It’s one of the most memorable names in entertainment, but it’s not on his passport.
You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t adore Jack Black.
He has given us so many laughs as the iconic music teacher Dewey Finn in School of Rock, and graced our ears with the clever lyrical prowess of Tenacious D.
Just last week, the people of Twitter collectively grinned with joy as a photograph of the 54-year-old casually strolling around Brighton in crocs and a flaming t-shirt and shorts combo.
Jack black casually walking around Brighton No bodyguards nothing what a legend pic.twitter.com/lW8cPsK8y6
— The Magic Mod (@TaylorMod) May 16, 2024
The name is synonymous with carefree, hilarious behaviour and eccentricity, but what if we told you that Jack Black in fact isn’t the star’s real name.
According to Empire Online, Jack was born in 1969 in Santa Monica, California to Judith Love Cohen and Thomas William Black.
The birth name they gave their son is Thomas Jacob Black. Still a very impressive name, but it’s no Jack Black. The rhyming just can’t be matched.
It turns out not many people knew that Jack Black wasn’t the Tropic Thunder stars real name.
One X user tweeted: “Jack Black’s name is actually Thomas my whole life’s a lie.”
IM SO UPSET THAT JACK BLACK’S REAL FIRST NAME IS THOMAS.
— Ay Yo Kim 𓆏 (@_kimberr) December 10, 2019
everything I’ve ever known is a fucking Lie. jack black’s name is THOMAS?
— chaos-bringer of humiliation and mockery (@2nightdough) May 6, 2021
Finding out Jack Black's real name is actually Thomas Black has really made me feel weird
— ⎊ ♡ 𝑒𝒿 ♡ ⎊ (@OhMyEmz) October 28, 2018
Black’s parents were successful in their own right.
Both of his parents served as aerospace engineers and worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, while Judith famously helped Apollo 13 return to Earth in 1970 after an oxygen tank ruptured.
His parents divorced when he was 10 years old, and Judith later remarried, but both parents supported Jack in his career. While Judith died in 2016, Thomas still supports Jack and has appeared at movie premieres alongside his son and his grandchildren.
Judith retired in 1990 and, along with her third husband David, founded a publishing company aimed at encouraging girls to pursue science.
Judith passed away in 2016 at the age of 82, leaving behind a legacy of achievements in both engineering and publishing.
Jack has continued to pay tribute to his mother on social media, underscoring her dual roles as a “bad-ass aerospace engineer” and a “loving mother.”
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