NICOLAS CAGE MY LIFE IN 10 Pictures

GROWING UP in Hollywood, Nicolas Kim Coppola may have seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, director Francis Ford Coppola.

"I was happy in the bubble of my imagination," he said. But taking the surname of superhero Luke Cage and composer John Cage, Nic was determined to make a name for himself. And he's done just that - crafting perhaps the film world's most eclectic résumé. However, Nic has often been more scrutinized for his life off-screen- from his financial woes to his marriages to Patricia Arquette and Lisa Marie Presley. But for Nic, who turns 60 on Jan. 7, what's past is prologue. "My dad died at 75. I'm turning 60. If I'm lucky, I have maybe a good 15 years, hopefully more. [And] I want to say bye on a high note.”

1 1983-GIRL POWER

"It was easy for the performance to happen," said Nic of his first leading role in the teen classic Valley Girl. "I absolutely adored [my costar] Deborah Foreman. I had a massive crush on her. I would write her poems. Sol didn't really have to act. It's easy to have that feeling of love when it's genuine."

2 1986- SHOW ME

“Kathleen Turner was rolling her eyes,” he’d admit of his turn in Peggy Sue Got Married, in which he insisted to director Francis Ford Coppola his character had to talk like Pokey from The Gumby Show! “If he was not my uncle, I probably would have been fired.”

3 1987- OVER THE MOON 

It’s a classic, but Nic “was hesitant about making Moonstruck. At the time, it didn’t line up with my so-called punk-rock fantasies about what we could do with film performance. Now looking at it, it’s definitely one of my favorites.”