Jon Voight Bio
Jonathan Vincent Voight, known professionally as Jon Voight, is an American actor born on December 29, 1938, in Yonkers, New York. He is widely recognized for his performances in landmark films such as Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, and Coming Home, the last of which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Over a career that has spanned more than six decades, Voight has built a reputation as one of the most versatile leading men in Hollywood, moving easily between gritty drama, action blockbusters, and prestige television.
In addition to his film work, Voight earned renewed critical acclaim for his role as Mickey Donovan on the Showtime series Ray Donovan, a performance that brought him a Golden Globe Award. He is also the father of actress Angelina Jolie and actor James Haven, both of whom followed him into the entertainment industry. Beyond acting, Voight is known for his outspoken political views and his longstanding public commentary on cultural and social issues in the United States.
Early Life and Background
Jonathan Paul Voight was born on December 29, 1938, in Yonkers, New York, to Barbara and Elmer Voight, a professional golfer. He grew up alongside two brothers: Barry Voight, a former volcanologist at Pennsylvania State University, and James Wesley Voight, known as Chip Taylor, a singer-songwriter who wrote the songs “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning.” His paternal grandparents were Slovak immigrants, while his maternal grandparents were of German descent, giving him a richly varied European heritage that shaped his upbringing in suburban New York.
Voight was raised as a Catholic and attended Archbishop Stepinac High School, a Catholic boys’ school in White Plains, New York, where he first discovered his passion for acting. He graduated in 1956 and went on to enroll at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he majored in art and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960. During his college years, he became increasingly drawn to the stage, setting the stage for a professional commitment to acting that would soon follow his formal education.
Path to Acting
After completing his degree, Jon Voight moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting, a decision that placed him at the center of America’s most vibrant theater scene. He enrolled at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where he studied under the legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner. This training proved foundational, grounding Voight in a rigorous, emotionally honest approach to performance that would distinguish his work for decades to come.
Voight began his professional career in the early 1960s on the New York stage, appearing in an off-Broadway revue called O Oysters in early 1961. He soon made his Broadway debut in the fall of that same year, playing Rolf in The Sound of Music. In the early 1960s, he also began appearing in television, taking guest roles on series such as Gunsmoke, Naked City, The Defenders, Twelve O’Clock High, and Cimarron Strip. These early stage and screen experiences helped him develop the discipline and versatility that would soon translate to a major film career.
Jon Voight Career
Early Career (1961–1969)
Voight’s first notable film work came in 1967, when he took a role in the crimefighter spoof Fearless Frank, directed by Phillip Kaufman, and a small part in the western Hour of the Gun, directed by John Sturges. He followed these with a role in Out of It, directed by Paul Williams, in 1968. None of these early films made a major commercial impact, but they gave Voight the experience and visibility he needed to land a role that would change his life.
In 1968, Voight was cast as Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy, a groundbreaking film directed by John Schlesinger and based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy. The film followed Joe Buck, a naive young man from Texas trying to make it as a hustler in New York City, and his unlikely friendship with Ratso Rizzo, played by Dustin Hoffman. Both Voight and Hoffman received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for their performances. Although the film was released with an X rating, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture, becoming the only X-rated film ever to receive that honor.
Breakthrough (1970–1989)
Throughout the 1970s, Jon Voight became one of the most respected leading men in American cinema. In 1972, he starred in Deliverance, directed by John Boorman and based on James Dickey’s novel, playing one of four Atlanta businessmen on a dangerous canoe trip in the Georgia wilderness. The film was both a critical and commercial success and remains one of the most influential American films of the decade. Voight also took on demanding dramatic roles in Conrack (1974), where he portrayed an idealistic young schoolteacher, and in The Odessa File (1974), where he played a German journalist uncovering a postwar Nazi conspiracy.
The defining moment of Voight’s career came in 1978 with Coming Home, directed by Hal Ashby. Voight played Luke Martin, a cynical yet noble paraplegic Vietnam veteran who falls in love with a woman played by Jane Fonda. The role earned Voight the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival and, in 1979, the Academy Award for Best Actor. He continued to deliver powerful performances through the 1980s, including a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Runaway Train (1985), in which he starred as an escaped convict alongside Eric Roberts, and a role in the boxing drama The Champ (1979) opposite Faye Dunaway and Ricky Schroder.
Notable Works and Milestones
Voight’s signature works include Midnight Cowboy (1969), Deliverance (1972), Coming Home (1978), Runaway Train (1985), and the later television hit Ray Donovan. Across these roles, he has shown a remarkable range, moving from the desperate dreamer Joe Buck to the world-weary paraplegic Luke Martin to the conniving patriarch Mickey Donovan, each performance anchored by an emotional honesty that has earned him consistent critical respect.
Jon Voight Award Nominations
Jon Voight has received four Academy Award nominations across his career, beginning with his very first leading film role in Midnight Cowboy (1969). He earned a Best Actor nomination for Midnight Cowboy, another for Runaway Train (1985), a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of sportscaster Howard Cosell in Ali (2001), and additional recognition from the Golden Globe Awards and the Screen Actors Guild. He has also received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Ray Donovan, along with a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his role in Uprising (2001). These nominations reflect decades of consistent work across film, limited series, and prestige drama.
Jon Voight Awards Won
Voight’s most celebrated award is the Academy Award for Best Actor, which he won in 1979 for his performance in Coming Home. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards, including Best Actor for Runaway Train (1986) and Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film for Ray Donovan in 2014, and a British Academy Film Award. In 2019, Voight was awarded the National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contributions to American culture. In January 2025, he was appointed as a Special Ambassador to Hollywood, a newly created role intended to help revitalize domestic film production.
Jon Voight Family
Jon Voight was married twice during his lifetime. His first marriage was to actress Lauri Peters, whom he met while both were appearing in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music. They were married from 1962 to 1967. He later married actress Marcheline Bertrand in 1971. The couple separated in 1976, filed for divorce in 1978, and finalized the divorce in 1980. Voight has not remarried since.
Voight has two children with Marcheline Bertrand: a son, James Haven, born in 1973, and a daughter, Angelina Jolie, born in 1975. Both James Haven and Angelina Jolie went on to pursue careers in the entertainment industry, with Angelina Jolie becoming one of the most internationally recognized actresses of her generation. Through Angelina Jolie, Voight is a grandfather to six children. He also has two brothers: Barry Voight, a respected volcanologist, and Chip Taylor, a singer-songwriter known for writing “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning.”
Personal Life
Beyond his two marriages, Jon Voight has had several well-known relationships over the years, including reported relationships with Linda Morand, Rebecca De Mornay, Eileen Davidson, Barbra Streisand, Nastassja Kinski, and Diana Ross. He holds the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel. Voight is also a practicing Catholic, a faith that has remained central to his identity throughout his life and has often informed both his artistic choices and his public commentary.
