Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal (born December 19, 1980, 'ʒɪlənhɑl) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at 11 years old. He has appeared in diverse roles since his first lead role in 1999's October Sky, followed by the 2001 indie cult hit Donnie Darko, in which he played a psychologically troubled teen and onscreen brother to his real-life sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. In the 2004 blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow he portrayed a student caught in a cataclysmic global cooling event, alongside Dennis Quaid as his father. He then played against type as a frustrated Marine in Jarhead (2005). The same year, he won critical acclaim portraying a role that entered popular shorthand as a "gay cowboy" in the controversial but highly lauded film Brokeback Mountain, although the character was in fact bisexual, which is unknown by many.