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Adrien Brody
Brody in New York City, September 2007
Born	April 14, 1973 (1973-04-14) (age 35) Woodhaven, Queens, New York, U.S.
Years active	1988–present
Awards won Academy Awards Best Actor 2002 The Pianist César Awards Best Actor 2002 The Pianist

Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an Academy Award-winning 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, and a César Award for Best Actor, the only American actor to win one.

Biography

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.^[1] Brody's father is Jewish and Brody's mother was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Catholic father and Jewish mother.^[2][3] As a child, Brody performed magic shows at children's birthday parties as "The Amazing Adrien".^[4] 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 head-first into a crosswalk. He spent months recuperating. An avid daredevil, he has broken his nose three times doing off-the-wall stunts. His nose was also 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. 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.^{citation needed} 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 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 has 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. 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.^[5] He was also in talks with Paramount to play Spock in J.J. Abrams Star Trek XI, but it ultimately went to Zachary Quinto.^[6][7] Brody has been confirmed to star as a con man in Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom, which is slated to be released on October 24, 2008.^[8] Brody will also star in Splice, a science fiction film directed by Vincenzo Natali that is slated for a 2009 release. Brody is currently filming Cadillac Records, directed by Darnell Martin, which is slated for a 2008 release.

Personal life

Brody is currently dating Elsa Pataky.^[9][10]

Brody has been linked to famous starlet Keira Knightley, his costar in The Jacket.

Filmography

Awards and Nominations

Won

• Academy Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• BSFC Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• Caesar Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• NSFC Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• VFAA Award for Best Actor for Love the Hard Way

Nominated

• BAFTA Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• CFCA Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• European Film Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• OFCS Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• Polish Film Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• SAAG Award for Best Actor for The Pianist
• Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor for Restaurant

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Adrien Brody

External links

• Adrien Brody at the Internet Movie Database
• Adrien Brody at Allmovie
• Adrien Brody Fan Site
• Adrien Brody's iTunes Celebrity Playlist
• Vilmos Plachy, Adrian Brody's grandfather 1940 in Budapest
• Adrien Brody Filmography