The same year, Foxx co-starred in Dreamgirls with Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé, as a scheming car salesman who becomes a manager for R&B star James Thunder Early, played by Eddie Murphy. His character then transforms Early’s backup singers—the Dreamettes—into an all-female supergroup. The film is loosely based on the ’60s pop group The Supremes. Foxx was among the recipients of Outstanding Performance by a Cast at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Over the next several years, he maintained an onscreen presence in several films, including the 2007 thriller The Kingdom; the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine’s Day with Jessica Biel and Jennifer Garner; the 2011 workplace comedy Horrible Bosses, starring Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, and Kevin Spacey; and the animated children’s film Rio in 2012. He also portrayed Nathaniel Ayers in the 2009 drama The Soloist with Robert Downey Jr.

Django Unchained and White House Down

In late 2012, Foxx burst back into the Hollywood spotlight with a leading role in Quentin Tarantino’s action western Django Unchained. He starred as Django, a formerly enslaved man who teams up with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to find his wife (Kerry Washington) and face off against the plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio) who has held her captive. The cast also included Samuel L. Jackson and Jonah Hill.

Foxx said it was a difficult and emotional shoot at times due to the film’s depiction of slavery, telling Entertainment Weekly, “It’s tough shooting when you’re in plantation row and that’s where your ancestors were persecuted and killed, and we were respectful of that.”

He then co-starred opposite Channing Tatum in the 2013 action film White House Down as President Sawyer. In 2014, he reprised earlier roles in Rio 2 and Horrible Bosses 2, played the villain Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and took on the role of a Daddy Warbucks–like William Stacks in a remake of Annie.

Baby Driver and Just Mercy

After taking a break from the screen, Foxx resurfaced in 2017 with the crime flicks Sleepless and Baby Driver. He played villain Leon “Bats” Jefferson in the latter film, which was directed by Edgar Wright, and co-starred Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, and Jon Hamm. Foxx based the Baby Driver character on a friend from his Los Angeles comedy club days. That same year, he started hosting the music game show Beat Shazam with his daughter, Corinne. Foxx next appeared in a 2018 remake of Robin Hood as the title character’s trusted friend Little John.

The following year, he delivered a strong performance in Just Mercy, based on the story of a Black pulpwood worker who was wrongfully convicted of the 1986 murder of a young white woman. Foxx said the starring role, opposite Michael B. Jordan, was especially meaningful to him given his stepfather’s seven-year incarceration for $25 worth of illegal substances. The performance earned him a Screen Actors Guild award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

Soul, Day Shift, andStrays

In 2020, Foxx portrayed the leading voice role in the Pixar animated film Soul, portraying a disillusioned jazz musician who finds himself in a world of disembodied souls after falling into a coma. Foxx felt a personal connection with the project because his sister, DeOndra, who had Down syndrome, died the year of the film’s release at age 36. “When you look at this film, it is exactly what I am now going through—the bittersweet [feeling] of losing someone but gaining a vision of joy,” Foxx said.

Next, the actor reprised his role as Electro in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), a movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that saw the return of multiple actors returning their roles as Spider-Man, including Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland.

The following year, he starred in the Netflix action comedy Day Shift with Snoop Dogg. Foxx played a vampire hunter with only one week to come up with enough money to pay for his young daughter’s braces and school tuition. While the film received mixed reviews from critics, the actor was praised for his performance.

In August 2023, he appeared in the R-rated comedy film Strays, which features Foxx and Will Ferrell as the voices of two stray dogs who work together to seek revenge against a neglectful dog owner. He recorded the performance before his recent health problems, and it was his first film to be released after his April 2023 hospitalization.

Recent Work: Netflix Special and Back In Action

Foxx returned to stand-up comedy in his Netflix special, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was..., in December 2024. In the hour-long special, he discussed his undisclosed medical emergency and hospitalization at length, revealing that he had suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke. At the time of the stroke, Foxx was filming his spy comedy Back in Action with co-star Cameron Diaz when he suddenly fell ill. Recounting his harrowing journey and recovery, the comedian shares his new mantra: “If I can stay funny, I can stay alive.”

For Back in Action, Foxx and Diaz play a married couple and former CIA spies who are pulled back into the world of espionage after their secret identities are exposed, disrupting their family and life in the suburbs. The Netflix movie is set to premiere on January 17; its original November 2024 release date had to be pushed back after Foxx’s stroke caused production delays.

The actor is also slated to appear in the long-anticipated comic book film KingSpawn, in which he will play the antihero title role. While there is currently no release date, it’s expected to arrive in theaters in 2025.

Music Career

During the 1990s, Foxx began professionally exploring his interest in music, releasing the album Peep This in 1994. With its traditional, smooth R&B sound, the album reached No. 12 on the R&B and hip-hop charts, with the song “Infatuation” attracting attention from listeners and radio stations.

Foxx released his album, Unpredictable, in December 2005. The record reached the top of the pop, R&B, and hip-hop charts, driven by the title track single, “DJ Play a Love Song,” and “Can I Take You Home.” At the 2006 BET Awards, Foxx won Best Duet/Collaboration with Kanye West for his work on the single “Gold Digger.”

Foxx devoted much of his time in the late 2000s to his music career. He released his third album, Intuition, in 2008, which featured Kanye West and Lil Wayne, among others. The album’s second single, “Blame It” featuring T-Pain, hit No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song also won Foxx his first and only Grammy for Best R&B Performance by Duo or Group With Vocals.

Not stopping there, the multitalented entertainer dropped Best Night of My Life in 2010 followed by his fifth studio album, Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses, in 2015. Neither left as much of an impression as his earlier music.

Legal Controversies

Foxx has occasionally found himself in legal trouble. He was arrested in 2003 following an altercation with security guards at a New Orleans casino, ultimately drawing two years’ probation. In June 2018, a woman accused the actor of attacking her after she refused to partake in sexual activity with him in 2002. Foxx called the allegations “absurd” and said he would pursue legal action against his accuser. The case was closed a month later after police determined that the alleged incident fell outside the statute of limitations. In November 2023, another woman accused him of sexually assaulting her at a New York City restaurant in 2015. A spokesperson for Foxx issued a statement denying the allegations, claiming that an identical lawsuit had been filed by the same person in 2020, which had been dismissed.

Health Issues

Foxx made headlines on April 12, 2023, when his daughter Corinne announced the Academy Award winner had been hospitalized due to an undisclosed medical emergency. Word spread through media reports and on social media that Foxx was gravely ill, though Corinne announced the next month that he had been released from the hospital and was recovering.

Foxx publicly spoke about his hospitalization for the first time in July 2023, saying that he had been “to hell and back” and that he was grateful to be alive. Still, details about what he endured were sparse.

In his December 2024 Netflix special, the actor revealed he had suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke. Recounting his harrowing journey to recovery, Foxx credits his sister Deidra for saving his life and rushing him to the hospital after experiencing what he thought was a bad headache. When the first doctor he saw dismissed his symptoms, Deidra drove him to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, where he learned he needed emergency surgery. “My sister took me to the hospital when no one else would listen,” Foxx recalled. “That was the moment that made the difference.”

The “near-death experience” put him in a weeks-long coma, leaving him with 20 days unaccounted for. Upon waking up, Foxx said he found himself in a wheelchair with limited mobility. He admitted that while it was difficult to accept his condition at first, he eventually put his ego aside and focused on his recovery.

Relationships and Children

Foxx has two daughters. His first, actor and singer Corrine Foxx, was born to his then-girlfriend Connie Kline in February 1994. Fourteen years later, he welcomed his second daughter, Anelise, with ex-girlfriend Kristin Grannis in October 2008. In a 2017 interview with People, Foxx said of raising a daughter in Hollywood: “In this business, sometimes it can get crazy, but my daughter, she’s just incredible.”

A longtime bachelor, Foxx has never married; he has said5 children, the wood paneling on the station wagon, and the cottage, I don’t think that was for me.” Still, he hasn’t shied away from romantic relationships. Foxx became involved with actor Katie Holmes sometime after her split from Tom Cruise in 2012, though they remained tight-lipped about their relationship for many years. In August 2019, it was reported that the couple had broken up.

Since August 2023, Foxx has been dating Alyce Huckstepp. The couple has a 26-year age difference.

Net Worth

As of December 2024, Foxx has an estimated net worth of $170 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Quotes

• I try to be as honest and open as I am with everything that I do because it just helps me, you know, like whether it’s stand up or singing or acting. I just try to stay true.
• The most interesting thing about acting is when you go to dark places, that’s a lot of energy. When you go to the happiest places, it’s also a lot of energy.
• If you look at how long the Earth has been here, we’re living in the blink of an eye. So, whatever it is you want to do, you go out and do it.
• I think having that comic gene kind of makes you look at things in a different way. If you take yourself so seriously, eventually you end up one of those people having a “Do Not Disturb” sign on their lives. You see them drawing the curtains and they don’t even realize that they’ve kind of drifted off somewhere.
  

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