James Franco

James Franco, an American actor and filmmaker, was born on 19th April 1978 in Palo Alto, California. He was born to Douglas Eugene France and Betsy Franco who was an actress and writer. On his mother’s side, he was Jewish, and his father was of Portuguese and Swedish origin. 

In 1996, Franco graduated from Palo Alto High School. During his high school years, James, along with a group of school friends, was arrested by police for underage drinking and stealing fragrances from a department store and selling them to his classmates. However, the judge gave him the second chance, and he evaded the possibility of juvenile hall. After completing his study at the school, he then enrolled at the University of Los Angeles for majoring in English but dropped out against his parents’ wish after a year to pursue his acting career. He joined Robert Carnegie’s Playhouse West where he spent 15 months of intensive study to get into Hollywood. 

His struggle for an acting job did not last long as he starred in an NBC-produced television drama series Freaks and Geeks (1999). However, the show failed to attract viewers and was shut down after the first season. Before his starring role, he made an appearance in the TV mini-series To Serve and Protect (1999). His second starring role came in Whatever it Takes (2000). Subsequently, a year later, he was cast in the title role in the biographical film James Dean (2001) for which he received Golden Globe Award and earned nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award.

James rose to prominence in the superhero film Spider-Man (2002) in which he played the role of Harry Osborn. He once again appeared in Spider-Man 3 (2007) as Harry Osborn. One of his best performances came in 127 Hours (2010), for which he received nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor. Some of his other films include Milk (2008), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) to name a few. James’s last movie was Zeroville (2019). 

Since his last movie, James has been away from the limelight mainly because of the controversy surrounding allegations against him dating back to 2018, when multiple women from his acting school accused James of sexual misconduct. There was a lawsuit filed against the actor, however, James initially denied the allegations but paid a little more than $2 million to reach an out-court settlement with the accused. Nevertheless, last year, James admitted to sleeping with students but said it was all consensual. Moreover, he said, “Over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong”.