Stardom is all in the name for Foxx

He is one of few comics to make the transition from slapstick to serious.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jamie Foxx is a hero, an idol, an inspiration to a guy like Eric Bishop.
Foxx is the former "In Living Color" comic making his dramatic breakthrough this year with "Collateral," opposite Tom Cruise, and "Ray," in which he steps behind the dark glasses and glorious smile of the late legend Ray Charles.
Eric Bishop is Jamie Foxx's real name.
"Jamie Foxx is the Superman, and Eric Bishop is the Clark Kent," the 36-year-old actor replied, smiling as if he was conveying the coolest secret in the world.
Bishop was the kid from Terrell, Texas, who dreamed of being a star. It almost didn't matter what kind of star: singer, actor, comedian, athlete. The high school football player was good at all those things.
But Jamie Foxx, the one sitting in his luxury bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, with two solid gold dog tags lined with diamonds hanging from his neck, is the one who made it happen.
He's the brash, clever, ambitious alter-ego who wasn't content to rely on luck. He wasn't even content to rely on his natural talent, at least when it came to getting noticed.
His big break
Jamie Foxx is the trick name that got him noticed during an open-mike night at a club in the early 1990s.
"I wrote down all these unisex names at this comedy place because they would always choose the girls to go up," Foxx recalled. "They picked randomly from a list. So I wrote down Stacy King, Tracy Brown, Jamie Foxx ... And they picked Jamie Foxx. I go up, had a great night and that's how the name stuck."
Foxx is notable for being one of the few comics to make a transition from slapstick to serious, and his career has more than a few similarities to that of Tom Hanks.
Both made their breakthroughs dressing in drag (Hanks in the sitcom "Bosom Buddies," Foxx as ugly Wanda on "In Living Color"), and made their share of lowbrow sex comedies (Hanks in "Bachelor Party," Foxx in "Booty Call") before going respectable.
Foxx says he made the switch by making good impressions on the right people.
Oliver Stone gave him his first dramatic role as a football star in 1999's "Any Given Sunday." When director Michael Mann was casting "Ali," he took Will Smith's advice and cast Foxx as Bundini Brown, Muhammad Ali's manager.
Foxx recounts his casting experience with dead-on impressions of his directors and fellow actors.
Latest role
He reteamed with Mann for "Collateral," playing a cabdriver named Max, who through a cascade of bad luck is forced by Cruise's assassin to drive him around Los Angeles for a string of late-night murders.
"He's the realist, sort of the nerd, the square guy," Foxx said. Max doesn't necessarily want to be a hero. "He just wants it all to go away."
But the story reveals Max as more than just "reluctant accomplice": he's a man with failed dreams -- his own high-class limo service, a vacation to a tropical isle -- who talks big but never made it happen, and probably never will.
He is, in other words, the exact opposite of Jamie Foxx.
"I'm a go-getter, I'm a horse, I'm a dog," the actor said. "My father was a coach in high school so my whole mentality is all sports. ... This is the big game. If I look at a roomful of comedians, [I ask] 'How do I get to step to the front of the line?' Gotta be funny, I'll find the funniest person in there and know I gotta cut his head off."
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