Albert Brooks
Albert Brooks (born
July 22,
1947 as
Albert Lawrence Einstein) is an
Academy Award nominated
American actor,
writer,
comedian and
director.
Early life
Brooks was born
Albert Lawrence Einstein in
Beverly Hills,
Los Angeles, California to a
Jewish American family. His father,
Harry Einstein, was a comedian who performed on
Eddie Cantor's
radio program and was known as
Parkyarkarkus. His mother was actress
Thelma Leeds (born
Thelma Goodman). His brother is
Bob Einstein, better known by his
stage name "
Super Dave Osborne".
Brooks grew up among showbusiness royalty in southern
California, attending high school with
Richard Dreyfuss and
Rob Reiner.
Early career
Brooks attended
Carnegie Tech in
Pittsburgh, but dropped out after one year to focus on his comedy career. He changed his surname from
Einstein (to avoid confusion with the famous
scientist) and began a stand-up comedy career that quickly made him a regular on
variety and
talk shows during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Brooks led a new generation of self-reflective baby-boomer comics appearing on the NBC network
Tonight Show starring
Johnny Carson. His onstage persona, that of an egotistical, narcissistic, nervous comic, an ironic showbiz insider who punctured himself before an audience by disassembling his mastery of comedic stagecraft, influenced other 70's
post-modern comedians, including
Steve Martin,
Martin Mull and
Andy Kaufman.
After two successful comedy albums,
Comedy Minus One (1974) and the
Grammy Award-nominated
A Star is Bought (1975), Brooks left the standup circuit to try his hand as a filmmaker; his first film,
The Famous Comedians School, was a satiric short which appeared on
PBS and was an early example of the
mockumentary sub-genre.
In
1975, he directed six short films for the first season of
NBC's
Saturday Night Live:
ad:10/11/75 h:George Carlin - unlikely news items
ad:10/18/75 h:Paul Simon - failed
Candid Camera stunts & home movies
ad:10/25/75 h:Rob Reiner - heart surgery
ad:11/8/75 h:Candice Bergen - upcoming season
ad:12/13/75 h:Richard Pryor / Gil Scott-Heron - sick
ad:1/9/76 h:Elliot Gould / Anne Murray - audience test screening
In
1976 he appeared in his first mainstream film role, in
Scorsese's landmark
Taxi Driver (Scorsese allowed Brooks to improvise much of his dialogue). The role reflected Brooks's decision to move to
Los Angeles to get into the film business.
Brooks directed his first feature film,
Real Life, in
1979. The film, in which Brooks obnoxiously films a typical
suburban family in an effort to win both an
Oscar and a
Nobel Prize, was a sendup of
PBS's
An American Family documentary. Brooks also made a brief cameo in the film
Private Benjamin (
1980), starring
Goldie Hawn.
1980sâ€"1990s
Through the 1980s and 1990s, Brooks co-wrote (with longtime collaborator Monica Johnson), directed and starred in a series of moderately-successful comedies, playing variants on his standard neurotic and self-obsessed character. These include
1981's Modern Romance, where Brooks played a film editor desperate to win back his ex-girlfriend (
Kathryn Harrold). The film received a limited release and ultimately grossed under $3 million domestically,
but was well received by critics, with one reviewer commenting that the film was "not Brooks at his best, but still amusing".
His best-received film,
Lost in America (
1985), featured Brooks and
Julie Hagerty as a couple who leave their
yuppie lifestyle, drop out of society and live in a motor home, only to find the disadvantages of
poverty.
Brooks's
Defending Your Life (
1991) placed his lead character in the
afterlife, put on trial to justify his human failings and to determine his cosmic fate. Critics responded to the offbeat premise and the surprising chemistry between Brooks and
Meryl Streep as his post-death love interest. His later efforts did not find large audiences, but still retained Brooks's touch as a filmmaker. He garnered positive reviews for
Mother (
1996), which starred Brooks as a middle-aged
writer moving back home to resolve his tensions with his mother (
Debbie Reynolds).
1999's The Muse featured Brooks as a down-and-out
Hollywood screenwriter using the services of an authentic muse (
Sharon Stone) for inspiration.
Brooks also acted in other writers' and directors' films during the 1980s and 1990s. He moved into the horror genre in one of the stories in
Twilight Zone: The Movie, playing an unsuspecting driver who picks up a suspicious hitchhiker (
Dan Aykroyd). In
James L. Brooks's hit
Broadcast News (
1987), he was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as an insecure, supremely ethical
network TV reporter, who offers the rhetorical question, "Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive?" He also won positive notices for his role in
1998's Out of Sight, playing an untrustworthy banker and ex-convict.
2000s
Brooks received positive reviews for his portrayal of a dying retail store owner who befriends disillusioned teen
Leelee Sobieski in
My First Mister (
2001), and he has appeared as a guest voice on
The Simpsons five times during its run (always under the name
A. Brooks). Brooks continued his voiceover work in
Disney and
Pixar's
Finding Nemo (
2003), as the voice of "Marlin", the film's protagonist;
Nemo is Brooks's largest grossing film to date.
In
2005, his film
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World drew controversy for its title.
Sony Pictures eventually dropped the film altogether because of their desire to change the title. Subsequently,
Warner Independent Pictures purchased the film and gave it a limited release in January 2006; the film received mixed reviews and a low box office gross. The movie goes back to the days of Brooks's
Real Life, as Brooks once again plays himself, a filmmaker commissioned by the U.S. government to see what makes the
Muslim people laugh, thus sending him on a tour throughout Muslim countries.
Brooks was romantically linked to singer
Linda Ronstadt and actresses
Carrie Fisher,
Julie Hagerty and
Kathryn Harrold. He married Kimberly Shlain, an artist (
Kimberly Brooks) they met through a mutual friend. The couple have two children, Jacob Eli (born 1998) and Claire Elizabeth (born 2000).
Brooks is a resident of Los Angeles.
|
Brooks in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World |
