Brendan James Fraser (born December 3, 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American-Canadian actor.
His Gods and Monsters co-star Ian McKellen once remarked that he wished to one day be as good an actor as Fraser. However, Fraser established his career starring in blockbuster films, sometimes seeming to prefer them over 'serious' pictures.
He starred in The Mummy Trilogy, George of the Jungle (along with the similar Dudley Do-Right), Blast from the Past, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Airheads, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Furry Vengeance, Encino Man, and many other silly or high-budget pictures.
He's also been in some lesser-known and more serious films such as Gods and Monsters, The Air I Breathe, The Quiet American, and School Ties. Fraser has dabbled in theater a few times, including an acclaimed turn as Brick in a West End production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 2001. Between the two extremes lie films like Inkheart and Monkeybone, and his role as Ben Sullivan on Scrubs. He also voices Robotman (and plays his pre-Cyborg self) in the DC Universe series Doom Patrol and has quickly been adopted by DP fans as THE voice of Cliff.
His career slowed in the early 2000s
due to a combination of chronic injuries from performing his own stuntsnote , emotional trauma stemming from a sexual assault, and industry backlash after he spoke out against his assaulternote . Since the late 2010s, he's slowly begun rebuilding his career taking on supporting roles in smaller films and television productions. This led to him getting meatier roles in high-profile projects, like Darren Aronofsky's The Whale and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. This return to the screen delighted fans, who have affectionately dubbed his return "the Brenaissance". To put a cherry on top of everything, he eventually won the Oscar for Best Actor at the 2023 Academy Awards for his peformance in the former project, becoming the first Canadian actor to do so.
His surname is pronounced with an 'S' sound, not like Frasier, as he explained in a Comedy Central bumper ("If you say Frasier, I know where you live"note ). He speaks French fluently (as you can see in Blast from the Past). Mo from The Inkworld Trilogy was based off him in physicality, which later caused him to be cast as that character in The Film of the Book. He even voiced Taz and the Tasmanian She-Devil in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Outside of acting, he's an avid photographer and camera collector. The cameras he used as Ben on Scrubs were from his personal collection.
Other Roles
- Dogfight as a sailor
- Bedazzled (2000) as Elliot Richards
- Crash as Rick Cabot
- George of the Jungle as George
- Texas Rising as Billy Anderson
- The Affair as John Gunther
- Trust as Fletcher Chace
- No Sudden Move as Doug Jones (no, not that one)
