**Brendan James Fraser** (born December 3, 1968) is an American-Canadian actor. He has acted in many movies, such as *The Mummy* movies, as well as *The Quiet American*, *Crash*, *George of the Jungle* and *Journey to the Center of the Earth*. His role in the 2022 movie *The Whale* (2022) as an overweight gay father won him the Critics' Choice Movie Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor and earned him nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award.

Early life
----------

Fraser was born on December 3, 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is the son of Canadian parents Carol and Peter Fraser who used to work for the Canadian government in Indiana. His parents are Czech, English, French Canadian, German, Irish and Scottish ancestry. He has three older brothers: Kevin, Regan, and Sean. 

His family moved often when he was a child and lived in Eureka, California, Seattle, Ottawa, the Netherlands and in Switzerland. When he was a boy, Fraser he was at the well known Canadian school for boys, called Upper Canada College, in Toronto. When he was on vacation in London, Fraser went to see his first show in the West End. He graduated from Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts in 1990.

He started acting at a small acting college in New York. He first planned on going to graduate school in Texas but he made the decision to stay in Hollywood and work in movies.

Career
------

Fraser's first job acting in a movie was a small part in *America's Most Wanted* in 1988 where he acted as the friend to *Rodney Mark Peterson*, who was a person who was killed. He has since acted in over 30 movies. He had his first job as the main actor in *Encino Man* in (1992). That same year he acted with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris O'Donnell in *School Ties* in (1992). In 1994, he acted with Adam Sandler in the comedy *Airheads*. He then acted in smaller parts with Viggo Mortensen and Ashley Judd in Philip Ridley's *The Passion of Darkly Noon* in (1995), and Jennifer Beals in *The Twilight of the Golds* in (1997). In 1997, he became more famous because of the movie *George of the Jungle* (1997). He went on to act in more comedy movies like *Blast from the Past* in (1999), *Bedazzled* in (2000) and *Monkeybone* in (2001).

His best success was with the movie (which also had Rachel Weisz as an actor) called *The Mummy* in (1999) and its sequel *The Mummy Returns* (2001), both of which were very successful.

In 2003, he played the main character in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. 

In 2004, he acted in the Academy Award winning movie *Crash*. He has also acted in the television shows *Scrubs*, *King of the Hill*, and *The Simpsons*.

In March 2006, he was made a member of Canada's Walk of Fame, and was the first American-born actor to have this happen. He does not have his name put on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After not acting in one of the movies for six years, Fraser has now acted again in a new "The Mummy" movie called *The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor*. The movie began in Montreal on July 27, 2007 and the movie also had Jet Li acting as Emperor Han. The last Mummy movie made over $100 million in the USA and over $400 million worldwide.

Fraser in 2016
Fraser also acted as "Brick" in the West End show of Tennessee Williams's *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* in September, 2001, directed by Anthony Page. Other actors in it were Ned Beatty, Frances O'Connor, and Gemma Jones. The show ended on January 12, 2002, with people saying good things about it.

In 2018, he played Fletcher Chase in the television series *Trust*.

In September 2020, Fraser was cast as gangster Doug Jones in Steven Soderbergh's period crime movie *No Sudden Move*, which was released in 2021.

In January 2021, Fraser was announced as the lead in Darren Aronofsky's movie *The Whale*. Fraser's role was highly praised and the movie received a six-minute standing ovation at the festival. The role won him an Oscar for Best Actor. He became the first Canadian to win the best actor award.

Fraser was cast to play the villain Firefly in the cancelled superhero movie *Batgirl*, which would have been set in the DC Extended Universe.

Personal life
-------------

Fraser met actress Afton Smith at a barbecue at Winona Ryder's house on July 4, 1993, after he came to Los Angeles. Fraser married Smith on September 27, 1998, and they have three sons: Griffin Arthur Fraser (born September 17, 2002), Holden Fletcher Fraser (born August 16, 2004) and Leland Francis Fraser (born May 2, 2006). All of their children were born in Los Angeles. On December 27, 2007, Fraser's publicist (the person who speaks to the press about Fraser) said that the couple had made the decision to divorce.

Brendan Fraser can speak French like a person who was born there. Fraser also serves on the Board of Directors for FilmAid International.

Fraser has been in a relationship with makeup artist Jeanne Moore since September 2022.

As of February 2018[update], Fraser lives in Bedford, New York.

Fraser is also a good photographer. He has used more than one Polaroid in movies and on TV shows, most known is in his time acting on *Scrubs*.

In 2018, Fraser said that he had been sexually assaulted by Philip Berk, the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the nonprofit organization that votes for the Golden Globe Awards in 2003. Many people saw that as a result of the allegation, Fraser was blacklisted from Hollywood.

Other websites
--------------


Wikimedia Commons has media related to ***Brendan Fraser***.

* Official web site
* Brendan Fraser on IMDb