Elijah Wood
A professional actor since the age of nine, Elijah 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."
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 Paula Abdul video. Film work almost instantly followed, with a bit part in the 1989 Back to the Future II. It was Wood’s role as Aidan Quinn’s son in Barry Levinson’s 1990 Avalon (the third film in the Baltimore trilogy containing Diner [1982] and Tin Men [1987]) 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 potboiler Internal Affairs (1990), Wood 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 went on to co-star with Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis in Forever Young and in Radio Flyer (both 1992).
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 July 2006 (but not yet confirmed). Wood leads the cast of the animated movie Happy Feet which will be release in November 17, also stars Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brittany Murphy and Robin Williams. Recent news reports, confirmed by Wood, have cited his plans to portray Iggy Pop in a biopic on the singer’s life, slated to begin production in 2006.
Wood was born January 28, 1981, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the middle of three children to Warren and Debbie Wood; he has English, Irish, German and Polish ancestry and was raised a Catholic. As a child, he took piano lessons from Marlene Loftsgaarden in Cedar Rapids. 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.
