Biography for
Albert Brooks (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

22 July 1947, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Birth Name

Albert Lawrence Einstein

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Spouse

Kimberly Shlain

(15 March 1997 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark

Dysfunctional relationships (Real Life (1979), Modern Romance (1981), Mother (1996)).

Frequent collaborators: Monica Mcgowan Johnson and James L. Brooks

[Satire] Frequently satirizes different facets of Hollywood (Reality TV/Filmmaking in Real Life (1979), Screenwriting in _The Muse (1999)).

Always casts himself in the lead role of his films as a nebbish weisenheimer.

Trivia

Son, Jacob Eli, born [1 October 1998]

Brother of Bob Einstein who is best known for his character "Super Dave" Osbourne.

A good friend of Carrie Fisher. Debbie Reynolds used to try to get Carrie (her daughter) and Albert to marry.

Turned down the lead in When Harry Met Sally... (1989) because he thought it was too much like a Woody Allen script. Albert has been described as a West Coast Woody Allen

Son of Thelma Leeds and Harry Parke(comedian known as 'Parkyakarkus').

daughter, Claire Elizabeth born [26 March 2000]

Nephew of Zeke Manners

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy", by Ronald L. Smith, pg.61-62. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Attended the same High School as Angelina Jolie, Michael Klesic, Nicolas Cage, Lenny Kravitz, David Schwimmer, Jonathan Silverman, Gina Gershon, Rhonda Fleming, Jackie Cooper, Rob Reiner, Antonio Sabato Jr., Pauly Shore, Michael Tolkin, Betty White, Corbin Bernsen, Elizabeth Daily and Crispin Glover.

Has made six guest appearances on "The Simpsons" (1989). With one exception, he has played a different character each time, and each time he has been credited as "A. Brooks."

Has starred in two movies where the song "Beyond the Sea" has played over the end credits. My First Mister (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003).

Once performed a humorless, five-minute stand up comedy routine on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962) that didn't produce a single laugh until the punchline - when he explained to the audience that he had been working as a stand up comic for five years and had run out of material. Johnny Carson swore the hilarity which followed this set-up lasted a full minute.

Brooks has been honored by the American Film Institute with a retrospective of his work at the first U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen Colorado.

Brooks was romantically linked to singer Linda Ronstadt and actresses Carrie Fisher, Julie Hagerty and Kathryn Harrold before settling down and marrying Kimberly Shlain, an artist.

Brooks attended Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, but dropped out after one year to focus on comedy.

His mother, singer/actress Thelma Leeds had a brief career before marrying Albert's father and settling down to raise a family. She returned occasionally to film in son Albert's movies.

Albert's father, vaudeville/radio/film comedian Harry Parke (aka Parkyakarkus) died of a heart attack when Albert was 11 in 1958. Parke collapsed next to Milton Berle during a Friar's roast gathering honoring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Los Angeles.

Friend of Richard Lewis.

Turned down the role of Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman (1990).

Turned down the lead role in Big (1988).

Personal Quotes

Being a screenwriter in Hollywood is like being a eunuch at an orgy. Worse, actually, at least the eunuch is allowed to watch.

I've always felt like I work in a small little area that doesn't represent anything like the rest of society.

"For so long afterward [9/11], whenever I heard anyone talk about Muslims, it was in association with terrorism. But I thought, what could I do in a teeny way - and believe me, it's a teeny way - to defuse this? There had to be some way to separate the 1.5 billion people who don't want to kill us from the 100,000 or so who do. I thought if I could get five Muslims and six Hindus and maybe 3 Jews to laugh for 90 minutes, then I've accomplished something." [on Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World]

We export films that are full of sleazy [penis] jokes and toilet humor - that's why we've earned the affectionate nickname of the Great Satan. What's seemingly benign, by our standards, is doing more damage to us around the world than anything I could ever do.

Bullfights are hugely popular because you can sit comfortably with a hot dog and possibly watch a man die. It won't be me, but I can sit comfortably and watch it.

When I die, if the word 'thong' appears in the first or second sentence of my obituary, I've screwed up.

There was a time when I was probably too cautious about my career. Maybe I could have taken more chances. But, you know, when Garry Marshall came to me with Pretty Woman (1990) there was no Julia Roberts. It was just this silly script about a prostitute. And at the time I was offered Big (1988), I wanted to dig my teeth into a grown-up character. I didn't want to play little kids. But I'm getting better at this sort of thing. I'm taking more chances.

[on Taxi Driver (1976)] After we finished the movie, Schrader [Paul Schrader] came up to me at the cast party and said, 'I want to thank you. That was the only guy in the script I didn't know.' I said to him, 'That's the guy you didn't know? You knew every pimp and murderer, but the guy who gets up and goes to work every day - him you didn't know?'

[on the failure of Modern Romance (1981)] The [studio heads] were angry. It was like I had shot a child... I was depressed, but then one day I was sitting at home and the phone rings. It's Stanley Kubrick. He had seen the movie and wanted to know how I did it. That's the first thing he said - 'How did you make this movie? I've always wanted to make a movie about jealousy.' I said to him, 'The guy who did '2001' is asking me how I did something?'

[on Stanley Kubrick] He asked to see the script [for Lost in America (1985)], so I sent him a copy. He called back and said he liked it but had some suggestions. He thought the couple should split up and not get back together until the end - as a sort of surprise. I immediately said, 'Oh, no, that's a terrible idea.' That was the last conversation we had.

[on casting Mother (1996/II)] It took me four months to get Doris Day to see me. She lives up in Monterey, so I had to take one of those little planes where everyone has to weigh themselves. When I got there, before I sat down, she says to me, 'I'm not going to do this movie, but I just so much wanted to meet you.' But it was a pleasant afternoon. I remember she had, like, 30 dogs. She took me in back of her house where there was this graveyard, and she said very seriously, 'This is where the dogs go.' I tried to make her laugh. I said, '...to the bathroom?' She got upset.

[on his father's death onstage] The interesting thing to me was that he finished. He could have died in the middle. He could have done it on the way over there. But he didn't. He finished. And he was as good as he'd ever been in his life.

[on being called "neurotic"] I have feelings about that. It's an interesting world we live in when Arnold Schwarzenegger can kill 115 people in a movie and he's fine. I drive around a woman's house twice, and I'm neurotic. Go figure.

[on why he changed his name from Einstein to Brooks] Do I even have to answer?

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