Jump to content

Elijah Wood

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 216.190.89.46 (talk) at 05:12, 1 June 2006 (→Trivia). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Elijah Wood in Wellington, New Zealand for the 2003 world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor.

Biography

Early life

Wood was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the middle of three children born to Warren and Debbie Wood; he has English, Irish, German and Polish ancestry and was raised a Catholic. He was nicknamed Elijah "Spark Plug" because he was a maniacally energetic child, and also "Monkey" because he liked to climb things. He has a brother, Zack, a video game producer and seven years his senior, as well as sister, Hannah, younger by three years who is a poet and actress and has had small roles in a number of his films.

Career

A professional actor since the age of nine, Wood is best known for the role of Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He took the stage in his elementary school's rendition of the play The Sound of Music. The following year, he graduated to the title character of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Wood also served as choir boy during the production of See How They Run, produced by the Marion Creative Council.

Making his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future II in 1989, Wood landed a succession of subsequent larger roles and became a critically acclaimed child actor. His performance in The War gained him a nomination by the YoungStar Awards (for which he was nominated five times and won once), 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."

His role as Frodo in The Lord of the Rings made him a star, but he has thus far resisted typecasting by recently choosing less sympathetic roles, such as a stalker in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a mute cannibal in Sin City.

His latest work includes Everything is Illuminated written and directed by Liev Schreiber, adapted from the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, and Green Street Hooligans, directed by Lexi Alexander.

He completed filming the independent Emilio Estevez film, Bobby in December 2005 alongside Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone and Lindsay Lohan. His next projects include Day Zero, a drama about the draft with Chris Klein and Ginnifer Goodwin, and Vamp with Elisha Cuthbert that he will be filming in June 2006. By the end of the year of 2006 he will be filming a biopic about the early career of Iggy Pop.

Trivia

  • Wood is a huge music buff who claims to own something in the range of 3,000 CDs, and cites his favorite band as the Smashing Pumpkins. [1]
  • He dated German actress Franka Potente but the relationship ended late in 2002. Wood blamed the separation on age difference and distance, but still wears a ring Potente gave him which bears a Hebrew inscription meaning "if not now, when?". During a recent interview with Conan O'Brien, he laughed off rumors that he is gay, even recommending one website which makes such claims, calling it "hilarious".
  • While filming The Faculty he learned that casting had begun for New Zealand director Peter Jackson's epic production of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novel trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Wood immediately had his friend, director George Huang, film an audition tape of him running in the fields with crudely made Hobbit feet, and sent the tape to Jackson. Despite Jackson's initial assertion that all of the Hobbit characters would be played by British actors, he was immediately won over by Wood's audition and the American Wood was cast in the lead role of Tolkien's diminutive hero Frodo Baggins. Jackson later said he could not possibly imagine another actor in the world who would be better-suited to Frodo.(Sibley 2001:30)
  • The cast of the Rings movies was nominated for Best Ensemble Acting at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for three years in a row. They finally won in 2003, for the third film The Return of the King. For his performance as Frodo Baggins, Elijah Wood was nominated by the MTV Movie Awards.
  • In an interview about his latest film Everything Is Illuminated, director Liev Schreiber commented that his leading man Elijah Wood has a "generosity of spirit" and a "sincere goodness as a human being".[2]
  • According to a survey of movie stars done by PC Gamer magazine, The Secret of Monkey Island is his favorite videogame.
  • Wood is a constant chain smoker. He was turned-on to clove cigarettes by his co-star in The Faculty, Josh Hartnett, but, interestingly, not until the premiere of the film.
  • Supports West Ham United Football Club
  • Is a "light Catholic".
  • He recently started his own record label, called Simian Records. Their website can be found here.
  • Currently dating Gogol Bordello drummer and dancer Pamela Racine, since at least December of 2004, if not earlier.
  • Now lives in Venice, California
  • Wood recently won the role of a young Iggy Pop in a yet-to-be-filmed biographical account of the rock-star.
  • Made #4 on Star's Big Hollywood Countdown. The topic was Top 10 young stars.
  • His favorite movie is Harvey.
  • Wood has shaved off all his hair for his role as a young man drafted into the military in new movie Day Zero.
  • He's often mistaken as having Jewish heritage, which he does not.
  • He has a tattoo of the Elvish word for nine to commemorate playing a member of the Fellowship in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, just below his navel on the right side.

Filmography

References

Sibley, Brian. The Lord Of The Rings Official Movie Guide. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. ISBN 0618154027.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Elijah Wood.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Elijah_Wood&oldid=56266341"