Brendan James Fraser^[1] (born December 3, 1968) is an actor who is both American and Canadian^[2][3] who acts in both stage and films. He is famous because he has acted in many American movies, such as The Mummy movies, as well as The Quiet American, Crash, George of the Jungle and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Biography

Early life

Fraser was born in Indianapolis, Indiana,^[1] and is the son of Canadian parents Carol and Peter Fraser who used to work for the Canadian government in Indiana^[2][4][5]. He has three older brothers: Kevin, Regan, and Sean. His family moved often when he was a child and lived in Eureka, California, Seattle, Ottawa, the Netherlands and in Switzerland. When he was a boy, Fraser he was at the well known Canadian school for boys,^[6] called Upper Canada College, in Toronto. When he was on vacation in London, Fraser went to see his first show in the West End. He graduated from Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts in 1990.^[4][7] He started acting at a small acting college in New York. He first planned on going to graduate school in Texas but he made the decision to stay in Hollywood and work in movies.

Career

Fraser's first job acting in a film was a small part in America's Most Wanted in 1988 where he acted as the friend to Rodney Mark Peterson, who was a person who was killed. He has since acted in over 30 movies. He had his first job as the main actor in Encino Man in (1992). That same year he acted with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris O'Donnell in School Ties in (1992). In 1994, he acted with Adam Sandler in the comedy Airheads. He then acted in smaller parts with Viggo Mortensen and Ashley Judd in Philip Ridley's The Passion of Darkly Noon in (1995), and Jennifer Beals in The Twilight of the Golds in (1997). In 1997, he became more famous because of the film George of the Jungle (1997). He went on to act in more comedy movies like Blast from the Past in (1999), Bedazzled in (2000) and Monkeybone in (2001).

His best success was with the film (which also had Rachel Weisz as an actor) called The Mummy in (1999) and its sequel The Mummy Returns (2001), both of which were very successful.

In 2004, he acted in the Academy Award winning film Crash. He has also acted in the television shows Scrubs, King of the Hill, and The Simpsons.

In March 2006, he was made a member of Canada's Walk of Fame,^[2] and was the first American-born actor to have this happen. He does not have his name put on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After not acting in one of the movies for six years, Fraser has now acted again in a new "The Mummy" movie called The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The movie began in Montreal on July 27, 2007 and the movie also had Jet Li acting as Emperor Han. The last Mummy film made over $100 million in the USA and over $400 million worldwide.

Fraser also acted as "Brick" in the West End show of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in September, 2001, directed by Anthony Page. Other actors in it were Ned Beatty, Frances O'Connor, and Gemma Jones. The show ended on January 12, 2002, with people saying good things about it.^[8]

Personal life

Fraser met actress Afton Smith at a barbecue at Winona Ryder's house on July 4, 1993, after he came to Los Angeles.^[4] Fraser married Smith on September 27, 1998, and they have three sons: Griffin Arthur Fraser,^[1] born September 17, 2002, in Los Angeles; Holden Fletcher Fraser born August 16, 2004, in Los Angeles and Leland Francis Fraser born May 2, 2006, in Los Angeles. On December 27, 2007, Fraser's publicist (the person who speaks to the press about Fraser) said that the couple had made the decision to divorce.^{[9][dead link][10]}

Brendan Fraser can speak French like a person who was born there.^[11] Fraser also serves on the Board of Directors for FilmAid International.^[12]

Fraser is also a good photographer.^[2] He has used more than one Polaroid camera in movies and on TV shows, most known is in his time acting on Scrubs.

Movies acted in

Audio books

• Dragon Rider (2004)
• Inkspell (2005)

References

Other websites

• Official web site
• Brendan Fraser at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)