User blog:ARTaylor/Nicolas Cage Turns 56

Today is the fifty-fifth birthday of Nicolas Cage. The actor was born on this day in 1964 as Nicolas Kim Coppola. He legally changed his name to avoid nepotism due to his famous uncle Francis Ford Coppola. Being a massive comic book fan, he took his last name from Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage.

He rose to fame in early works such as Peggy Sue Got Married, Raising Arizona, and Moonstruck. He became a prominent actor after playing in Leaving Las Vegas, a role that earned him an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award. He went on to play in blockbuster films like The Rock, Face/Off, and the National Treasure series. Still a comic book fan, he almost played the Man of Steel in a movie that was never made called Superman Lives, which did inspire an acclaimed documentary about the failed production.

He went on to play the Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider in the films Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance as well as Big Daddy in the Marvel imprint film Kick-Ass. Most recently, he finally got to play Superman in the animated film ''Teen Titans Go! to the Movies and played the Noir Spider-Man in the critically acclaimed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse''.