From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Nick Cassavetes

American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1959)

Summary

American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1959)

Field	Value
name	Nick Cassavetes
image	NickCassavetesJune09.jpg
caption	Cassavetes in June 2009
birthname	Nicholas David Rowland Cassavetes
birth_date
birth_place	New York City, U.S.
occupation
yearsactive	1970–present
parents
spouse	{{Plainlist
* {{Marriage	Isabelle Rafalovich	1985	end	div}}
* {{Marriage	Heather Wahlquist		2017	end	div}}
children	3
family

Nicholas David Rowland Cassavetes (born May 21, 1959) is an American actor, director, and writer. He has directed such films as She's So Lovely (1997), John Q. (2002), The Notebook (2004), Alpha Dog (2006), and My Sister's Keeper (2009). His acting credits include an uncredited role in Husbands (1970)—which was directed by his father, John Cassavetes—as well as roles in the films The Wraith (1986), Face/Off (1997), and Blow (2001).

Early life and career

Cassavetes was born in New York City, the son of Greek-American actor and film director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands. As a child, he appeared in his father's film Husbands (1970). After spending so much of his youth surrounded by the film industry, Cassavetes initially decided he did not want to go into the field. He instead attended Syracuse University on a basketball scholarship, but after an injury effectively ended his athletic career, he decided to rethink his aspirations, ultimately deciding to attend his parents' alma mater, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

He has appeared in the films Face/Off, The Wraith, Life, Class of 1999 II: The Substitute, Backstreet Dreams and The Astronaut's Wife, among others. He has directed several films, including John Q, Alpha Dog, She's So Lovely, Unhook the Stars, The Notebook, and My Sister's Keeper. He also adapted the screenplay for Blow and wrote the dialogue for the Justin Timberlake music video "What Goes Around... Comes Around".

Cassavetes finished in fifth place in the World Poker Tour Invitational Season 5, attempting a bluff. He also appeared on season 5 of The Game Show Network's High Stakes Poker.

He also has played himself in the season 7 opener of Entourage on HBO and Tattoo Joe as a cameo in The Hangover: Part II, replacing Liam Neeson from the cast due to scheduling conflicts.

Personal life

In 1985, Cassavetes married Isabelle Rafalovich. They had two daughters together before divorcing. Their daughter Sasha was born with a heart defect and underwent substantial surgery; Cassavetes' film John Q. was dedicated to Sasha, and his later adaptation of My Sister's Keeper was based in part on Sasha's medical experience.

Cassavetes later married Heather "Queenie" Wahlquist, and they have a daughter together. Wahlquist has appeared in several of his films, including a small role in The Notebook as Sara, a secondary character and best friend to the female lead Allie Hamilton, portrayed by Rachel McAdams. Cassavetes' mother, Gena Rowlands, appears as the older, married Allie (Hamilton) Calhoun.

Filmography

Actor

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1970	Husbands	Nick	Uncredited
1985	Mask	T.J.
1986	The Wraith	Packard Walsh
Black Moon Rising	Luis
Quiet Cool	Valence
1988	Under the Gun	Tony Braxton
Assault of the Killer Bimbos	Wayne-O
1989	Blind Fury	Lyle Pike
1990	Backstreet Dreams	Mikey
1991	Delta Force 3: The Killing Game	Charlie	Direct-to-DVD
1992	Twogether	Wolfgang Amadeus "John" Madler
1993	Sins of Desire	Barry Mitchum
Sins of the Night	Jack Neitsche
Broken Trust	Alan Brogan
1994	Class of 1999 II: The Substitute	Emmett Grazer
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle	Robert Sherwood
1996	Black Rose of Harlem	Johnny
1997	Face/Off	Dietrich Hassler
Farticus	Adonis Papadapadopounopoulopoulos
1999	Life	Sergeant Dillard
The Astronaut's Wife	Capt. Alex Streck
2001	Blow	Man in Derek's Salon	Uncredited
2011	The Hangover Part II	Tattoo Joe
2013	Love and Skin	Uncle Nicky	Short film
2021	Prisoners of the Ghostland	Psycho
Queenpins	Captain Pain

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1980	Reunion	Steve Cowan	TV movie
1987	Matlock	Foley	Episode: "The Convict"
L.A. Law	Richard Bertrand	Episode: "Sparky Brackman R.I.P. ????-1987"
1988	Shooter	Tex	TV movie
1989	Quantum Leap	Primo La Palma	Episode: "Double Identity - November 8, 1965"
1990	The Marshall Chronicles	Gus	Episode: "Do the Write Thing"
2010	Entourage	Nick Cassavetes	2 episodes
2017	Tales	Rodney King	Episode: "F*ck the Police"

Production

Year	Title	Notes
1996	Unhook the Stars	Directorial debut
1997	She's So Lovely
2001	Blow	Co-writer with David McKenna; directed by Ted Demme
2002	John Q.	Also songwriter: "The Voice Inside My Heart"
2004	The Notebook
2006	Alpha Dog	Also soundtrack producer and songwriter: "At The Site/Driving To The Site"
2009	My Sister's Keeper	Co-writer with Jeremy Leven
2012	Yellow	Co-writer with Heather Wahlquist
2014	The Other Woman
2023	God Is a Bullet
2025	Marked Men: Rule + Shaw

References

"Nick Cassavetes". NNDB.
"Nick Cassavetes." Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television. Vol. 76. Gale, 2007. Gale Biography In Context. Web. March 21, 2011.
"Nick Cassavetes". VideoDetective.com.
"What Goes Around, Comes Around". [[Justin Timberlake.
"Nick Cassavetes WPT Celebrity Invitational Profile". [[World Poker Tour]].
"High Stakes Poker 5 - Nick Casavetes". [[Game Show Network.
Ward, Kate. (April 9, 2011). "'The Hangover Part II': Liam Neeson's cameo cut from film". Entertainment Weekly.
"Nick Cassavetes". [[Yahoo!.
[http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/movie-dedications/28196/dedications-at-the-end-of-movies-and-what-they-mean Dedications at the end of movies, and what they mean]
(February 8, 2005). "The Notebook". New Line Home Entertainment.
Evangelista, Chris. (January 26, 2021). "'Prisoners of the Ghostland' With Nicolas Cage Picked Up by RLJE Films Ahead of Sundance Premiere".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1959-births living-people american-male-film-actors american-writers-of-greek-descent american-people-of-irish-descent american-people-of-welsh-descent cassavetes-family daytime-emmy-award-winners film-directors-from-new-york-city syracuse-orange-men's-basketball-players male-actors-from-new-york-city american-male-television-actors american-male-screenwriters screenwriters-from-new-york-city 20th-century-american-male-actors 21st-century-american-male-actors 20th-century-american-people-of-greek-descent

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Nick Cassavetes — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report