- 2004
Settling In
Dunst and Gyllenhaal share the actress's $1.7 million Los Angeles home and wear gold promise bands (hers on a chain around her neck). "I am really happy and in love," she tells PEOPLE.
Moving On...
Dunst's rep announces that her client and Gyllenhaal have split up. Declining to provide details or dates, the rep says, "Kirsten and Jake remain the best of friends. . . They are still very close." A few weeks later, the former couple are spotted on a lunch date in L.A. Dunst's rep denies a revived romance but the pair are spotted together again and again.
- 2005
Proof Premieres
Proof hits theaters. In it, the actor plays a math grad student opposite Gwyneth Paltrow, whose character tends to her father, a mathematical genius, played by Anthony Hopkins.
New Role, New Look
Gyllenhaal plays a marine in the Gulf War drama Jarhead, costarring with Jamie Foxx and Peter Sarsgaard (his sister's love interest). As for the military "do," "They buzz it every other day," he tells PEOPLE. "It's a science." Would he shave it again after the film? "Without a doubt," he says. "I felt really badass! I felt strong, present and alive. It takes the sense of vanity away."
'I Wish I Knew How to Quit You'
Brokeback Mountain, a movie about two men who fall in love during a sheepherding expedition, opens to critical acclaim. Gyllenhaal plays flashy rodeo cowboy Jack Twist opposite Heath Ledger's quiet, conflicted Ennis Del Mar. "I really did approach it like I would any love story," Gyllenhaal tells Entertainment Weekly. Both actors earn Oscar nominations for their heart-felt performances.
- 2006
Real Help
The leading man lends a real hand when the San Francisco lodge where he and his family are vacationing for the holidays catches fire. "Jake was helping me pull things out of the fire," Daniel DeLong, a chef and co-owner of the historic lodge, told the Marin Independent Journal. No one was injured.
- 2007
Gyllenhaal's Zodiac
Suspense thriller Zodiac, starring Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo, opens at No. 2. New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis dubs the stars a "trio of beauties" who are "all at the top of their performance game." The true-crime film explores the notorious Zodiac serial killer that stalked the Bay area and is directed by David Fincher (Se7en). Gyllenhaal plays cartoonist-turned-writer Robert Graysmith, who obsessively corresponds with the possibly still-at-large, unidentified murderer.
More than Costars
Gyllenhaal, 26, quietly spends time with Rendition costar Reese Witherspoon, 31, who split with husband Ryan Phillippe five months earlier. They were spotted dining together at L.A.'s Il Sole in late March, and he met her and kids Ava, 7, and Deacon, 3, in New York.
Photo Credits
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): GINSBURG-VIBBERT; Francois Duhamel/Universal; Universal Pictures; Everett Collection; Bauer Griffin
- Name
- Jake Gyllenhaal
- Real Name
- Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal
- Birth Date
- December 19, 1980
- Birth Place
- Los Angeles, Calif.
- Heart Monitor
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Reese Witherspoon, girlfriend (2007 to present)
Kirsten Dunst, ex-girlfriend (2002 to 2004)
