Biography

Jaye Davidson

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Jaye was born in Riverside, California in 1968, the son of a Ghanaian father and English mother. The family left for England when Jaye was two and a half. Jaye left school at 16 and had been alternately unemployed and doing odd jobs (running for a production company, working in a factory) ever since. Jaye had no real acting experience when discovered by a casting associate at a wrap party for Derek Jarman's Edward II (1991). He was working as a fashion designer at that time and took the role for the money. He was cast to play Dil in The Crying Game (1992), which became a sleeper hit that shocked audiences worldwide and, in 1992, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Jaye. His overnight stardom earned him his next big role as the sun god Ra opposite James Spader and Kurt Russell in the blockbuster Stargate (1994). Since his brush with movie fame, Jaye has spent his time doing big-name fashion shoots: Steven Meisel for Italian Vogue, Michael Roberts for Joseph, and a GAP ad by Annie Leibovitz. He accompanied Kate Moss to the British Fashion Awards, and in Paris at Valentino's jet-set party in honor of Sharon Stone, he accompanied Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington.
- IMDb mini biography by: Marion Mageo

His dislike of the attention that he received after The Crying Game (1992) made him reluctant to take the role of Ra in Stargate (1994). He didn't want to just turn the offer down so made what he expected to be an unacceptable demand of $1 million. This was accepted and he appeared.
Is back to the job he had before "The Crying Game"... a fashion assistant in London.
Left for England at 2 and a half. Grew up in Hertfordshire, England, UK
When he was nominated for an Academy Award in 1993 he quickly became the biggest question mark of the Oscars not just the matter of whether he would decide to attend the show but what he'd wear if he did show up. After being modest about the event for weeks, he showed up in an aptly gender-bending ensemble: a woman's equestrian-style blazer, white shirt, riding breeches and thigh-high leather boots. Later, he pronounced himself happy to have met Jane Fonda and touched Richard Gere's back.
His father is Ghanaian and his mother is English

About the way homosexuals are perceived in the media: "Some people are so precious -- all this hoo-ha about bad role models and positive images! Of course gay people are murderers, bigamists, drug addicts and nasty people -- just as much as heterosexual people are all of these things. What it all boils down to is, we are all people, and we all have the same human desires. It just happens that some desires go this way and some desires go that way. It's sad when people are oppressed. But it's a question of rising above it. Personally, mentally and, if you have to, physically. "
The most important thing in my life is to live my life and enjoy it--to do what I think is right and what I think is good.
Very funny. . . It's not because I'm good, it's because it was an interesting role. It was the role that was nominated, not me. I really think that most of this is a fluke. - after finding out about his Academy Award nomination
I don't really believe in anything special, but I respect God. I go to church sometimes, but not often.
[on Stephen Rea, his partner in The Crying Game (1992)] I would imagine that Stephen would have been more uncomfortable with me than I would have been with him. See, I'm from another world from Stephen's life. Stephen is an actor -- a Belfast actor, married with children. And he ends up working with someone like me. I felt sorry for Stephen. I can't speak for him, of course, but I just thought, ''This poor man has to kiss me.''