John Paul Cusack ( KEW-sak; born June 28, 1966) is an American actor and screenwriter. With a career spanning over four decades, he has appeared in over ninety films. He began acting in films during the 1980s, appearing in coming-of-age dramedies such as Sixteen Candles (1984), Better Off Dead (1985), The Sure Thing (1985), Stand by Me (1986), and Say Anything... (1989). Moving away from his teen idol image, he went on to appear in a variety of genres, such as the crime thrillers The Grifters (1990) and The Paperboy (2012), the black comedies Bullets Over Broadway (1994) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), the romantic comedy Serendipity (2001), the time-traveling comedy Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), psychological thriller Identity (2003), the action thriller Con Air (1997), and the psychological horror film 1408 (2007). Cusack has been nominated for several awards, including a Golden Globe for his starring role in High Fidelity (2000). He won the 2014 Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Maps to the Stars (2014).