Albert Brooks (born July 22, 1947) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, writer, comedian and director.
Brooks was born Albert Lawrence Einstein in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, the son of Thelma Leeds (née Goodman), a singer and actress, and Harry Parke (née Einstein), a radio comedian who performed on Eddie Cantor's radio program and was known as Parkyarkarkus. His brother is comedic actor Bob Einstein, better known by his stage name "Super Dave Osborne". Brooks is Jewish and attended Beverly Hills High School. Brooks grew up among show business royalty in southern California, attending high school with Richard Dreyfuss and Rob Reiner.
Brooks attended Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, but dropped out after one year to focus on his comedy career. He changed his surname from Einstein (to avoid confusion with the famous scientist) and began a stand-up comedy career that quickly made him a regular on variety and talk shows during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Brooks led a...
Created by dipity on Jan 24, 2008
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 11:59 AM
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons and directed by David Silverman. The film was produced by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully, and Richard Sakai and written by eleven of the television series' most prolific writers: Scully, Jean, Brooks, Groening, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, Ian Maxtone-Graham, and Matt Selman. It stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden, and Tress MacNeille and features Albert Brooks in a prominent guest role, as well as Tom Hanks and Green Day in smaller ones.
After previous attempts to create a film version of The Simpsons had failed because of script length and lack of staff, production began in 2001. Numerous plot ideas were conceived by the writers, with Matt Groening's developed into the film. The script was re-written one hundred...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462538
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World is a 2005 film starring and directed by Albert Brooks. It was shown at the Dubai International Film Festival.
The plot follows Albert Brooks, a Jewish-American comedian, sent by the United States government into India and Pakistan to find out "what makes Muslims laugh." References are made to Brooks' earlier films, including Finding Nemo, Lost In America and Defending Your Life along with his earlier stand-up comedy material.
The film received mixed reviews from critics. According to RottenTomatoes, it received 42% positive reviews. It opened in limited release (in only 161 theatres) and earned a total gross of $888,975, considerably less than its budget of $10 million....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433116
Finding Nemo is an Academy Award-winning computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. It was released in the United States/Canada on May 30, 2003, in Australia on August 27, 2003 and in the UK on 10 October, 2003. The movie is the fifth Disney/Pixar feature film and the first to be released during the summer season.
The movie was released on a 2-disc DVD on November 4, 2003 in the United States and Canada, in Australia on January 16, 2004, and the UK on February 27, 2004. It went on to become the best selling DVD of all time, with 28 million copies sold.Time magazine listed it #10 as one of the top best 100 films ever made.After Marlin (Albert Brooks) the clownfish loses his wife, Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), and all but one of his unborn children to a marauding barracuda, he promises that he will never let anything happen to the one remaining egg which he names Nemo.
Nemo (Alexander Gould),...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543
My First Mister is actress Christine Lahti's feature directorial debut, which is the story of an alienated goth teen (Leelee Sobieski) who forms an unlikely friendship with a lonely men's clothing store owner (Albert Brooks). The movie also co-stars Carol Kane, John Goodman and Desmond Harrington.Jennifer (Sobieski) a 17-year-old mall rat takes a shine to the 49-year-old manager of a Los Angeles clothing store Randall Harris (Brooks), who also notices her. In an unlikely move, he gives her a job as a stockroom clerk, but she finds her way into the front of the store and begins to interact with - and sell clothes to - customers.As the two strike up an unlikely friendship, they realize that neither have any close friends with whom they can talk. They nickname each other "J" and "R." They spend time together, and Randall helps Jennifer get an apartment of her own by giving her an advance on her salary. He buys her a dress for work. While he can't go through with getting a tattoo, he does...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206963
The Muse is a 1999 film starring Albert Brooks and Sharon Stone.
After winning an award, esteemed screenwriter Steven Phillips (Brooks) is about to have a rude awakening. The studio has reneged on his deal and told him he's gone cold, saying he's lost his edge. Taken by surprise, the Oscar-nominated writer wants to find a way to get back to his talents. Through the advice of a screenwriter buddy (Bridges), Steven comes into contact with Sarah (Stone), a modern day muse who might be able to revitalize his seemingly fading career. But Sarah has conditions and only ones that can be met by unnecessary needs such as expensive hotel rooms and gifts from Tiffany's, and Steven has to meet good on those conditions even at the cost of swallowing his pride to do so. With his wife's chagrin, his friend's support and his agent waiting, Steven is about to find out whether or not the muse could be the real thing, or one that's sucking him dry of his patience.
...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164108
Out of Sight is a 1998 Academy Award-nominated movie directed by Steven Soderbergh and based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. It was the first of several collaborations between Soderbergh and star George Clooney. The film was released on June 26, 1998.
This film is regarded as Soderbergh's comeback movie after several critically acclaimed but financially disappointing films. It was nominated for two Academy Awards (adapted screenplay and editing). It won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best screenplay and the National Society of Film Critics awards for best film, screenplay, and director. A modest success in its theatrical release, it led to a spinoff TV series, Karen Sisco, and has achieved a cult following.
The story revolves around the relationship between a career bank robber, Jack Foley (George Clooney), and a U.S. Marshal, Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). They are forced to share her car trunk during Foley's escape from a Florida prison. After he completes his getaway...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120780
Mother is a 1996 movie directed and written by Albert Brooks, and starring Brooks and Debbie Reynolds. The comedy involves a failed science fiction writer who attempts to improve his relations with his mother by moving in with her.Albert Brooks wanted a famous actress from the 1950s to play the role of Mother, and originally offered the role to retired actresses Nancy Reagan and Doris Day. Day refused. Reagan loved the script and considered coming out of retirement for her first acting role in more than 40 years, but decided instead to stay home and care for her husband, Ronald Reagan, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Brooks then asked his good friend Carrie Fisher if he could send the script to her mother, Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds happily accepted the part.Mother became the highest-grossing Brooks-directed film to date, with a total of $19 million earned at the box-office.[1] It also won the most awards of the films which Brooks has directed. Brooks and co-writer Monica...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117091
The Scout (1994) is a motion picture starring Brendan Fraser and Albert Brooks and directed by Michael Ritchie, the director of The Bad News Bears.Al Percolo (Albert Brooks) is a major league baseball scout with the New York Yankees who is banished to the Mexican countryside after his latest discovery suffers an extreme case of stage fright that leads him to vomit on the pitcher's mound. While attending a game in Mexico, the very desperate Percolo finds Steve Nebraska (Brendan Fraser), a young American with a perfectly consistent 100 mph fastball and who hits home runs on seemingly each at bat.When Percolo notifies the Yankee brass of his find, he is unceremoniously fired, and told not to bring anyone back. Percolo, undaunted, takes Nebraska back to the States with him, becoming his unofficial agent in the process. He arranges an open showcase for Nebraska at Yankee Stadium in front of representatives from each team in the league. Although Nebraska initially meets with a good deal of
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111094
I'll Do Anything is a 1994 American dramedy film written and directed by James L. Brooks. Its primary plot concerns a down-on-his-luck actor who suddenly finds himself the sole caretaker of his six-year-old daughter.
In 1980, on the night he fails to win an Emmy Award, Matt Hobbs proposes to his longtime girlfriend Beth. By 1993, the pair have divorced and are living on opposite coasts. Matt auditions for a role in pompous, self-absorbed, and obviously clueless film producer Burke Adler's new project but fails to get the part. He does however agree to chauffeur Adler occasionally. Matt flies to Georgia to pick up his daughter Jeannie for what he believes is a brief visit and discovers Beth is facing a prison term and Jeannie will be living with him for the duration of her sentence. The two return to Hollywood and while Matt's career founders, Jeannie is cast in a television sitcom. There are multiple sub-plots, including one focusing on Matt's relationship with script-reader Cathy...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110097
Defending Your Life is a 1991 romantic comedy/fantasy movie about a man who must justify his life-long lack of assertiveness after he dies and arrives in the afterlife. The film was written, directed by, and stars Albert Brooks. It also stars Meryl Streep, Rip Torn and Lee Grant. Shirley MacLaine has a cameo appearance as herself, acting as the holographic host of the "Past Lives Pavilion", a reference to her publicly known belief in reincarnation. The movie was filmed entirely in and around Los Angeles, California. Despite its comedic overtones, Defending Your Life contains elements of drama and allegory.
Daniel Miller (Brooks) dies in a car accident and is sent to the afterlife. He arrives in Judgment City, a purgatory-like waiting area populated by the recently deceased of the western half of the United States, where he is put "on trial for being afraid."
As it is explained to Daniel, people from Earth use so little of their brains (3-5%), that they spend most of their lives...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101698
Broadcast News is a 1987 romantic comedy written, produced and directed by James L. Brooks, about a virtuoso television news producer (Holly Hunter), who has daily emotional breakdowns, a brilliant yet prickly reporter (Albert Brooks) and his charismatic but far less seasoned rival (William Hurt). It also stars Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, and Jack Nicholson in a cameo role.
The film revolves around three characters who work in television news. Jane Craig (Hunter) is a talented producer who tries to conceal how important it is for her to be found sexually attractive by a handsome man who epitomizes everything about television news that appalls her. Jane's best friend and frequent collaborator, Aaron Altman (Brooks), is a gifted writer and reporter ambitious for on-camera exposure, who is secretly in love with Jane, and embittered by her rejection of him. Tom Grunick (Hurt), although charismatic and telegenic, is denied self-respect due to his intellectual limitations,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092699
Lost in America
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089504
Lost in America is a 1985 comedy film written and directed by Albert Brooks. Brooks also stars alongside Julie Hagerty as yuppies David and Linda Howard who are fed up with the corporate lifestyle. They decide to take their savings and head out to see the country in a Winnebago, a recreational vehicle. The plan goes awry when Linda loses everything at a casino in Las Vegas which results in a ugly argument that almost gets David beaten up by an escaped convict. Out of money and with nowhere to go, the couple ends up in Safford, Arizona. Brooks' character unsuccessfully applies for a job at a local pharmacy and eventually resorts to an employment agency. Obnoxiously reminded by a counselor about how he gave up a high paying job in advertising, David is placed as a crossing guard and Linda at the local Der Wienerschnitzel. Only a few days after beginning their pursuit of the dream of dropping out of society, they decide that it is better to get back their old lifestyle and agree to move...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089504
Twilight Zone: The Movie is a 1983 film produced by Steven Spielberg as a theatrical version of The Twilight Zone, a 1950s and 60s TV series created by Rod Serling. It starred Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Vic Morrow and John Lithgow.
The film remade three classic episodes of the original series and included one original story. John Landis directed the prologue and the first segment, Spielberg directed the second, Joe Dante the third, and George Miller directed the final segment.
The film is perhaps best known for the helicopter accident which took the lives of actor Vic Morrow and two illegally hired child actors, although in the subsequent trial no one was held criminally culpable for the accident.
You're traveling through another dimension. A dimension, not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone!
The film starts with a driver (Albert Brooks) and his passenger (Dan Aykroyd) driving...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086491
Modern Romance is a 1981 film written and directed by Albert Brooks.
Robert Cole (Albert Brooks) is a Hollywood film editor right in the middle of cutting a new science fiction film with George Kennedy. His relationship with very patient bank executive Mary Harvard (Kathryn Harrold) is caught between undying devotion and endless agony. It's all because selfish Robert is a bit of a self-involved neurotic who can't quite decide if their relationship is meant to be, mainly because he's not sure if she's the one or there's someone else. So Robert breaks off their relationship only to find that modern romance isn't as easy as it seems, and the people you love might be the ones you constantly hurt the most.Bruno Kirby co-stars as Jay, Robert's co-worker and confidant, and Brooks' brother Bob Einstein, best known as hapless daredevil Super Dave Osborne, plays a pushy salesman at Foot Locker. The family name is "Einstein", which explains why Albert changed his last name.A third brother, Cliff...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082764
Real Life is a 1979 comedy film. It is Albert Brooks's first feature film. It is a spoof of the 1973 reality television program An American Family. In the film, a documentary filmmaker attempts to live with and film a dysfunctional family for one full year.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079781
Taxi Driver is a 1976 film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. Set in early post-Vietnam Era New York City, the film stars Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a lonely, isolated taxi driver and Jodie Foster as the teenage prostitute he attempts to save.
Travis Bickle (De Niro), a Marine who fought in the Vietnam War, is a distant and unstable young man of 26 from the Midwest. As a chronic insomniac, he becomes a nighttime taxi driver in New York City. Travis spends his restless days in seedy porn theaters and driving around Manhattan.
He becomes interested in Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), an aide for New York Senator Charles Palantine, who is running for the presidential nomination and is promising dramatic social change. She is initially intrigued by Travis and agrees to a date with him after he flirts with her and sympathizes with her own apparent loneliness. On the date, however, Travis takes her to a pornographic film. Offended, she ends the date early and takes a...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075314
Albert Brooks was born
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