Before Jackson became a household name in India for portraying Nick Fury, some of his films were regularly telecast in India, which made the childhood of millennials awesome

Samuel L. Jackson is one of the finest actors ever to grace Hollywood. Be it playing a lead or supporting a role, Jackson nails every role he picks. And while the millennials in the West grew up watching almost all his movies, the Indian millennials did not have the same luck because of the lack of multiplexes that showed foreign movies, and movie CDs were not always available. The internet was also nonexistent for millennials, but fortunately, some television channels regularly broadcast a few of Jackson's movies.

To celebrate the actor’s 77th birthday this December, here’s a list of Jackson movies that made millennials’ childhoods awesome.

Deep Blue Sea

One of those violent shark films, Deep Blue Sea, features Samuel L. Jackson as Russell Franklin. In the film, Russell doesn’t survive, becoming prey to the shark, but his role will forever remain etched in our memory, given how many times we watch the movie. Do you know that Jackson was originally cast to play the chef? However, his management team did not like the idea, and therefore, the character of Russell was written for him.

XXX

Vin Diesel’s popularity rose with The Fast and the Furious in 2001, but it was XXX (Triple-X) that made him a bigger solo action star. However, while Vin’s character was a reckless stunt junkie, depth in the film came from Jackson, who played Agent Augustus Gibbons, a tough boss in the spy world who knew where to dig for the right talent. Although staunch, Gibbons was also one of the coolest on-screen bosses.

S.W.A.T

Another film we watched multiple times throughout our childhood, S.W.A.T., featured Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, and Jeremy Renner, with Renner playing the role of the antagonist. Jackson played Sergeant Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson, an LAPD veteran who led an S.W.A.T. team. This was one of the first films to introduce us to S.W.A.T., a special police unit that usually handles domestic hostage situations. Today, several countries have their own equivalents of S.W.A.T. within their police forces. For example, the Mumbai Police have Force One.

The Incredibles

The Incredibles was one of the finest animated superhero movies that was produced when millennials were kids. Set in a retro-futuristic version of the 1960s, Samuel L. Jackson voiced Lucius Best, alias Frozone, a close friend of the Incredibles’ family. To be honest, Frozone was way cooler than Mr. Incredible – LITERALLY!

By the time most early millennials hit 30 and late millennials were on the verge of graduating and entering the college phase, Jackson’s portrayal of Nick Fury had become mainstream, a constant part of millennial life.

To the actor turning 77, we cannot thank you enough for these great films, but we surely pray for your healthy life.