10 Things You Didn't Know About Jamie Foxx

9. He Was Raised By His Grandmother

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2a1nzAciMc When Jamie Foxx was just seven months old, he was legally adopted by his maternal grandparents, Mark and Esther Talley. His grandmother was 60 at the time, and Foxx has said that Esther was a huge influence on his life and one of the reasons for his success. She ran a nursery school while raising him and constantly pushed Foxx to focus on his love of music and reading. "Although my parents weren't around, my grandparents adopted me when I was 7 months old," he said. "I was never short on the love of a mother and father, though it came from an earlier generation of family." He said that he still doesn't know much about what his parents are like, but that he knows the people who did raise him deeply care about him, and that's what matters. He said that confidence was the most important lesson his grandmother taught him. He explained, "She could walk into a bank filled with white folks and say, 'Let me speak to so and so.' She knew who she was. And with the love she and my grandfather extended to me, she passed on that confidence." Sadly, he lost his grandmother to Alzheimer's in October 2004. She was 95 years old. Just four months after her death, Foxx received his Academy Award for Ray. In that emotional speech, he ended by thanking his grandmother. He said she was really his first acting teacher, telling him to "act like you've got some sense." Foxx ended by saying that he still talks to his grandmother in his dreams, and "I can't wait to go to sleep tonight, because we've got a lot to talk about." Foxx is now raising two daughters of his own, a 21 year old and a 5 year old.