Last Updated on February 11, 2022

Jake Gyllenhaal, star of “Donnie Darko”, “Brokeback Mountain”, “Zodiac”, “Prince of Persia”, is a completely unique actor. He is handsome, charismatic and extraordinarily talented. His net worth is estimated at $80 million.

Early Ages

Jake Gyllenhaal was born in December 1980 into a family of film makers. From an early age he was inextricably linked to the movie business. “Ever since I took my first breath in my life, I’ve been part of the movie business,” he says.

His father, Stephen Gyllenhaal, is one of the directors of the iconic “Twin Peaks” series and the creator of several not-infamous multi-part films, including “Psych,” “Billions,” “Mistakes of the Past” and “The Mentalist.”

The name of Jake’s mother, Naomi Foner, is on the list of screenwriters for the feature films “The Isaiah Affair,” “Wordplay,” and “On the Idle.” Moreover, as Jake recalled, his parents had a different approach to creating stories: his mother always painstakingly built a narrative logic, but his father, putting Jake and his sister Maggie, three years older, to bed, made up improvised stories with an incredible plot, because of which the boy was long convinced that the chewing gum grew on trees.

Jake’s own sister Maggie Gyllenhaal is an Oscar-nominated actress for her role in “Crazy Heart.” She could be seen in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the dramas The Noble Woman, Little Sherry, and The Secretary. Jake considers Maggie his best friend, and, though he does not deny that he suffered from the older girl as a child, calls her an inexhaustible source of his inspiration.

Born into such a family, the actor with all the desire just could not stay away from the cinema. Jake played his first role when he was 11 years old, starring in “City Dudes” in one episode with Billy Crystal. At the same time, he played in the school theater club.

Jake himself says that his acting career was inspired by Federico Fellini’s “The Road” (1954), the same that, at one time forced Stephen Gyllenhaal to become a director. After that there was shooting in “Dangerous Woman,” which also starred his sister Maggie, a small role in the comedy “Josh and Sam,” and in his high school graduation year Gyllenhaal played a supporting character in his father’s film about the dangers of the marijuana business, the comedy thriller “Homegrown.”

One should not think that little Jake Gyllenhaal was a spoiled brat. To form in his son a man’s character and the habit of working, Stephen woke him up at 4:30 in the morning and sent him for a jog. The visually impaired boy, who wore glasses with thick lenses, was forced to play soccer, which he hated. There were times when Stephen and Naomi were out of work. They wanted their son to know the value of money, and insisted that he earn his own living. Even before adulthood Gyllenhaal Jr. managed to work as a lifeguard on the beach and a dishwasher in a restaurant.

Parents insisted that Jake and Maggie must have higher education, and not related to acting. After graduating from high school in 1998, Jake went to the prestigious Columbia University, but the study did not keep him, and two years later the young man abandoned the granite of science (in contrast to his sister, who became a bachelor of literature) and seriously engaged in an acting career.

Acting Career

Jake Gyllenhaal got his first major film role from the director of “October Sky” (1999) Joe Johnston, which also starred Laura Dern and Chris Cooper. Based on a true story, the drama tells the story of a kid from a family of miners. After witnessing the launch of the first satellite, he “fell ill” with space and began to build his own rocket in the yard. But his strict father decided by all means to crush his son’s dreams. The film grossed $ 32 million at the worldwide box office, well, Jake proved that got into a great movie not through graft, but through hard work.

This was followed by failure: Jake was one of the applicants for the role of Frodo Baggins from “Lord of the Rings” and not only failed audition, not realizing that the remarks should be read with a British accent, but also became the worst of all the tried colleagues (as he wryly told the casting manager). Jake Gyllenhaal loudly announced himself after the premiere of the mystery thriller “Donnie Darko” (2001). The plot of the tape – a simple high school student Donnie, who becomes a central figure in the chain of strange events, inevitably leading to the apocalypse.

The surrealistic film was a box-office flop in 2001. With a budget of $6 million, it barely broke even at the box office. They simply could not understand the film, calling it “the efforts of a teenager who had taken too much LSD”. The fact that a series of bizarre events in the film began after the plane crash and the world had just been rocked by the tragedy of September 11 also added fuel to the fire.

But three years later, “Donnie Darko” director Richard Kelley re-released the film with an extra 20 minutes of screen time previously cut out during editing. This time the film was greeted much warmer, and it soon achieved cult status. Jake Gyllenhaal also got his share of fame. However, the 2000s, and without the success of “Donnie Darko” became a golden time for the young actor. In 2001, he got the lead role in the comedy “The Bubble Boy,” and in the drama “Highway” released the same year, he worked with Jared Leto.

“Moonlight Mile,” “Proof,” the cult disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow”-interesting projects came one after another.
2005 for Jake turned out the role in the melodrama “Brokeback Mountain”, which tells about the relationship between two homosexuals, masterfully played by Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. After the premiere of the army of girls, unevenly breathing to the actor, and added some men. For the role of “blue cowboy” actor was first nominated for an Oscar, but lost the statuette to George Clooney for “Sirian.

Jake didn’t fully realize the impact the film had on audiences until at a fan meeting, and it had only been three weeks since “Brokeback Mountain” premiered, a man from the audience stood up and said, “I’ve seen this movie 17 times now, and it changed my life.” There is also the other side of the coin: sometimes random passers-by still approach him and shout with anger in their voices that they will never watch Brokeback Mountain. Which, incidentally, only emphasizes the iconic status of the role of Jack Twist in Gyllenhaal′s filmography

In 2007, released the detective thriller “Zodiac” by David Fincher, which became a kind of turning point in the filmography Gyllenhaal. The actor reincarnated as a bored newspaper cartoonist, who persistently investigated the case of a serial killer named Zodiac, while no one took his activities seriously.

After that, Jake briefly disappeared from the radar. In early 2008, his close friend, actor Heath Ledger, died of a drug overdose. The news literally knocked Gyllenhaal out of his mind. He decided that he would leave the cinema, at least the mainstream, for which he could be ashamed, and instead will play more in the theater.

In 2009, the actor’s parents divorced after 31 years of married life because of Steven’s infidelity. Although Jake and Maggie were grown adults of substance, the event took a serious toll on their emotional state. Their mother left for New York, where Jake decided to move, and their father remarried. Also, the divorce caused serious financial problems in the family, but the brother and sister became even closer. So Jake realized he needed to be honest with himself, “The truth led to the divorce and hurt a lot of my family. But the truth is inspiring.” The actor has changed the views on life, which could not be better expressed released in 2009 (but filmed in 2007) drama “Brothers”.

Jake’s character, ex-convict Tommy, gets out of prison and settles in with his older brother, Air Force officer Sam (Tobey Maguire), his wife Grace and their children. Sam goes to Afghanistan and goes missing, whereupon Tommy, convinced his brother is dead, becomes close to his wife

In 2010, the blockbuster Prince of Persia is released, and in 2011, Source Code is released. Both films receive high marks from audiences and critics, but since then Gyllenhaal has tried not to take on high-budget PR projects, focusing on interesting scenarios and deep diverse characters.

Everest Official International Trailer 

2015 was remembered by fans of Jake’s work with two interesting works at once: the sports drama “Lefty” and the disaster film “Everest”. Although he had vowed to star in mainstream movies, “Everest” interested him in the extreme conditions of the shooting. Jake earned hypothermia, almost lost his hearing, but rejoiced like a child. And once again proved to the directors his professionalism.

For “Lefty” he also prepared seriously – took lessons boxing. And if his role contains remarks in other languages, he does not memorize the right phrases, but learns the basics of the language, honing his pronunciation

In 2018, audiences saw Gyllenhaal in a number of major projects, including the American-Korean adventure drama “Okcha” and the melodrama “Wild Life.” In the first one, Jake again starred with Paul Dano, and in “Wild Life” he worked under him.

“Wild Life” was the directorial debut of Dano and his wife Zoe Kazan. Jake plays the father of a well-to-do family in which everything begins to fall apart after he is fired. Although his character appears in the frame for fifteen minutes at most, he is one of the central characters in the narrative.

Also during this period comes out the tape “Stronger”, which opens the veil of mystery over the tragic events at the Boston Marathon. In it, Gyllenhaal reincarnated as an invalid who lost both legs to an explosion.

In 2019, “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” another Marvel Comics adaptation, premiered where Gyllenhaal played the role of one of the main villains, Mysterio.

An interesting experience for the actor became shooting in the horror film “Velvet Chainsaw”, where he reincarnated in a bohemian film critic, on his misfortune decided to sell art, which they found in the apartment of the murdered artist.

Jake Gyllenhaal Girlfriend

Thanks to the bright appearance and innate charm actor has always been easy to communicate with the opposite sex.

Among the women of Gyllenhaal in different years was a very famous person. His romantic relationship associate it with actress Kirsten Dunst and Reese Witherspoon. With the latter actor is constantly “matchmaking” in the press, but in November 2009, the star couple broke up. Gyllenhaal very hard going through a breakup with his former lover, and even stepped back from the cases for a while.

A kind of salvation for our hero today was a brief romance with Natalie Portman, with whom Jake played in the movie “Brothers”. As told by relatives of the actor, the girl breathed new life into it.

In October 2010, Jake began dating country singer Taylor Swift, but the romance did not last three months. However, he had a huge impact on the singer

In the summer of 2013, Gyllenhaal was often seen with model Alice Miller. The pair even vacationed at the famous Martha’s Vineyard resort in Massachusetts.

In 2014, the actor was seen at a ski resort in the company of gorgeous blonde Margot Robbie, and in 2015 he was attributed an affair with Ruth Wilson

Jake Gyllenhaal has a special relationship with Anne Hathaway. Despite repeated encounters in bed (on the set of “Brokeback Mountain” and then the film “Love and Other Drugs”) and a nude photoshoot for Entertainment Weekly magazine, they did not spoil life with love affairs, which, when it comes to the windy Gyllenhaal, inevitably end in a breakup, but remained good friends

In 2018, he began dating French model Jeanne Cadieu. The girl is younger than his chosen one by 15 years. The actor remains a bachelor, but in recent interviews, he admits that if he used to enjoy this status, now he is ready to settle down as soon as he meets the right girl. Perhaps the reason for his decision was Jeanne.

Jake Gyllenhaal Net Worth

Jake Gyllenhaal is an American actor who became famous after the movie “October Sky,” has a net worth of $80 million