EXCLUSIVE: 10 Things You (Probably) Never Knew About Forest Whitaker – Including Why He Locked Himself in a Loft and Lived Like a Monk to Prepare for Drug-Addled Role
We reveal 10 things you (probably) never knew about Forest Whitaker – including why he locked himself away to prepare for a role.
June 17 2025, Published 6:00 a.m. ET
Screen veteran Forest Whitaker won a Best Actor Oscar portraying Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 2006's The Last King of Scotland – and RadarOnline.com can reveal his preparation for the role is part of his notoriously hard-working commitment to his art.
He's also taken home a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In the new Netflix thriller Havoc, he plays a real estate tycoon. But before you check out his flick, here are the things you probably don't know about the 63-year-old star.
Humble Start
Sean Penn shared the screen with Forest Whitaker in 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'.
1. He was born in Longview, Texas, to special education teacher Laura and insurance salesman Forest E. Whitaker Jr. Little Forest was born with ptosis, a condition that causes his droopy left eyelid.
2. While attending Palisades High School, Whitaker sang in the choir and was a defensive lineman on the football team, which boasted future NFL star Jay Schroeder as quarterback. Forest attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, on a football scholarship. But he hurt his back and switched his major to music. He earned two scholarships training as an operatic tenor at USC.
3. Whitaker plays a football player in the classic 1982 comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which stars Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ray Walston and Phoebe Cates.
4. Whitaker was cast as Sawyer on the 2004 TV show Lost – but left the role that went to Josh Holloway to direct and narrate the comedy drama film First Daughter, starring Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton.
Hard Graft
Clint Eastwood directed Whitaker in 'Bird,' and to prep for the part he loved only with a saxophone.
5. To prepare for his leading role as musician Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's 1988 movie Bird, Whitaker locked himself away in a loft equipped with just a bed, a couch and a saxophone.
6. Whitaker is a dedicated vegetarian.
7. He has spent decades doing humanitarian work, based on a core lesson from his beloved mother that goes, "You don't have to believe what I believe, but you have to believe in something."
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Whitaker met his wife Keisha Nash on the 'Blown Away' set before they married in 1996.
8. Forest's ancestry goes back to the Igbo community of Nkwerre, Nigeria, where he was made an honorary chief in 2009.
9. While many of his characters come off as "gentle giants," 6-foot-2 tall Whitaker said: "I can play a man who's despicable. But I'll still look inside him to find a point of connection. If I can find that kernel, audiences will relate to me." But don't mess with him – he has a black belt in kenpo karate.
10. Whitaker met actress Keisha Nash on the set of the 1994 film Blown Away. They tied the knot in 1996 and had daughters Sonnet and True together to go with his son, Ocean, and her daughter, Autumn, from previous relationships. In 2018, Whitaker filed for divorce.
