Famous Three-Quarter Jews: Adrian Brody

[Gary Freedman]

Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He received widespread recognition and subsequent acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002). He is notable as the youngest actor ever to receive an Academy Award for Best Actor and the only American actor ever to win a César Award.

Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the son of Sylvia Plachy, a photojournalist, and Elliot Brody, a retired history professor and painter. Brody's father is of Polish-Jewish descent, and Brody's mother was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Catholic father and Jewish mother. As a child, Brody performed magic shows at children's birthday parties as "The Amazing Adrien". 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. He attended summer camp at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks in upstate New York.

Adrian Brody, by the way, learned the piano for his role in The Pianist. Actors are amazing people. I learned psychiatry and psychoanalysis just to play the role of a psychotic!