Adrien Brody (born April 14,
1973) is an American
actor. He received widespread recognition and subsequent
acclaim after starring in
Roman
Polanski's
The
Pianist (2002). He is notable as
the youngest actor ever to receive an
Academy Award for Best Actor
and the only American actor ever to win a
César Award.
Early life
Brody was
born in Woodhaven, Queens,
New
York
, the son of Sylvia
Plachy, a photojournalist, and Elliot Brody, a retired history
professor and painter. Brody's father is of Polish-Jewish descent, and Brody's mother was born in Budapest,
Hungary
to a Catholic father and
Jewish mother. As a child, Brody performed magic shows at
children's birthday parties as "The Amazing Adrien".
Brody attended
New
York's Fiorello H.
LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and
Performing Arts (famous as the inspiration for television's
Fame). His
parents enrolled him in acting classes to distance him from the
dangerous kids with whom he associated.He attended summer camp at
Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks in upstate New
York.
In 1992, Brody was seriously hurt in a
motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car
and crashed head-first into a crosswalk. He spent months
recuperating. He has broken his nose three times doing stunts. His
nose was broken once again during the filming of
Summer of Sam.
Career
Taking acting classes as a youth, by age thirteen, he had done an
off-Broadway play and a PBS-TV-movie.
Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, receiving an Independent
Spirit Award nomination for his role in the 1998 film
Restaurant and later praise for his
roles in
Spike Lee's
Summer of Sam and
Terrence Malick's
The Thin Red Line. He
received widespread recognition when he was cast as the lead in
Roman Polanski's
The Pianist (2002). To prepare
for the role, Brody withdrew for months, gave up his apartment and
his car, learned how to play
Chopin on the piano, and lost 29
lbs (13 kg). The role won him an
Academy Award for Best Actor,
making him, at 29, the youngest actor ever to win the award, and to
date the only winner under the age of 30. He also won a
César Award for his performance, becoming
the only American actor to win one. Throughout his career, Brody
has been compared to
Al Pacino for his
unique looks and
method acting. He is
also widely known for giving presenter
Halle
Berry a back-breaking kiss before accepting his Best Actor
Oscar, and as the spokesman for fashion brand
Ermenegildo Zegna.
Brody
appeared on Saturday Night
Live on May 10, 2003, his first TV work, but he was banned
from the show after giving an improvised introduction while wearing
faux dreadlocks for Jamaican
reggae musical guest Sean
Paul (the show's producer, Lorne
Michaels, is notorious for hating unscripted
performances). However, the unscripted intro remains in
reruns of the episode. Other TV appearances include NBC's
The Today Show and on
MTV's
Punk'd after being tricked by
Ashton Kutcher.
After
The Pianist
Brody appeared in four very different movies. He played Noah Percy,
a mentally disabled young man, in the movie
The Village, by
M. Night
Shyamalan, shell-shocked war veteran Jack Starks in
The Jacket, writer
Jack Driscoll in the 2005
King Kong remake, and
father-to-be Peter Whitman in
The Darjeeling Limited by
Wes Anderson.
King Kong was a
box office success; it grossed $550 million worldwide and is
Brody's most successful movie to date in monetary terms. He also
played a detective in
Hollywoodland. He has also appeared in
Diet Coke commercials and
Tori Amos' music video for "
A Sorta Fairytale".
On January 5, 2006, Brody confirmed speculation that he indeed was
interested and very willing to play the role of
The Joker in 2008's
The Dark Knight. However,
Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. eventually decided to cast
Heath Ledger as The Joker. He was also
in talks with Paramount to play
Spock in
J. J.
Abrams Star Trek XI, but it ultimately went
to
Zachary Quinto. Brody also starred
as a con man named "Bloom" in
Rian
Johnson's
The Brothers
Bloom, released in May 2009. Brody will star in
Splice, a science fiction
film directed by Vincenzo Natali that is slated for a 2009 release.
He will also play the lead role of Royce in
Predators (a
reboot of the
popular science
fiction franchise) which will be directed by
Nimrod Antal and produced by
Robert Rodriguez.
Personal life
In May of 2009, Adrien Brody and
Elsa
Pataky ended their two-year relationship.
Filmography
References
- The Village Voice
External links
Wikis
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