Adrien Brody

Growing up in a tough neighborhood in Queens, New York, Adrien Brody starting running with the bad boys. To head him in the right direction, his mother, photographer Sylvia Plachy, enrolled her young son in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan.
Adrien was born April 14, 1973 in New York City. His parents doted on their only child. He attended LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York, which was featured in the movie FAME. At an early age he did magic tricks children’s parties as the Amazing Adrien. By age 12 he had an agent who got him work in an experimental film and an off Broadway play. In 1988, Adrien played an orphan in the PBS western HOME AT LAST and was cast in CBS’s Mary Tyler Moore sitcom “Annie Maguire.” His family moved with him to Los Angeles; but when the show was quickly cancelled, they all went back to NYC.
After a few semesters, he quit college to try his luck in Hollywood. The 6’1” actor’s first big screen role was in Francis Ford Coppola’s segment of NEW YORK STORIES (1989). Brody had a minor role in ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (1994), then spent several years in Indie movies. His big break came, or so he thought, when he starred in the WW II movie THE THIN RED LINE (1998). After shooting, director Terrence Malick changed made such major changes that Brody was on screen for fifteen minutes with not one line of dialogue.
Disappointed but not discouraged, he played a 1950’s college student in love in LIBERTY HEIGHTS (1999). Brody was a bisexual punk in the Bronx during the SUMMER OF SAM (1999), appeared in HARRISON’S FLOWERS (2000) and was one of the French Court swindlers in THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE (2001).
His second big break was as THE PIANIST (2002), a Hungarian Jew hiding from the Nazis in Warsaw. Both of Brody’s parents were Hungarian refugees. Accepting the Best Acting Oscar, he famously deep kissed presenter Halle Berry. He next played a mentally disturbed young man in THE VILLAGE (2004) where time seems to have stopped. For THE JACKET (2005), he starred as a man with PTS convicted of murder. For the part he was laced into straitjacket and shut up in a morgue drawer.
Trying action adventure, he played the screenwriter voyaging to Skull Island where the film crew meets KING KONG (2005). He starred as a private eye investigating Superman George Reeves’ (Ben Affleck) apparent suicide in HOLLYWOODLAND (2006). With his two brothers (Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson), he traveled across India on THE DARJEELING LIMITED (2007) in search of family harmony and mom (Anjelica Huston). As one of THE BROTHERS BLOOM (2008), he wanted to quit being a conman, but his bro (Mark Ruffalo) convinces him to do one last job. Brody played the founder of Chess Records, a.k.a. CADILLAC RECORDS (2008), who in the 1940’s and 50’s helped bring African American rhythm and blues performers to white audiences. He voiced the Field Mouse in the animated caper FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009). Last month Brody opened in theaters in the sci-fi movie SPLICE and opens this month in PREDATORS.

ODDS AND ENDS

IN 1992, he nearly died in a motorcycle crash in India in 1992.

In NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994) he had an uncredited part as a cameraman.

Filming SUMMER OF SAM, he broke his nose in a fight scene. He was upset that it would change his face. However after it healed, he decided against plastic surgery, keeping the distinctive nose he now sports.

Preparing for THE PIANIST, Brody gave up his car and apartment to understand the suffering of homeless Polish Jews. He also did his own stunts, lost 30 pounds and learned to play Chopin on the piano.

He was the youngest actor (up to 2003) to win a Best Actor Oscar and the only one to win when nominated with four previous Oscar winners.

Appearing on “Saturday Night Live” on May 10, 2003, Brody wore fake dreadlocks while delivering an off script introduction for reggae guest Sean Paul. The costume and the remarks, director Lorne Michaels banned him from future shows, though the intro stayed in reruns of the show.