Brendan Fraser, born 1968, is 45 today. Brendan’s an actor with a particular screen presence, a certain airy goofiness that can be just right in the right roles. Although he hasn’t worked much in prominent films in recent years, he’s still getting work, with 4 different films released in 2013, including a voice role in Escape from Planet Earth.
Fraser was all over the 90’s, especially in the early half, when his screen persona found its first niche. He played Link, the unfrozen man who goes to high school in the Pauly Shore vehicle Encino Man (he had cameos as the same character in two later Shore vehicles, Son in Law and In The Army Now). In 1994, he starred in one of the all-time great Comedy Central Saturday afternoon movies, Airheads, about a group of hair metal rockers who take over a radio station with squirt guns in order to get their demo played. Given the subject matter, the cast of that movie was sort of insane, in that it also included Steve Buscemi, Michael Richards, Adam Sandler, Michael McKean, Judd Nelson, David Arquette, Harold Ramis and Joe Mantegna. He rounded out the 90’s with the title role in George of the Jungle, a serious dramatic role in the superb film Gods and Monsters about the director James Whale and a flirtation he has with the Fraser character, and another supremely underrated comedy, Blast from the Past, about a man who emerges from a bomb shelter after 35 years and falls in love with Alicia Silverstone.
The 2000’s were dominated by his role in the Mummy franchise as the star, Rick O’Connell, an Indiana Jones type. He had roles in the remake of Bedazzled as a man who makes a deal with the devil (and who wouldn’t make a deal with Elizabeth Hurley?) He also starred in Crash as a racist politician who gets mugged with his wife, played by Sandra Bullock, and must make a move to endear himself to the black community. Most of Fraser’s post-Crash output is direct to video fare of varying quality, the best of which may be the hyperlink film The Air I Breathe, where he played a man who can see the future of the people he meets. But in 2014, he stars in the independent film Gimme Shelter with Vanessa Hudgens and The Nut Job, an animated film about squirrels, which could mean a step back toward the spotlight.
Also born today:
Anna Chlumsky (33)
Daryl Hannah (53)
Julianne Moore (53)
Steven Culp (58)
Jean-Luc Godard (83)
3 thoughts on “Birthday Wishes: Brendan Fraser, The Missing Link”
Brendan Fraser, a guy with talent only to waste it with such shit movies like “Furry Vengeance” where he’s now become one of these derp-de-derp guys like Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughn, and Nicolas Cage who just don’t seem to care about the qualities of the films just as long as they’re paid.
He’s a great actor and seems a lovely guy. It would be great to see him focus on making movies for the right reasons instead of hearing that he needs to pay hefty alimony bills.
Also, he makes a movie really fun. Critics gonna critique I guess, but the rest of us can appreciate what we want to.