Adrien Brody is an American actor. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring
in Roman Polanski's The Pianist, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at
age 29, the only actor under 30 to do so. Brody is also the only American actor to receive
the French 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; Brody's mother – who was raised
as a Catholic – was born in Budapest, Hungary, the daughter of a Catholic Hungarian aristocrat
father and a Czech Jewish mother. Brody was raised "without a strong connection" to Judaism
or Catholicism. As a child, he performed magic shows at children's birthday parties as "The
Amazing Adrien". He attended the I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer middle school and New York's
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. His parents enrolled
him in acting classes to distance him from the dangerous children with whom he associated.
He attended summer camp at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks in upstate
New York. Brody attended the Stony Brook University before transferring to Queens College for
a semester. Career
Taking acting classes as a child, by age thirteen he appeared in an Off-Broadway play and a
PBS television film. 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.
To prepare for the role, Brody withdrew for months, gave up his apartment and his car,
was left by his then-girlfriend, learned how to play Chopin on the piano, and lost 29 lbs.
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. 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. 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 films. In Dummy he portrayed Steven
Schoichet, a socially awkward aspiring ventriloquist in pursuit of a love interest. He learned
ventriloquism and puppetry for the role convincingly enough to perform all of the voice stunts
and puppet manipulation live on set in real time, with no subsequent post dubbing. He
played Noah Percy, a mentally disabled young man, in the film 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 both a critical and box office success; it grossed $550 million
worldwide and is Brody's most successful film to date in monetary terms. Additionally, Brody
played a detective in Hollywoodland. He has also appeared in Diet Coke and Schweppes commercials
as well as Tori Amos' music video for "A Sorta Fairytale". He was also in "Bullet" with Tupac
Shakur and Mickey Rourke. This film was released in 1996.
On January 5, 2006, Brody confirmed speculation that he was interested in playing the role
of The Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight. However, Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. decided
instead to cast Heath Ledger in the role. He was also in talks with Paramount to play
Spock in J. J. Abrams Star Trek XI, but it ultimately went to Zachary Quinto. In 2010,
he starred in Splice, a science fiction film written and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Originally
a Sundance film, Splice was adopted by Dark Castle Entertainment and distributed by Warner
Bros. Most recently, he played the star role of Royce in Predators, directed by Nimród
Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez.
In 2011, Brody starred in a Stella Artois beer ad called "Crying Jean" that premiered
right after half-time of the Super Bowl XLV as part of Stella's "She Is a Thing of Beauty”
campaign. He appeared in Woody Allen's 2011 Academy Award-winning comedy Midnight in Paris
as Salvador Dalí. On January 16, 2012, Brody made his runway debut as a model for Prada
Men Fall/Winter 2012 show. Personal life
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; the most recent was during the filming of Summer of Sam.
Brody began dating Spanish actress Elsa Pataky in 2006. For Pataky's 31st birthday in July
2007, Brody purchased her a 19th-century farm that was remodeled to look like a castle in
Central New York state. Brody and Pataky were featured at their New York home in a 35-page
spread for HELLO! magazine in October 2008. The pair broke up in 2009.
In 2010, Brody sued the Giallo filmmakers, alleging that they failed to pay his full
salary. Filmography
Film Television
Video games References
External links Adrien Brody at the Internet Movie Database
Adrien Brody at AllMovie