An American actor, producer and screenwriter, who has been entertaining audiences since his teens, John Paul Cusack, starred in many teen films in the mid-1980s, one of the popular films being Better Off Dead (1985). His performance in Cameron Crowe`s romantic comedy-drama Say Anything... in 1989 gained him the teen idol status. His other notable movies include High Fidelity (2000), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Being John Malkovich (1999), 1408 (2007), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) and The Raven (2012).

Early Life
Cusack was born to a Catholic Irish-American family in Evanston, Illinois, and has five siblings. His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" is a former mathematics teacher and political activist, while his father, late Richard Cusack was an actor, documentary filmmaker and owned a film production company. His siblings Ann, Joan, Bill and Susie, are actors too. Cusack`s family was from Manhattan, New York, but they moved to Illinois before his birth. The actor graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1984 and spent a year at New York University before dropping out.

Personal life
Cusack was in a relationship with Janice Dickinson, Alison Eastwood and Jennifer Love Hewitt. He was in a long-term relationship with Jodie Lyn O`Keefe.

Movie career
Cusack kickstarted his movie career in 1983 with the film Class in the role of Roscoe Maibaum, but the movie turned out to be an average success. His further movies like Sixteen Candles and Grandview, U.S.A. in 1984, The Sure Thing and Better Off Dead in 1985, One Crazy Summer and Stand by Me in 1986, made him extremely popular as a teen star. He then featured in Say Anything... in the year 1989 as Lloyd Dobler, an aspiring kickboxer. His performance in the movie was appreciated by audiences and critics, and also won him the Most Promising Actor Award at Chicago Film Critics Association. In the same year, he was seen in Roland Joffe`s Fat Man and Little Boy, co-starring Paul Newman and Dwight Schultz. In 1991, he was seen in True Colors as Peter Burton, followed by Shadows and Fog as Student Jack. After a cameo appearance in the 1992 satirical comedy film The Player as himself, he went to working in movies like Roadside Prophets, Map of the Human Heart, Money for Nothing and Floundering. Then in 1994, he was seen in the role of a dramatist David Shayne in Bullets over Broadway, a movie that revolves around the dilemma of a dramatist when he has to unwillingly cast a gangster`s talentless girlfriend, inorder to get some funds for his intial venture. His next was director Alan Parker`s The Road to Wellville co-starring Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda and Matthew Broderick.

The actor`s 1997 movies Grosse Pointe Blank and Con Air were box office successes, which took him a notch higher in his career. His role of professional assassin Martin Q. Blank in Grosse Pointe Blank, and U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin in Con Air, was highly appreciated by critics and audiences. The success of these movies got him to star in a few more films in the year like Chicago Cab, Anastasia in a voice role, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Hereafter, Cusack portrayed different roles in his movies like that of an air traffic controller in Mike Newell`s Pushing Tin, an obsessive puppeteer in Spike Jonze`s Being John Malkovich, a record store owner in the Cusack-Steve Pink-D. V. DeVincentis starrer High Fidelity, and a Jewish art dealer who mentors a young Adolf Hitler in Max directed by Menno Meyjes. Post this, the actor did an uncredited part as himself in the comedy-drama metafilm Adaptation.

Cusack was seen in two movies in 2003 - first, in the role of a limousine driver and a former Los Angeles police officer Ed Dakota in the psychological thriller film Identity, followed by the legal thriller Runaway Jury, directed by Gary Fleder, as Nicholas Easter. Both movies earned positive reviews and performed well at the box office. He then portrayed the role of Stanley Philipps in the 2007 Iraq War-themed drama Grace is Gone, directed by James C. Strouse. In the same year, he went on to appear in a horror film 1408 based on Stephen King`s short story of the same name. In the following year, he was seen in the dark political satire War, Inc. in the role of an assassin Hauser, a movie about an American private corporation that takes over a war-torn nation and how the CEO hires a hitman to kill a local minister. The actor followed this up with a voice role in Igor for the character of Igor.

In 2009, Cusack was seen in the epic science fiction disaster drama 2012, as Jackson Curtis, opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor and Amanda Peet. Next was Hot Tub Time Machine in 2010, in the role of Adam Yates. This Steve Pink direction revolves around three friends, tired of their lives, visit a winter resort, but the twist comes when they are mysteriously teleported to the year 1986. Another release in the year was Shanghai as Paul Soames, which received negative reviews. After featuring in The Raven and The Paperboy in 2012, the actor starred in Scott Coffey`s Adult World as Rat Billings. He then went on to appear in The Butler and Grand Piano in 2013, and The Bag Man in 2014. Another 2014 film for the actor was Love and Mercy, a biographical drama which received critical acclaim. In 2015, he was seen in Dragon Blade, followed by an uncredited cameo in Hot Tub Time Machine 2 as Adam Yates.

Cusack`s 2017 release includes the thriller film Arsenal, directed by Steven C. Miller, co-starring Nicolas Cage, Adrian Grenier, and Lydia Hull.

As a producer
Along with acting, he was also the producer for movies like The Road to Wellville, Grace Is Gone, War, Inc., and Hot Tub Time Machine, and an associate producer for Max.

As a writer
Apart from being an actor and producer, Cusack is also the writer for movies like Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity and War, Inc.

Television career
Cusack started his television career with a voice role in Frasier in the year 1996. Three years later, he appeared in the role of Myrl Redding in the television film The Jack Bull and also was the executive producer for it. In 2014, he featured in Doll & Em as John for one episode.