Seamlessly transitioning from smart independent films to action-packed blockbusters, BRENDAN FRASER (Rick O’Connell) continues to garner widespread critical acclaim for his versatile, inspired performances as well as his keen eye for selecting thought-provoking material.
Fraser recently completed filming the third installment of The Mummy, with this Universal Pictures franchise cementing Fraser as a major box-office draw. Stephen Sommers’ 1999 smash-hit epic adventure, The Mummy, was an ambitious retooling of the 1932 horror classic, with Fraser cast as an American serving in the French Foreign Legion who becomes involved with an English archaeological expedition and the ancient secrets they unleash. In 2001, Fraser reteamed with Sommers and co-star Rachel Weisz on the film’s sequel, The Mummy Returns. The first two films have grossed more than $800 million worldwide to date.
Fraser has two new projects for New Line Cinema: the family adventure-fantasy film Inkheart, opposite Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent and Andy Serkis, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, about a scientist who searches for his missing brother and discovers a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth. Fraser also serves as executive producer on Journey. Inkheart will be released in January 2009, while Journey is released July 11, 2008.
Fraser has been in a string of some of the most successful independent films of the past decade, including Lionsgate Films’ Academy Award®-winning Best Picture Crash, directed by Paul Haggis; Phillip Noyce’s The Quiet American, based on Graham Greene’s 1955 thriller of the same name; and Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters, opposite Sir Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave.
Fraser’s additional film credits include Walt Disney Pictures’ $100 million smash hit George of the Jungle; Looney Tunes: Back in Action for Warner Bros.; Harold Ramis’ Bedazzled, co-starring Elizabeth Hurley and Frances O’Connor; Henry Selick’s Monkeybone; Hugh Wilson’s Blast From the Past, with Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek; and the live-action Dudley Do-Right, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Alfred Molina.
Fraser is also noted for his acerbic-witted role starring opposite Shirley MacLaine in Richard Benjamin’s Mrs. Winterbourne, and his performances in Les Mayfield’s Encino Man, Robert Mandel’s School Ties, Alek Keshishian’s With Honors, Michael Lehmann’s Airheads and Michael Ritchie’s The Scout, as well as his critically acclaimed performance in Showtime’s The Twilight of the Golds.
Fraser’s diverse theater roster includes his 2001 appearance at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London West End production of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Tony Award winner Anthony Page. Fraser played the role of Brick, opposite Frances O’Connor as Maggie Pollitt. Fraser received high praise for his work as the anxious writer in John Patrick Shanley’s Four Dogs and a Bone at the Geffen Playhouse, in which he co-starred with Martin Short, Parker Posey and Elizabeth Perkins for director Lawrence Kasdan.
Born in Indianapolis and raised in Europe and Canada, Fraser has been dedicated to honing his craft since the early age of 12 and began attending theater when his family lived in London. He attended high school at Toronto’s Upper Canada College and received a BFA in acting from the Actors Conservatory, Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Fraser currently resides in Connecticut.
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