Adrien Brody

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Adrien Brody

Brody at Cannes Film Festival, 2002
Born April 14, 1973 (age 33)
Woodhaven, Queens, New York, USA
Notable roles Władysław Szpilman in
The Pianist
Jack Driscoll in
Peter Jackson's King Kong
Louis Simo in
Hollywoodland
Academy Awards
Best Actor
2002 The Pianist
César Awards
César Award for Best Actor
2002 The Pianist

Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He received widespread recognition when he was cast as the lead in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002). The role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, the youngest actor ever to win the award.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York (a neighborhood near Jamaica, Queens) to Elliot Brody, a retired history professor, and Sylvia Plachy, a photojournalist. Brody's father is Jewish and his mother was born in Hungary;[1] Brody's Hungarian maternal grandmother was also Jewish.[2] 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.

In 1992, Brody was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car and crashed feet-first into a crosswalk. He spent months recuperating. An avid daredevil, he has broken his nose three times doing off-the-wall stunts.

[edit] Personal life

Brody is currently dating Elsa Pataky.

[edit] Career

Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, receiving 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 13 kg (29 lb). The role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the youngest actor ever to win the award. He also won a Cesar Award for his performance, and is therefore the only American actor to win one.

Throughout his career, Brody has been compared to Al Pacino and Marlon Brando for his unique looks and method acting. He is also widely known for giving presenter Halle Berry a back-breaking kiss after winning 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 for musical guest Sean Paul (the show's producer, Lorne Michaels, is infamous for hating unscripted performances). 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 has appeared in three 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, and writer Jack Driscoll in the 2005 King Kong remake.

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.[3] It has been confirmed that he is in talks with Paramount to play Spock in J.J. Abrams Star Trek XI[4]

Brody has been confirmed to star as a con man in Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom, which is slated for a 2008 release date. [5]

[edit] Trivia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time. This article has been tagged since March 2007.
This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • Performed magic shows at children's birthdays as a child, as 'The Amazing Adrien'.
  • Is a big hip-hop fan and plans on becoming a producer. He is being mentored by RZA.
  • Taking acting classes as a youth, by age 13 he had done an off-Broadway play and a PBS-TV-movie.
  • In 1992, he was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car and crashed feet-first into a crosswalk.
  • Did sessions in an isolation tank, performed prison exercises, and went on a protein diet for his role in The Jacket (2005).
  • He was furious when his nose was broken during the final fight in Summer of Sam (1999). When he had it fixed, he didn't change it.

[edit] Selected filmography

Awards
Preceded by
Denzel Washington
for Training Day		 Academy Award for Best Actor
2002
for The Pianist		 Succeeded by
Sean Penn
for Mystic River

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ "The prime of Adrien Brody", Guardian Unlimited, 2006-11-12. Retrieved on December 13, 2006.
  2. ^ Meyers, William. "Rescuing Beauty From History's Dark Corners", The New York Sun, 2005-01-27. Retrieved on December 13, 2006.
  3. ^ http://www.batman-on-film.com/batmovienews.html
  4. ^ http://trekmovie.com/2007/02/26/casting-rumor-damon-brody-sinise-for-kirk-spock-mccoy/#more-536
  5. ^ http://www.cinemafusion.com/index.php?/weblog/comments/brick_writer_and_directors_latest_flick/ Cinema Fusion

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../a/d/r/Adrien_Brody_1649.html"