Albert Brooks Jewish Name - Albert Lawrence Einstein
Albert Lawrence Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein; July 22, 1947) is an American
actor, voice actor, writer, comedian, and director. Albert Brooks
received an Academy Award nomination in 1987[1] for his role in
Broadcast News. His voice acting credits include Marlin the
clownfish in Finding Nemo, and recurring guest voices for the
animated television series The Simpsons, including Russ Cargill in
The Simpsons Movie.
Early life
Albert Brooks was born in Beverly Hills, California, the son of
Thelma Leeds (nιe Goodman), a singer and actress, and Harry
Einstein, a radio comedian who performed on Eddie Cantor's radio
program and was known as Parkyakarkus.[2] His brothers are comedic
actor Bob Einstein, better known by his stage name "Super Dave
Osborne," and Cliff Einstein, a partner and longtime chief creative
officer at Los Angeles advertising agency Dailey & Associates. His
half-brother was Charles Einstein (19262007), a writer for such
television programs as Playhouse 90 and Lou Grant. Albert Brooks is
Jewish;[3] his grandparents emigrated from Austria and Russia.
Albert Brooks grew up among show business royalty in southern
California, attending Beverly Hills High School with the likes of
Richard Dreyfuss and Rob Reiner.[4]
Career
Early career
Albert Brooks attended Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, but dropped
out after one year to focus on his comedy career. Albert Brooks
changed his surname from Einstein (to avoid confusion with the
famous physicist) and began a comedy career that quickly made him a
regular on variety and talk shows during the late 1960s and early
1970s. Albert Brooks led a new generation of self-reflective
baby-boomer comics appearing on NBC's The Tonight Show with 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 '70s post-modern comedians, including
Steve Martin, Martin Mull and Andy Kaufman.
After two successful comedy albums, Comedy Minus One (1973) and the
Grammy Award-nominated A Star Is Bought (1975), Albert Brooks left
the stand-up circuit to try his hand as a filmmaker; his first film,
The Famous Comedians School, was a satiric short that appeared on
PBS and was an early example of the mockumentary sub-genre.
In 1975, Albert Brooks directed six short films for the first season
of NBC's Saturday Night Live:
October 11, 1975 episode (host: George Carlin) "The Impossible
Truth"
October 18, 1975 episode (host: Paul Simon) failed Candid Camera
stunts and home movies
October 25, 1975 episode (host: Rob Reiner) heart surgery
November 8, 1975 episode (host: Candice Bergen) upcoming season
December 13, 1975 episode (host: Richard Pryor) sick
January 9, 1976 episode (host: Elliott Gould) - audience test
screening
In 1976 Albert Brooks appeared in his first mainstream film role, in
Martin Scorsese's landmark Taxi Driver; Scorsese allowed Albert
Brooks to improvise much of his dialogue. The role reflected
Brooks's decision to move to Los Angeles to enter the film business.
In an interview, Albert Brooks mentioned a conversation he'd had
with Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader, in which Schrader said
that Brooks's character was the only one in the movie that Albert
Brooks could not "understand" a remark that Albert Brooks found
amusing, as the movie's antihero was a psychotic loner.
Albert Brooks directed his first feature film, Real Life, in 1979.
The film, in which Albert 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. It has also
been viewed as foretelling the future emergence of reality
television.[5] Albert Brooks also made a cameo appearance in the
film Private Benjamin (1980), starring Goldie Hawn.
1980s1990s
Through the 1980s and 1990s, Albert Brooks co-wrote (with longtime
collaborator Monica Johnson), directed and starred in a series of
well-received comedies, playing variants on his standard neurotic
and self-obsessed character. These include 1981's Modern Romance,
where Albert 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,[6] but was
well received by critics, with one reviewer commenting that the film
was "not Albert Brooks at his best, but still amusing".[7] His
best-received film, Lost in America (1985), featured Albert Brooks
and Julie Hagerty as a couple who leave their yuppie lifestyle and
drop out of society to live in a motor home as they have always
dreamed of doing. They meet comic disappointment.
Brooks's Defending Your Life (1991) placed his lead character in the
afterlife, put on trial to justify his human fears and thus
determine his cosmic fate. Critics responded to the offbeat premise
and the surprising chemistry between Albert 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.
Albert Brooks garnered positive reviews for Mother (1996), which
starred Albert Brooks as a middle-aged writer moving back home to
resolve tensions between himself and his mother (Debbie Reynolds).
1999's The Muse featured Albert Brooks as a down-and-out Hollywood
screenwriter using the services of an authentic muse (Sharon Stone)
for inspiration.
Albert Brooks has appeared as a guest voice on The Simpsons five
times during its run (always under the name A. Albert Brooks), and
is described as the best guest star in the show's history by IGN,
particularly for his role as supervillain Hank Scorpio in the
episode "You Only Move Twice".[8]
Albert Brooks also acted in other writers' and directors' films
during the 1980s and 1990s. Albert Brooks had a cameo in the opening
scene of Twilight Zone: The Movie, playing a driver whose passenger
(Dan Aykroyd) has a shocking secret. In James L. Brooks's hit
Broadcast News (1987), Albert Brooks 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?" Albert Brooks also won positive notices for his role in
1998's Out of Sight, playing an untrustworthy banker and ex-convict.
2000s
Albert Brooks received positive reviews for his portrayal of a dying
retail store owner who befriends disillusioned teen Leelee Sobieski
in My First Mister (2001). Albert Brooks continued his voiceover
work in Disney and Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003), as the voice of
"Marlin", one of the film's protagonists; Nemo is Brooks's largest
grossing film to date.
In 2005, his film Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World was dropped
by Sony Pictures due to their desire to change the title. 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 Albert 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 of India and Pakistan.
In 2006 Albert Brooks appeared in the documentary film Wanderlust as
David Howard from "Lost in America". The documentary included many
other well known people. In 2007, Albert Brooks continued his long
term collaboration with The Simpsons by voicing Russ Cargill, the
central antagonist of The Simpsons Movie.
Albert Brooks has played Lenny Botwin, Nancy Botwin's estranged
father-in-law, on Showtime's television series Weeds.[9] St.
Martin's Press published his first novel, 2030: The Real Story of
What Happens to America, on May 10, 2011.[10]
In 2011, Albert Brooks costarred as a vicious gangster heavy and the
main antagonist in the motion picture Drive, alongside Ryan Gosling
and Carey Mulligan, a role that has been given much critical praise
and positive reviews, with several critics proclaiming Albert
Brooks' performance as one of the film's best aspects. After
receiving awards and nominations from several film festivals and
critic groups, but not an Academy Award nomination, Albert Brooks
responded humorously on Twitter, "And to the Academy: You don't
like me. You really don't like me."[11][12]
Personal life
Albert Brooks married Kimberly Shlain, an artist Albert Brooks met
through a mutual friend. The couple have two children, Jacob Eli and
Claire Elizabeth.
Filmography
Films
1976 Taxi Driver Tom
1979 Real Life Albert Brooks Also Writer/Director
1980 Private Benjamin Yale Goodman
1981 Modern Romance Robert Cole Also Writer/Director
1983 Twilight Zone: The Movie Car Driver Segment: Prologue
Terms of Endearment Voice of Rudyard Greenway Credited as "A. Albert
Brooks"
1984 Unfaithfully Yours Norman Robbins
1985 Lost in America David Howard Also Writer/Director
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay
1987 Broadcast News Aaron Altman American Comedy Award for Funniest
Male Supporting Actor
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
Nominated Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
2nd Place National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
3rd Place National Society of Film Critics Award for Best
Supporting Actor
1991 Defending Your Life Daniel Miller Also Writer/Director
1994 I'll Do Anything Burke Adler
The Scout Al Percolo Also Writer
1996 Mother John Henderson Also Writer/Director
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay
1997 Critical Care Dr. Butz
1998 Dr. Dolittle Jacob the Tiger Voice Only
Out of Sight Richard Ripley
1999 The Muse Steven Phillips Also Writer/Director
2001 My First Mister Randall 'R' Harris
2003 The In-Laws Jerry Peyser
Finding Nemo Marlin Voice Only
2006 Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World Himself Also
Writer/Director
2007 The Simpsons Movie Russ Cargill Voice Only
Credited as "A. Albert Brooks"
2011 Drive Bernie Rose African American Film Critics Association
Award for Best Supporting Actor
Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
Black Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
Houston Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Supporting Actor
Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting
Actor
Village Voice Film Poll - Supporting Actor
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best
Supporting Actor
Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best
Supporting Actor
Nominated - Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best
Supporting Actor (runner-up)
Nominated - Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting
Actor
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor Motion
Picture
Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
Nominated - Indiana Film Critics Association Award for Best
Supporting Actor (runner-up)
Nominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Supporting Actor of
the Year
Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting
Actor
Nominated - San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting
Actor
Nominated - Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best
Supporting Actor (runner-up)
2012 This Is 40
Television
Year Series Role Notes
1969 Hot Wheels Kip Chogi
Additional voices
1970 The Odd Couple Rudy Episode 1.8: "Oscar, the Model" and Episode
1.11: "Felix Is Missing"
1971 Love, American Style Christopher Leacock Episode 2.16: "Love
and Operation Model/Love and the Sack"
1972 The New Dick Van Dyke Show Dr. Norman Episode 2.2: "The Needle"
19751976 Saturday Night Live Additional characters Writer and
director of several segments
1976 The Famous Comedians School N/A television film; writer, editor
and director
19902011 The Simpsons Various characters Appeared in six episodes
Credited as "A. Albert Brooks"
2008 Weeds Lenny Botwin Appeared in four episodes
References
"Academy Awards 1987". filmsite.org. Albert Brooks Biography (1947). filmreference.com
Astarte Piccione, Rachel (January 2006). "Comedy in The
Muslim World". EGO Magazine. Archived from the original on
2006-02-10.
Kaufman, Peter (January 22, 2006). "The background on
Albert Brooks". The Washington Post, The Buffalo News. Accessed
April 24, 2008. "Albert Brooks, who grew up in a showbiz family and
attended Beverly Hills High School, has never been interested in
being an outsider."
Montoya, Maria (February 28, 2009). "Albert Brooks
'Real Life' film is an unexpected classic". The Times-Picayune.
"Modern Romance box office". boxofficemojo.com.
Archived from the original on March 19 2006. Retrieved March 12,
2006.
"Modern Romance (1981)". rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved
March 12, 2006.
Goldman, Eric; Iverson, Dan; Zoromski, Brian. "Top 25
Simpsons Guest Appearances". IGN. Archived from the original on
March 08 2007. Retrieved March 25, 2007.
Ausiello, Michael (April 14, 2008). "Weeds Scoop:
Albert Brooks Is Nancy's 'Dad'". TV Guide.
Maslin, Janet (May 1, 2011). "A Wry Eye on Problems of
the Future". The New York Times.
Hughes, Sarah Anne (January 24, 2012). "Albert Brooks
not nominated for Oscar: I got ROBBED ... I mean literally. My
pants and shoes have been stolen". The Washington Post.
Barmak, Sarah (January 27, 2012). "Talking Points:
Hollywood abuzz over Oscar snubs". The Toronto Star.
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