"J. K. Simmons"

Jonathan Kimble "J. K." Simmons (born January 9, 1955) is an American actor.

He is known for his roles as Dr. Emil Skoda on the NBC series Law & Order (and other Law & Order franchise series), neo-Nazi Vernon Schillinger on the HBO prison drama series Oz, Assistant Police Chief Will Pope on the TNT series The Closer, J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and the voices of Cave Johnson in the 2011 puzzle game Portal 2 and Tenzin in The Legend of Korra. Simmons is also known for appearing in a series of television commercials for Farmers Insurance.

His 2014 performance as music instructor Terence Fletcher in Whiplash earned him a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and earned him the Best Supporting Actor trophy at the 68th British Academy Film Awards.

Simmons was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Patricia (née Kimble), an administrator, and Donald William Simmons, a college professor. He was raised in Columbus, Ohio and Missoula, Montana, and attended the University of Montana. He was a member of the Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Simmons was a Broadway actor and singer. He played Benny Southstreet in the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls, and in 1994, he sang multiple roles in the Wagner opera satire, Das Barbecu. He also played the role of Jigger in a revival of Carousel with the Houston Grand Opera and starred in the 1987 Off-Broadway musical Birds of Paradise.

Simmons is known for his television roles as Dr. Emil Skoda, a police psychiatrist, who has appeared on three of the four incarnations of Law & Order and New York Undercover, and as sadistic neo-Nazi inmate Vernon Schillinger on the prison drama Oz. He also stars as Ralph Earnhardt, the father of race-car driver Dale Earnhardt, in 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story. He played B.R. in the film Thank You For Smoking and has been praised for his performance in Juno as "Mac" McGuff, the title character's father. He played Will Pope, Assistant Chief of the LAPD, in The Closer. In an interesting precursor to his joining the Law & Order cast as Skoda, Simmons appeared in Homicide: Life on the Street, portraying a criminal in a Law & Order cross-over episode.

In all three of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films Simmons played J. Jonah Jameson (as well as in the expanded video game adaptation of Spider-Man 3). Other roles includes that of an army general in the television sitcom Arrested Development, and Dan the Barber in the surreal Nickelodeon kid's show The Adventures of Pete & Pete in 1995. In 2008, Simmons played a CIA Superior in Burn After Reading and appeared in Postal as Candidate Wells. He also appeared in I Love You, Man.

Simmons has starred in several films produced or directed by his friend Jason Reitman, including Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air, and Jennifer's Body. In 2013, he had a small role as Mr. Jervis in Reitman's film Labor Day. He voices Tenzin, an Airbending master and the son of Aang and Katara, in the 2012 Nickelodeon series The Legend of Korra. He starred as blind lawyer "Mel Fisher" in Growing Up Fisher.

In 2014, Simmons starred as Terence Fletcher in Whiplash. Fletcher is an intensely demanding conductor at the fictional Schaffer Conservatory of Music, where he bullies and cajoles the protagonist, Andrew Neyman, played by Miles Teller. The film's wide acclaim includes an Academy Award nomination under Best Supporting Actor for Simmons. Rolling Stone said "Beat the drums for an Oscar for Simmons". Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times said "Simmons delivers one of the most memorable performances of the year." Entertainment Weekly summed up the reaction by saying "Simmons' performance has been universally praised... a leading contender for Best Supporting Actor". On January 11, 2015 Simmons won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his role in Whiplash. In January 2015 Simmons was cast in a leading role in the upcoming action horror film Kong: Skull Island.

Simmons has performed a substantial number voice-over roles alongside his live action work. Several of these have arisen from his J. Jonah Jameson character in Spider-Man films, including voices of two newspaper editors in episodes of the eighteenth season of The Simpsons. While unnamed, these characters are clearly meant to emulate Jameson (one, bearing Jameson's appearance, demands "pictures of Spider-Man", then on being reminded he works at a poetry journal, demands "poems about Spider-Man"). Likewise, Simmons voiced an editor-in-chief of a newspaper (with Jameson's appearance and mannerisms) for a 2013 episode of The Hub's Pound Puppies. He has resumed his role as the voice of J. Jonah Jameson in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and Avengers Assemble. He said he would like to reprise the role again in Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man series, a reboot of the Spider-Man film series. Other voice-over work is heard in friend Reitman's film Young Adult, as the protagonist's boss via a series of voicemails. Simmons provides the voice of the yellow M&M in the product's commercials, as well as the 3-D film I Lost My M in Vegas, playing at M&M's World in Las Vegas. He has also done voice-over work for Norelco razors. He also provided the voice of General Wade Eiling in Justice League Unlimited. He recorded an audio book for Tom Clancy's Net Force: Point of Impact.

In the world of television commercials, Simmons has been featured as Professor Nathaniel Burke of the University of Farmers in television commercials for Farmers Insurance Group, beginning in 2010.

Simmons has appeared as the anti-communist U. S. President Howard T. Ackerman in the video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and a series of promotional advertisements parodying the 2008 presidential elections. In these advertisements, he offers himself (as Ackerman) as an alternative to other, unnamed presidential candidates and used the slogan "Vote for me, if you want to live." In April 2011, he appeared in Portal 2 as the voice of Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson, a performance that was lauded as the "surprise star turn" of the game.

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	The Ref	Siskel
1994	The Scout	Assistant Coach
1996	The First Wives Club	Federal Marshal
1996	Extreme Measures	Dr. Mingus
1997	Love Walked In	Mr. Shulman
1997	Crossing Fields	Guy
1997	The Jackal	FBI Agent Timothy I. Witherspoon
1997	Anastasia		Ensemble and vocals
1998	Celebrity	Souvenir Hawker
1998	Above Freezing	Hoyd
1999	Hit and Runway	Ray Tilman
1999	The Cider House Rules	Ray Kendall
1999	For Love of the Game	Frank Perry
1999	I Lost My M in Vegas	Yellow (voice)	Short film
2000	Autumn in New York	Dr. Tom Grandy
2000	The Gift	Sheriff Pearl Johnson
2001	The Mexican	Ted Slocum
2002	Spider-Man	J. Jonah Jameson
2003	Disposal	Older Hunter	Short film
2003	Off the Map	George
2004	Hidalgo	Buffalo Bill Cody
2004	The Ladykillers	Garth Pancake
2004	Spider-Man 2	J. Jonah Jameson
2005	Thank You for Smoking	B. R.
2005	Pom Poko	Seizaemon (voice)	English dub
2005	Harsh Times	Agent Richards
2006	First Snow	Vacaro
2006	The Astronaut Farmer	Jacobson
2007	Spider-Man 3	J. Jonah Jameson
2007	Postal	Candidate Welles
2007	Juno	Mac MacGuff
2007	Rendition	Lee Mayer
2008	Burn After Reading	CIA Superior
2009	The Vicious Kind	Donald Sinclaire
2009	New in Town	Stu Kopenhafer
2009	The Way of War	Sergeant Mitchell
2009	Red Sands	Lt. Col. Arson
2009	Jewno	Father	Short film
2009	I Love You, Man	Oswald Klaven
2009	Aliens in the Attic	Skip (voice)
2009	Post Grad	Roy Davies
2009	Extract	Brian
2009	Up in the Air	Bob
2009	Jennifer's Body	Mr. Wroblewski
2010	4192: The Crowning of the Hit King	Narrator
2010	Crazy on the Outside	Ed
2010	An Invisible Sign	Mr. Jones
2010	A Beginner's Guide to Endings	Uncle Pal
2010	Megamind	Warden (voice)
2010	True Grit	Lawyer Daggett (voice)	Uncredited
2010	Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore	Gruff K-9 (voice)
2011	The Music Never Stopped	Henry Sawyer
2011	The Good Doctor	Detective Krauss
2011	Blackstone	Detective Burke	Short film
2011	Young Adult	Mavis' Publisher (voice)	Uncredited
2012	The Words	Mr. Jansen
2012	Contraband	Captain Redmond Camp
2013	Whiplash	Band Teacher	Short film
2013	3 Geezers!	J Kimball
2013	Jobs	Arthur Rock
2013	Labor Day	Mr. Jervis
2013	Dark Skies	Edwin Pollard
2013	The Heeler	Roscoe	Short film
2013	The Magic Bracelet	The Shaman	Short film
2014	Whiplash	Terence Fletcher
2014	Barefoot	Dr. Bertleman
2014	Break Point	Jack
2014	The Boxcar Children	Dr. Moore (voice)
2014	Murder of a Cat	Sheriff Hoyle
2014	The Rewrite	Dr. Lerner
2014	Men, Women & Children	Mr. Doss
2014	Ava & Lala	General Tiger (voice)
2015	Terminator Genisys		In post-production
2015	Still Punching the Clown	Jay Warren	In post-production
2016	Rock Dog	Khampa (voice)	Filming
2016	The Accountant		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Popeye Doyle	Patrolman in Park	Television movie
1994	Law & Order	Jerry Luppin	Episode: "Sanctuary"
1995	New York News		Episode: "Welcome Back Cotter"
1995	The Adventures of Pete & Pete	Barber Dan	Episode: "Saturday"
1996	Homicide: Life on the Street	Col. Alexander Rausch	Episode: "For God and Country"
1996	Swift Justice	Mel Turman	Episode: "Stones"
1996, 1998	New York Undercover	Sgt. Treadway / Dr. Emil Skoda	2 episodes
1997	Face Down	Herb Aames	Movie
1997	Spin City	Kevin Travis	Episode: "Hot in the City"
1997–2003	Oz	Vernon Schillinger	56 episodes
1997–2010	Law & Order	Dr. Emil Skoda	45 episodes
1998	Remember WENN	Captain Amazon	Episode: "All's Noisy on the Pittsburgh Front"
1999	Saturday Night Live	Vernon Schillinger	Episode: "Jerry Seinfeld/David Bowie"
2000	Third Watch	Frank Hagonon	Episode: "Demolition Derby"
2000–2001	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Dr. Emil Skoda	6 episodes
2002	Path to War	CIA Briefer	Movie
2002	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Dr. Emil Skoda	Episode: "Crazy"
2002	Homeward Bound	Jim Ashton	Pilot
2003	John Doe	Lucas Doya	Episode: "The Rising"
2003	Everwood	Phil Drebbles	Episode: "Burden of Truth"
2004	3: The Dale Earnhardt Story	Ralph Earnhardt	Movie
2004	ER	Gus Loomer	Episode: "Impulse Control"
2004	The D.A.	Dep. Dist. Atty. Joe Carter	2 episodes
2004	Without a Trace	Mark Wilson	Episode: "Two Families"
2004	The Jury	Ron Stalsukilis	Episode: "Last Rites"
2004	Nip/Tuck	Ike Connors	Episode: "Kimber Henry"
2004–2006	Justice League Unlimited	General Wade Eiling (voice)	5 episodes
2005	Arrested Development	General Anderson	Episode: "Switch Hitter"
2005	Jack & Bobby	Cyrus Miller	Episode: "Running Scared"
2005	Numb3rs	Dr. Clarence Weaver	Episode: "Vector"
2005–2012	The Closer	Assistant Chief Will Pope	109 episodes
2006	The West Wing	Harry Ravitch	Episode: "Duck and Cover"
2006–2007	The Simpsons	Tabloid Editor (voice)	2 episodes
2007	Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee	James McLaughlin	Movie
2007	Queens Supreme	Ernest Fingerman	Episode: "Let's Make a Deal"
2007	Kim Possible	Martin Smarty (voice)	3 episodes
2007–2011	American Dad!	Judge / McCreary (voices)	3 episodes
2008	Phineas and Ferb	J.B. (voice)	Episode: "Toy to the World"
2008	Ben 10: Alien Force	Magister Ghilhil (voice)	Episode: "Darkstar Rising"
2009	The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack	Poseidon / Captain (voices)	4 episodes
2009–2010	Party Down	Leonard Stiltskin	2 episodes
2010	The Life & Times of Tim	O'Flaherty Sr. (voice)	Episode: "Stu is Good at Something"
2010	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Evil Star (voice)	Episode: "Revenge of the Reach!"
2010	Ben 10: Ultimate Alien	Magister Ghilhil (voice)	Episode: "Escape From Aggregor"
2010–2013	Generator Rex	White Knight (voice)	34 episodes
2011	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Frank Forrest	Episode: "One Cabeza, Two Cabeza, Three Cabeza... DEAD!"
2011	Raising Hope	Bruce Chance	Episode: "The Cultish Personality"
2011	Desert Car Kings	Narrator	10 episodes
2011–2013	Pound Puppies	Lieutenant Rock / Mr. Withers (voices)	2 episodes
2011–2014	Robot Chicken	Vern Schillinger / Master Chief(voices)	2 episodes
2012	Best Friends Forever	Don	Episode: "Put a Pin It"
2012	Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes	J. Jonah Jameson (voice)	Episode: "Along Came a Spider"
2012	The Venture Bros.	Ben (voice)	Episode: "A Very Venture Halloween"
2012–2014	The Legend of Korra	Tenzin (voice)	41 episodes
2012–present	Ultimate Spider-Man	J. Jonah Jameson (voice)	38 episodes
2012–2014	Men at Work	P. J. Jordan	5 episodes
2013	Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload	J. Jonah Jameson (voice)	Special
2013	Parks and Recreation	Mayor Stice	Episode: "Partridge"
2013	Family Tools	Tony Shea	10 episodes
2013–2015	Avengers Assemble	J. Jonah Jameson (voice)	5 episodes
2013–2015	Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.	J. Jonah Jameson (voice)	7 episodes
2014	Growing Up Fisher	Mel Fisher	13 episodes
2014	Chozen	Gary Cullens (voice)	Episode: "Family Weekend (or How Gary Got His Groove Back)"
2014	BoJack Horseman	Lennie Turtletaub (voice)	4 episodes
2015	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "J.K. Simmons/D'Angelo"

Video game

Year	Title	Role
2000	M&M's: The Lost Formulas	Yellow Peanut (voice)
2008	Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3	President Howard T. Ackerman
2007	Spider-Man 3	J. Jonah Jameson (voice)
2011	Portal 2	Cave Johnson (voice)
2014	The Legend of Korra	Tenzin (voice)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	Result
2006	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	The Closer	Nominated
2008	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast	Juno	Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	The Closer	Nominated
2009	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
	Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Acting Ensemble	I Love You, Man	Nominated
	Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Acting Ensmeble	Up in the Air	Nominated
	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble		Nominated
2010	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	The Closer	Nominated
2011	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
2014	African-American Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor	Whiplash	Won
	Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Georgia Film Critics Association for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Indiana Film Journalists Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	North Texas Film Critics Film Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Utah Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Village Voice Film Poll – Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor		Nominated
	San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor		Nominated
	San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor		Nominated
2015	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture		Won
	Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	AACTA International Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor		Pending
	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role		Won
	Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male		Pending
	London Film Critics' Circle Award for Supporting Actor of the Year		Won
	Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture		Won
	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role		Won

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/