Elijah Wood

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Elijah Wood bigraphy, stories - American actor

Elijah Wood : biography

28 January 1981 –

Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II (1989), then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9, being nominated for several Young Artist Awards. He is best known for his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s critically acclaimed The Lord of the Rings trilogy and its prequel The Hobbit. Since then, 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.

Wood starred in the film Day Zero (2007) and provided the voice of the main character in the award-winning animated musical films Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two. Wood also voiced the lead as 9 in the Tim Burton-produced action/science fiction film 9. He played an American tourist turned vampire in Paris, je t’aime. In 2005, he started his own record label, Simian Records. He did the voice acting for Spyro in the Legend of Spyro trilogy. Since 2011, Wood has been playing the role of Ryan in FX’s dark comedy Wilfred. In 2012, he began voicing Beck in the animated series Tron: Uprising, and Sigma in the tenth season of the Rooster Teeth series Red vs. Blue.

Career

1988–1998: Beginnings

Wood modeled and did local commercials before moving with his family to Los Angeles in 1988, where he got his first break in the video for Paula Abdul’s "Forever Your Girl", directed by David Fincher, followed by a pivotal role in tv film Child in the Night and a minor role in Back to the Future Part II. It was Wood’s role as Aidan Quinn’s son in Avalon and Tin Men that garnered Wood professional attention, as Avalon received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for four Academy Awards. A small part in Richard Gere’s Internal Affairs, was followed by the role of a boy who brings estranged couple Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson back together in Paradise. Wood co-starred with Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis in Forever Young and Joseph Mazzello in Radio Flyer.

In 1993, Wood played the the title character in The Adventures of Huck Finn, and the following year appeared in The Good Son, and The War. The latter film was nominated four times, and won two, with Roger Ebert’s film review;

"Elijah Wood has emerged, I believe, as the most talented actor, in his age group, in Hollywood history".

Wood’s title role in North, was followed by a Super Bowl commercial for Wavy Lay’s potato chips (with Dan Quayle) using its slogan. In 1995, Wood was in the video for The Cranberries "Ridiculous Thoughts", played the lead role in Flipper’, and appeared in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm. In 1997, Wood was Jack "The Artful Dodger" Dawkins in Tony Bill’s film adaptation of Oliver Twist, and also appeared in Deep Impact and The Faculty. In 1999, Wood played a suburban white teenager who affects hip-hop lingo in James Toback’s Black and White, and a junior hitman in Chain of Fools.

1999–2003: The Lord of the Rings

Wood was cast as Frodo Baggins 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 novel. His most hotly anticipated project, the 2001 film gave Wood top billing as Baggins, alongside a cast that included Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Sean Bean, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, and John Rhys-Davies. The Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand over more than a year, 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" which were worn during filming. In 2002, Wood lent his voice to the direct-to-video release of The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina. The second part of Peter Jackson’s trilogy was also released, titled The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. In 2003, he starred in the direct-to-video movie All I Want (also titled Try Seventeen), with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King unveiled that December, sweeping the 76th Academy Awards in early 2004.