From the West End to Hollywood
Born on December 3, 1968, the American Brendan James Fraser arrived to make history. Son of Canadians Carol Fraser, a sales consultant, and Peter Fraser, a journalist, he lived his childhood between the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It was on a holiday in London that he attended his first play in the West End, thus beginning his love for acting. Subsequently, the performer graduated in 1990 from the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, a year that would mark the beginning of his career in film.
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His first job with River Phoenix
In 1991, Fraser appeared in four small projects, the most notable being the film ‘The Last Stand’, starring River Phoenix, Lili Taylor and Anthony Clark. A small role that began to open doors for him. Fraser also appeared in the television films ‘Son of Shadows’, ‘Presumed Guilty’ and ‘My Old School’.
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His career took off in 1992
In 1992, Brendan Fraser’s filmography included his first leading roles with ‘The Man from California’, which offered us his best comic relief, and ‘Private School’, where he demonstrated his great acting quality. In these two jobs he coincided with actors of the stature of Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Sean Astin, who were also taking their first steps in the film industry.
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The peak of success in Hollywood
From then on, Fraser became a regular in Hollywood productions. One of the great actors of the late 90s and early 2000s. The actor appeared in iconic titles such as ‘Airheads’ (1994), ‘Love from Heaven’ (1996), ‘Gods and Monsters’ (1998) , ‘The Mummy’ (1999), ‘To hell with the devil’ (2000), ‘Looney Tunes: Back in Action’ (2003), ‘Crash’ (2004) or ‘Journey to the center of the Earth’ (2008).
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The memorable (and profitable) Rick O’Connell
His role as the intrepid Rick O’Connell in the ‘The Mummy’ franchise earned the actor millions of dollars at the box office. Fraser participated in the installments ‘The Mummy’, ‘The Mummy Returns’ and ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’, where he gave his best. So much so that he ended up injured on several occasions, with ailments in the cervical disc, knees and ribs.
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His progressive distancing from Hollywood
“I was trying hard in a way that was destructive to me,” the actor noted at the time about his departure from big productions. “When I shot the third part of ‘The Mummy’ (‘Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’), they had to reconstruct me with duct tape and ice.” Ailments that were added to his divorce, the raising of his children and the death of his mother, causing the actor to slam the door on Hollywood, but continuing to be linked to the seventh art.
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Fraser reported sexual harassment
To all the actor’s personal and physical problems, which made him undergo surgery on several occasions, we must also add the complaint of sexual abuse shared by Fraser. The actor alleged that in 2003 he suffered sexual harassment from the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Phip Berk. “He passed his left hand behind me, grabbed my buttock and one of his fingers reached my anus. And then he started to move it. I got sick. I felt like a child with a lump in my throat,” the actor confessed. . The most immediate consequence? A strong depression.
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Brendan Fraser and Dwayne Johnson
However, despite all the setbacks in life, Fraser always had great friends like Dwayne Johnson. The former boxing fighter recently confessed his joy at Fraser’s return to cinema and the interest aroused in the media, pointing out that his first opportunity on the big screen was thanks to Fraser. A beautiful friendship that transcends decades.
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He never stopped working
Although Fraser walked away from the Hollywood industry to heal his physical and emotional wounds, the American never stopped working in films and series. Some of his most relevant roles in recent years occurred in the fictions ‘Texas Rising’, ‘The Affair’, ‘Condor’ or ‘Doom Patrol’, where he showed us a very different image from the ones he had accustomed us to.
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Brendan Fraser in ‘Moon Killers’
In Martin Scorsese’s new film, where he co-stars with stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert de Niro, Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons, Fraser plays WS Hamilton, the lawyer of the malevolent William Hale.
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His first Oscar thanks to ‘The Whale’
With a much more pronounced and even more exaggerated weight gain for ‘The Whale’, Darren Arronofky’s film has shown why Fraser is one of the best actors of his generation. The actor achieved one of the biggest applauses at the Venice Film Festival with a film in which he plays a 250-kilogram recluse with a lost life. A triumphant return to cinema that earned him the first Oscar of his career.
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His return to the film industry
While we enjoy Fraser in ‘Killers on the Moon’, Martin Scorsese’s new film, the actor is preparing new projects in ‘Brothers’, ‘Behind the Curtain of Night’ and ‘Rental Family’. Of course, we may never see his role as Firefly in ‘Batgirl’, after Warner Bros. unexpectedly canceled the film. Either way, Fraser is back.
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