Matthew Broderick

Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American film and stage actor who played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Nick Tatopoulos in Godzilla, Inspector Gadget in Inspector Gadget, Jimmy Garrett in Project X and David Lightman in WarGames. He voiced the characters of the adult Simba in The Lion King and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Tack the Cobbler in The Thief and the Cobbler, Adam Flaymen in Bee Movie, alongside Jerry Seinfeld, and Despereaux in The Tale of Despereaux. He played Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers, and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw in the Civil War drama Glory.

Early life
Broderick was born in New York City, the son of Patricia (née Biow), a playwright, actress, and painter; and James Joseph Broderick, an actor. Broderick's mother was Jewish, and his father a Catholic of Irish descent. Broderick attended grade school at the City & Country School (a progressive K–8 school in Manhattan) and attended high school at Walden School (a defunct private school in Manhattan with a strong drama program). After the death of his mother, her paintings were exhibited at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York.

Career
Broderick's first major acting role came in an HB Studio workshop production of playwright Horton Foote's On Valentine's Day, playing opposite his father, who was a friend of Foote's. This was followed by a lead role in the off-Broadway production of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy; then, a good review by New York Times theater critic Mel Gussow brought him to the attention of Broadway. Broderick commented on the effects of that review in a 2004 60 Minutes II interview:

Before I knew it, I was like this guy in a hot play. And suddenly, all these doors opened. And it’s only because Mel Gussow happened to come by right before it closed and happened to like it. It’s just amazing. All these things have to line up that are out of your control. He followed that with the role of Eugene Morris Jerome in the Neil Simon Eugene Trilogy including the plays, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues. His first movie role was also written by Neil Simon. Broderick debuted in Max Dugan Returns (1983). His first big hit film was WarGames, a summer hit in 1983. This was followed by the role of Philippe Gaston in Ladyhawke, in 1985.

Broderick then got the role as the charming, clever slacker in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. At age 23, Broderick played a high-school student who, with his girlfriend and best friend, plays hooky and explores Chicago. The movie remains a 1980s comedy favorite today and is one of Broderick's best-known roles (particularly with teenage audiences). And in 1987, he played an air force troop pilot Jimmy Garrett in Project X. In the 1989 Glory, Broderick received good notices for his portrayal of the American Civil War officer Robert Gould Shaw.

In the 1990s, Broderick took on the role as the adult lion, Simba, in the successful animated film, The Lion King, and also voiced Tack the Cobbler in Miramax's controversial version of The Thief and the Cobbler which had originally been intended as a silent role. He won recognition for two dark-comedy roles. The first was that of a bachelor in The Cable Guy. The second was that of a high-school teacher in Alexander Payne's Election.

Broderick returned to Broadway as a musical star in the 1990s, most notably with his Tony Award–winning performance in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and his Tony Award–nominated performance in the Mel Brooks' stage version of The Producers in 2001. He continued to make feature films, including the 2005 adaptation of The Producers. Broderick played the role of Leopold “Leo” Bloom, an accountant who co-produces a musical designed to fail, but which turns out to be successful.

Broderick reunited with his co-star from The Lion King and The Producers, Nathan Lane, in The Odd Couple, which opened on Broadway in October 2005. He appeared on Broadway as a college professor in The Philanthropist, running April 10 through June 28, 2009.

In October 2010, Broderick featured in the US version of the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are?.

Awards
He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his featured role in the play Brighton Beach Memoirs and one in 1995 for his leading role in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He was also nominated for the Tony Award, Best Actor in a Musical, for The Producers but lost to Lane. To date, Matthew Broderick is the youngest winner of the Tony Award, Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Personal life
Broderick met actress Jennifer Grey on the set of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and in 1986 was briefly engaged to her.

Broderick met actress Sarah Jessica Parker through her brother and the couple married on May 19, 1997 in a civil ceremony in a historic deconsecrated synagogue on the Lower East Side. Although Broderick considers himself culturally Jewish, the ceremony was performed by his sister, Janet Broderick Kraft, an Episcopal priest.

Parker and Broderick have a son, James Wilke Broderick, born on October 28, 2002. On April 28, 2009, it was confirmed that Broderick and Parker were expecting twin girls through surrogacy. Broderick and Parker's surrogate delivered their twin daughters, Marion Loretta Elwell (5 pounds, 11 ounces) and Tabitha Hodge (6 pounds), on June 22, 2009.

Although they live in New York City, they spend a considerable amount of time at their holiday home near Kilcar, a village in County Donegal, Ireland, where Broderick spent his summers as a child. They also have a house in The Hamptons.

Auto accident
On August 5, 1987, Broderick was in Northern Ireland, vacationing with Grey, when in a rented BMW, he veered into the wrong lane on a country road in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh and smashed head-on into a car driven by Anna Gallagher, 30. She and her mother, Margaret Doherty, 63, died instantly.

Broderick spent four weeks in a Belfast hospital with a fractured leg and ribs, collapsed lung and concussion. Grey suffered minor injuries.

Broderick told authorities he had no recollection of the crash and did not know why he was in the wrong lane. "I don't remember the day. I don't remember even getting up in the morning. I don't remember making my bed. What I first remember is waking up in the hospital, with a very strange feeling going on in my leg," he said at the time.

Broderick was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and faced a prison term of up to five years. He was later convicted of the lesser charge of careless driving and fined $175. The victims' family called the case "a travesty of justice."

Broderick agreed to meet with the family of the two women in the spring of 2003 so that the family could gain some sense of closure on the accident.

Trivia

 * Broderick is left-handed, a fact evident in his first movie, Max Dugan Returns, in which he plays baseball. (Sarah and their son James are also left-handed.) Broderick is an avid baseball fan whose favorite team is the New York Mets. He narrated the DVD Shea Goodbye: 45 Years of Amazin, which chronicled the life of Shea Stadium.
 * Broderick is good friends with his The Producers co-star, Nathan Lane.
 * Fellow '80s teen actor Jon Cryer is often said to look like Broderick ; their striking resemblance has been portrayed in two episodes of Cryer's TV show, Two and a Half Men.

Stage

 * Torch Song Trilogy (1981)
 * Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)
 * Biloxi Blues (1985)
 * How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1995) (revival)
 * Night Must Fall (1999) (revival)
 * Taller Than a Dwarf (2000)
 * The Producers (2001–2002, 2003)
 * Short Talks on the Universe (2002)
 * The Foreigner (2004)
 * The Odd Couple (2005) (revival)
 * The Philanthropist (2009) (revival)
 * The Starry Messenger (2009)

Television

 * Lou Grant: "Generations" (1981)
 * Faerie Tale Theatre: Cinderella (1985)
 * Master Harold...and the Boys (1985)
 * A Life in the Theater (1993)
 * Frasier: "She's the Boss" (1995)
 * Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997)
 * The Music Man (2003)
 * 30 Rock: "Cooter" (2008)
 * Cyberchase: "Father's Day" (2009)
 * "Who Do You Think You Are?" (2010)
 * Louie: "Heckler/Cop Movie"(2010)