Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor. Making his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II (1989), he landed a succession of subsequent larger roles and became a critically acclaimed child actor by age 13.
After his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he has resisted typecasting by choosing varied roles in critically-acclaimed films such as Bobby, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sin City, Green Street and Everything Is Illuminated. Most recently he starred in the film Day Zero (2007) and provided the voice of the main character, Mumble, in the award-winning animated film Happy Feet. He also played an American tourist turned vampire in Paris, je t'aime. In 2005, he started his own record label, Simian Records. His next project is the upcoming Iggy Pop biopic The Passenger.
In 2006, he became a well-known voice actor in video gaming and would soon become the voice of the video game icon, Spyro the Dragon, starting with The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning.
In 2008, he set a new world record when he became the first person ever to cross the Victoria Falls on ropes during an appearance on Jack Osbourne's
show Adrenaline Junkie.
Wood modeled and did local commercials before moving with his family to Los Angeles in 1988. It was there that Wood got his first break: a small role in a video by Paula Abdul - "Forever Your Girl," directed by David Fincher. Film work followed almost instantly in Back to the Future Part II (1989). It was Wood's role as Aidan Quinn's son in Barry Levinson's 1990 film Avalon (the third film in the Baltimore trilogy containing 1982's Diner and 1987's Tin Men) that first gave Wood attention, as the film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for four Academy Awards. After a small part in the Richard Gere pot-boiler Internal Affairs (1990), he secured his first starring role in Paradise (1991), in which he played a young boy who brings estranged couple Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson back together. He received good reviews for his performance - some said it was one of the best things about the film - and from there, he went on to co-star with Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis in Forever Young and with Joseph Mazzello in Radio Flyer (both were released in 1992). Wood in Radio Flyer In 1993, he co-starred with Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son, and in the same year he had the lead role in The Adventures of Huck Finn. In 1994 he starred in The War (1994), with Kevin Costner. His performance in this movie gained him a nomination for a 'Young Star Award' (for which he was nominated four times, and won twice), and Roger Ebert said in his review of the film that: "Elijah Wood has emerged, I believe, as the most talented actor in his age group, in Hollywood history".[3] Also in 1994, he had the title role in North, and also featured in a Super Bowl commercial for Wavy Lay's potato chips that has him repeatedly exchanging seats with spectators at a football game (including Dan Quayle) using its famous slogan.[4] In 1995 he appeared in the music video for The Cranberries’ "Ridiculous Thoughts". The following year he got the lead role in Flipper (1996), which was not very successful, but the subsequent critical and financial success of Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997) provided a positive development in the young actor's career. As the soulfully dazed and confused Mikey Carver, Wood gave a portrayal remarkable for its rendering of the thoughtfulness and exquisite hopelessness inherent in the character. In 1997 he starred in Oliver Twist, as The Artful Dodger. 1998's Deep Impact and The Faculty did not allow Wood the same degree of character development, but were great financial successes and further stepping stones in Wood's evolution from winsome child star to impressive young actor. Wood's next role was as the boyfriend of a wannabe hip-hop groupie in James Toback's problematic Black and White (1999). He followed this with a role as a junior hitman in Chain of Fools.
Wood further developed as an actor in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment of director Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary trilogy. His most hotly anticipated project, the 2001 film gave Wood top billing as Frodo Baggins, alongside a glittering cast that included Sir Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, and Liv Tyler. The Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand and, before the cast left the country, Jackson gave Wood two gifts: one of the One Ring props used on the set and Sting, Frodo's sword. He was also given a pair of prosthetic "hobbit feet" he wore during filming. That same year, the young actor could be seen in less mystical surroundings, courtesy of Ed Burns' Ash Wednesday, a crime drama that also featured Oliver Platt and Rosario Dawson. In 2002, Wood lent his voice to Disney's direct-to-video release of The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina. Of course, his most substantial role of 2002 is inarguably his return to the role of hobbit Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. 2003 proved to be a similar year for Wood; after two relatively small jobs (his role credited as 'The Guy' in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and his stint as First Assistant Director in Sean Astin's The Long and Short of It served purely as a break for Elijah), he starred in All I Want and once again resumed his role as Frodo Baggins for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), the last chapter in Tolkien's trilogyFilmography
All links, link back
to there IMDB page.
- The Passenger (details only on IMDbPro)
- Black Wings Has My Angel (details only on IMDbPro)
Actor:
- The
Legend of Spyro (2009) (filming)
(voice) .... Spyro
- 9 (2009/I) (voice) .... 9
- The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (2008) (VG) (voice) .... Spyro
- The Oxford Murders
(2008) .... Martin
... aka Crimes à Oxford (France)
... aka Los crímenes de Oxford (Spain: Castilian title) - The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (2007) (VG) (voice) .... Spyro
- Day Zero (2007) .... Aaron Feller
- "Freak Show" ....
Freak Mart Squirrel (1 episode, 2006)
- Mohel-Me-Not: Part 1 (2006) TV episode .... Freak Mart Squirrel - Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II - Rise of the Witch King (2006) (VG) (voice) .... Frodo Baggins
- "American Dad!"
.... Ethan (1 episode, 2006)
- Iced, Iced Babies (2006) TV episode (voice) .... Ethan - Happy Feet (2006)
(voice) .... Mumble
... aka Happy Feet: The IMAX Experience (USA: IMAX version) - Happy Feet (2006) (VG) (voice) .... Mumble
- "Robot Chicken"
.... Bailiff / ... (1 episode, 2006)
- Sausage Fest (2006) TV episode (voice) .... William David Reynolds/Bailiff - The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (2006) (VG) (voice) .... Spyro
- Bobby (2006) .... William Avary
- Paris, je t'aime
(2006) .... The Tourist (segment "Quartier de la Madeleine")
... aka Paris, I Love You (Hong Kong: English title) (International: English title) - Everything Is Illuminated (2005) .... Jonathan Safran Foer
- Sin City (2005)
.... Kevin
... aka Frank Miller's Sin City (USA: complete title) - Hooligans (2005)
.... Matt Buckner
... aka Football Hooligans (Singapore: English title)
... aka Green Street (UK)
... aka Green Street Hooligans (USA: new title) - "King of the Hill"
.... Jason (1 episode, 2004)
- Girl, You'll Be a Giant Soon (2004) TV episode (voice) .... Jason - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) .... Patrick
- The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King (2003) ....
Frodo
... aka Der Herr der Ringe - Die Rückkehr des Königs (Germany)
... aka The Return of the King (USA: short title) - Spy Kids 3-D: Game
Over (2003) ....
The Guy
... aka Spy Kids 3: Game Over (USA: video title) - "Storyline Online"
(1 episode, 2003)
- Me and My Cat (2003) TV episode - The Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers (2002) ....
Frodo Baggins
... aka Der Herr der Ringe - Die zwei Türme (Germany)
... aka The Two Towers (USA: short title) - Try Seventeen
(2002) .... Jones
... aka All I Want (Canada: English title: DVD title) (USA: DVD title) - The Adventures of Tom Thumb & Thumbelina (2002) (V) (voice) .... Tom Thumb
- Ash Wednesday (2002) .... Sean Sullivan
- The Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) ....
Frodo Baggins
... aka The Fellowship of the Ring (USA: short title)
... aka The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: The Motion Picture (USA: promotional title) - Chain of Fools
(2000) .... Mikey
- The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (1999) .... Barney Snow
- Black and White (1999/I) .... Wren
- The Faculty (1998) .... Casey Connor
- Deep Impact (1998) .... Leo Biederman
- Oliver Twist (1997) (TV) .... The Artful Dodger
- The Ice Storm (1997) .... Mikey Carver
- "Homicide: Life on
the Street" .... McPhee Broadman (1 episode, 1996)
... aka "Homicide" (USA: informal short title)
- The True Test (1996) TV episode .... McPhee Broadman - "Adventures from the
Book of Virtues" .... Icarus (1 episode, 1996)
... aka "The Book of Virtues" (USA: short title)
- Responsibility (1996) TV episode (voice) .... Icarus - Flipper (1996) .... Sandy Ricks
- The War (1994) .... Stu Simmons
- North (1994) .... North
- "Frasier" ....
Ethan (1 episode, 1994)
- Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast (1994) TV episode (voice) .... Ethan - The Good Son (1993) .... Mark Evans
- The Adventures of
Huck Finn (1993) ....
Huck Finn
... aka The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Forever Young (1992) .... Nat Cooper
- Day-O (1992) (TV) .... Dayo
- Radio Flyer (1992) .... Mike
- The Witness (1992) (TV) .... Little Boy
- Paradise (1991) .... Willard Young
- Avalon (1990) .... Michael Kaye
- Child in the Night
(1990) (TV) .... Luke
... aka Testimone oculare (Italy) - Internal Affairs
(1990) .... Sean Stretch
- Back to the Future Part II (1989) .... Video Game Boy
