Samuel L. Jackson - Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1980, Jackson married actress and sports channel producer LaTanya Richardson, whom he met while attending Morehouse College. The couple have a daughter, Zoe, born in 1982. In 2009, they started their own charitable organization to help support education. Jackson and Richardson live in Los Angeles, California.

Jackson has revealed in an interview that he sees every one of his movies in theaters with paying customers claiming that "Even during my theater years, I wished I could watch the plays I was in – while I was in them! I dig watching myself work." He also enjoys collecting the action figures of the characters he portrays in his films, including Jules Winnfield, Shaft, Mace Windu, and Frozone. He is a comic book and anime fan.

Jackson is bald, but enjoys wearing unusual wigs in his films. Jackson has reflected on his decision to go bald: "I keep ending up on those bald is beautiful lists. It's cool. You know, when I started losing my hair it was during the era when everybody had lots of hair. ... All of a sudden I felt this big hole in the middle of my afro, I couldn't face having a comb over so I had to quickly figure what the haircut for me was." His first bald role was in The Great White Hype. Jackson usually gets to pick his own hairstyles for each character he portrays. Although he did poke fun at his baldness the first time he appeared bald on The Tonight Show, explaining that he had to shave his head for one role, but then he kept receiving more and more roles afterward, and had to keep shaving his head so wigs could be made for him. Laughingly, he ended the tale by lamenting to Jay Leno, "The only way I'm gonna have time to grow my hair back, is if I'm not workin'!".

Jackson enjoys playing golf, a game he has been reported to have become very proficient at. Jackson has a clause in his film contracts that allows him to play golf during production. He has played in the Gary Player Invitational charity golf tournament to assist golf icon Gary Player raise funds for needy children in South Africa. He stated that the golf course is the only place where he "can go dressed as a pimp and fit in perfectly". Jackson is also a keen basketball fan, and especially favors the Toronto Raptors and the Harlem Globetrotters. He also became a Liverpool F.C. fan after filming The 51st State in Liverpool. Jackson, a known lover of Ireland, also supports a Dublin based football team Bohemian F.C.

Jackson campaigned during the 2008 Democratic Primary for then Illinois Senator Barack Obama in Texarkana, Texas. He said "Barack Obama represents everything I was told I could be growing up. I am a child of segregation. When I grew up and people told me I could be president, I knew it was a lie. But now we have a representative... the American Dream is a reality. Anyone can grow up to be a president." Jackson also said "I voted for Barack because he was black. ’Cuz that’s why other folks vote for other people – because they look like them".

Jackson also campaigned in the 2012 Presidential campaign, where he narrated and starred in a lengthy pro-Obama campaign commercial produced by The Jewish Council for Education and Research, inspired by his character on Pulp Fiction. The commercial was also loosely based on Go the Fuck to Sleep.