Brody, Adrien

1973 – He was born on the 14th day of April this year in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, USA to Elliot Brody, a retired history professor, and Sylvia Plachy, a photojournalist.

1992 - Brody was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car and crashed feet-first into a crosswalk. He spent months recuperating. An avid daredevil, he has broken his nose three times doing off-the-wall stunts.

1996 – He starred with the late Tupac Shakur his very good friend in the little known film “Bullet”.

1998 - Despite a strong performance in The Thin Red Line this year, time constraints forced the director to edit out much of Adrien's part. In spite of his later work with Spike Lee and Barry Levinson, he never became the star many expected he would become, until he was called up by Roman Polanski to play a celebrated Jewish pianist in the Nazi-occupied Warsaw.

1999 - He was furious when his nose was broken during the final fight in Summer of Sam . When he had it fixed, he did not change it: his nose is one of his most distinctive features and sets him apart from other actors.

2000 - He signed on to make Bread and Roses without a script, because he trusted the director Ken Loach. Prior to filming, he also went undercover to research life as a union member in Los Angeles. He went to conventions and sat in on strike talks. A couple of the members recognized him, but Brody persuaded them not to blow his cover.

2002 – He starred in the movie “The Pianist”. He learned to play Chopin on the piano and shed 30 pounds off his already-thin frame. He cut himself off from his real life by giving up his car and apartment because he felt responsible to those Polish Jews who had suffered greatly and wanted to connect, to some small degree, with their hurt and despair.

2003 – He won Academy Award’s Best Actor for the movie “The Pianist”, the youngest actor ever to win the award.

2004 – The Esquire Magazine named him the Best Dressed Man in America.