The hair club for Sam
Role after disparate role in a career that has spanned 80-plus films, Samuel L. Jackson performances tend to share a common X-factor: amazing hair. Through the actor's extensive use of wigs, hair extensions, chemical grooming products and outlandish dye jobs, he has time and again conjured character through coiffure. Just ask Robert L. Stevenson, Jackson's dedicated hairstylist, who has supervised his tonsorial choices in more than 30 movies -- the guy's equally at ease with Jheri curl activator and Afro pick, in dreadlocks, in cornrows or totally bald. Jackson's latest flight of follicle fancy, the sci-fi action movie "Jumper," reaches theaters today.
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Chris Lee
"Pulp Fiction" (1994)
The look: A greasy corona of loose curls glistening with activator.
The back story: Quentin Tarantino may have originally envisioned Jackson's scripture-quoting hit man Jules Winnfield with a giant Afro, but the actor championed the "wet look" after a wardrobe assistant accidentally bought the wrong wig. "Jules's this philosophizing, highly articulate hit man who has a sense of style," Jackson explained in a 2005 interview with The Times. "I thought he was very much like N.W.A -- like guys from that particular era. Part of his sense of style is Jheri curl that drips on his collar."
"Jackie Brown" (1997)
The look: Black hair that's long, straight and as luxuriant as the mane of an Arabian palomino.
The back story: Jackson fondly recalls the wig he wore to portray hot-headed gunrunner Ordell Robbie as his "favorite movie hair." "I could wear it straight down or I could tie a French braid in the back or I could rock a ponytail," said Jackson. Of the character: "He's trying to be this elegant 'Super Fly'-kind of guy -- 'Super Fly' is his favorite movie and that's what Ron O'Neal's hair looked like."
"Star Wars: Episode I, II, III" (1999, 2002, 2005)
The look: A shaven head, clean and gleaming like a new billiard ball. No facial hair.
The back story: Playing Jedi Master Mace Windu, a ranking member of the Jedi Council and general in the Clone Wars, Jackson adopted a bald pate more out of convenience than necessity; he had simply shaved his head after wrapping "Sphere." "It isn't that Mace is this ethereal dude who takes his light saber and goes 'Rrrrr-owww,' runs it over the top of his head," Jackson said. "It was just one of those things that happened."
