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Lance Humble Carl Cooper Biography & Facts

Carl "CJ" Johnson is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the fifth main installment in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. He is voiced by Young Maylay, who also served as the likeness for the character. In the game's storyline, Carl is depicted as the second-in-command of the Grove Street Families, a fictional street gang based in his home city of Los Santos, San Andreas (a fictional parody of Los Angeles, California). The gang is led by his older brother, "Sweet" Johnson, with whom Carl became estranged after the death of their younger brother, Brian, in a gang-related attack prior to the events of the game. Feeling his life in Los Santos is unpromising, Carl eventually decides to move to Liberty City in 1987, only to return home five years later after his mother, Beverly, is similarly killed. While seeking to make amends with friends and family for abandoning them, Carl returns to his previous gangster lifestyle as he embarks on an eventful journey across the entire state of San Andreas, which sees him making new allies and clashing with several powerful criminal organisations and corrupt authorities. Although initially portrayed as somewhat naïve, clumsy, and selfish, Carl develops over the course of San Andreas' storyline, both on a professional level, becoming a successful criminal and businessman, and on an emotional level, as he learns to appreciate his roots and those around him. Carl received critical acclaim, with praise going to his complexity, lack of stereotype and his sense of conscience, and is regarded as one of the greatest video game characters of all time. Concept and design CJ has over 7,700 lines of dialogue in San Andreas: more than 3,500 cutscenes, and over 4,200 in the open world. Executive producer Sam Houser sought an unknown actor for CJ as he found Ray Liotta's performance as Tommy Vercetti in Vice City "conflicting"; he opted to cast celebrities in secondary roles, such as Jackson as Tenpenny, and felt Young Maylay's obscurity in the industry made CJ feel "very, very human". Rockstar asked Young Maylay to audition after overhearing him speak with co-writer DJ Pooh; he was cast in the role—his first acting performance—a few weeks after auditioning.: 41  He felt the developers gave him freedom to insert his own personality into CJ. The team aimed for CJ to be "the most human" character they had developed, ensuring he had "the most intense story around him" to allow players to identify.: 54  DJ Pooh compared CJ to Tupac Shakur in that he is fiercely dedicated to his family but becomes "cold-blooded" when necessary.: 49  CJ's physical appearance is modeled after Young Maylay. He said he was influenced by his own life when portraying the character: "I put Maylay on CJ. I make him as much me as I can, without too much changing of the script".: 41  San Andreas introduced role-playing elements to customise CJ's accessories, clothing, hairstyles, and tattoos. Balancing food and physical activity impacts CJ's appearance and physical attributes; eating and exercising maintains health. The team felt that the ability to adjust CJ's weight helped the player to feel as though their actions could have consequences in the game. Dan Houser felt CJ's customisability allowed players to better connect with the characters.: 50  The game's focus on several communities was prompted by the variety of the West Coast in the 1990s. Fictional character biography Background Carl was born to Beverly Johnson and an unnamed father, in his family home, located on Grove Street in the Ganton district of Los Santos. Growing up, he got along well with his mother and siblings Sean (nicknamed "Sweet"), Kendl, and Brian, though not with his father, whom he barely remembers; as he states at one point, "[He] never really had a father." At a young age, Carl, Sweet, and Brian befriended Melvin "Big Smoke" Harris and Lance "Ryder" Wilson, who lived on the same street, and all five got involved in small-time criminal activities. After Sweet joined the Grove Street Families, one of the oldest and most powerful street gangs in Los Santos, he eventually became its leader and inducted Carl, Brian, Big Smoke, and Ryder into the gang. By 1987, with the drug trade business expanding, most gangs in Los Santos began selling drugs in an effort to increase their power. However, Sweet's principles against drug-use prevented him from doing the same, causing the Families to slowly lose most of their influence and territories to their rivals. Around the same time, Brian was killed under unknown circumstances, most likely an attack by a rival gang, which Carl is implied to have witnessed, but did nothing to try and save his brother. This soured his relationships with his friends and family, especially with Sweet, who blamed him for the tragedy. After deciding that his life in Los Santos was unpromising, Carl cut his ties with everyone and moved to Liberty City, where he resided for five years and found work in stealing cars for Joey Leone. Return to Los Santos The game's main storyline begins with Carl flying back to Los Santos following the death of his mother in a drive-by shooting in 1992. Upon his arrival, Carl is confronted by Los Santos Police Department (LSPD) Officers Frank Tenpenny, Edward "Eddie" Pulaski, and Jimmy Hernandez, three highly corrupt members of the city's community policing unit, Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) Tenpenny and his associates warn Carl early on that they intend to frame him for the murder of police officer Ralph Pendlebury, whom CRASH had killed to prevent him from exposing their illegal activities. They also force Carl to do work for them in exchange for his and his family's safety. After reuniting with Sweet, Kendl, Big Smoke, and Ryder, Carl learns that the Families have lost almost all of their territories to their main rivals, the Ballas, during his absence, and agrees to stay in Los Santos and help solve the gang's problems. While doing so, he befriends Kendl's boyfriend and Varrios Los Aztecas leader Cesar Vialpando, despite Sweet's initial objections, and helps his friend Jeffrey "OG Loc" Cross jumpstart his career as a rapper despite his lack of talent. The Families' resurgence is short-lived, as Carl discovers that Big Smoke and Ryder have betrayed the gang by forming alliances with CRASH and the Ballas, and planned the attack that killed his mother, which was actually meant for Sweet, in an effort to eliminate the Families. While Carl uncovers this, Sweet is ambushed by a group of Ballas and wounded. Carl arrives to rescue him, but both brothers end up arrested by the police. While Sweet goes to prison awaiting trial, Carl is kidnapped by CRASH, who take him to the countryside near Los Santos so that he can continue working for them. Tenpenny threatens to have Sweet killed if Carl attempts to return to Los Santos or intervene in CRASH's dealings with.... 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