Elijah Wood

Early life and Career

Wood was born 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 took to the stage in his elementary school's staging of the play The Sound of Music. The following year, he graduated to the title character in 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.

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 Wood, a video game producer (born in 1974), as well as a sister, Hannah Wood (born in 1984) who is a poet and actress (and has had small roles in a number of Elijah Wood's films). Elijah had moved from Iowa to L.A. with his family when his career began. But in 1996 his parents divorced and his father returned to Iowa. Elijah lived for a long time in Los Angeles, and later in New York, but currently resides in Venice Beach.

Career

1988-1998

Wood in Radio Flyer

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 video by Paula Abdul, "Forever Your Girl," directed by David Fincher. Film work almost instantly followed, with a bit part in Back to the Future Part II (1989). It was Wood's role as Aidan Quinn's son in Barry Levinson's 1990 film Avalon (the third film in the Baltimore trilogy containing 1982's Diner and 1987's Tin Men) 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 pot-boiler 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, he went on to co-star with Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis in Forever Young and with Joseph Mazzello in Radio Flyer (both were released in 1992).

In 1993, Wood co-starred with Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son, which was a failure both at the box office and with filmgoers who couldn't stomach the idea of the little blond boy from Home Alone as a pre-teen psychopath. In casting Wood as the good to Culkin's evil, the film helped further establish the kind of characters Wood was to become known for: thoughtful, well meaning, and perhaps a bit confused. Wood's next film, the same year's The Adventures of Huck Finn, provided a departure from this type of character, but The War (1994), with Kevin Costner, marked something of a return.

Also in 1994, Wood had the title role in North, a film remarkable for the volume of bad reviews and bad box office that it received, but also for the fact that practically every bad review contained a positive assessment of Wood's performance. Wood's follow-up, Flipper (1996), was hardly an improvement, but the subsequent critical and financial success of Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997) provided a positive development in the young actor's career. As the soulfully dazed and confused Mikey Carver, Wood gave a portrayal remarkable for its rendering of the thoughtfulness and exquisite hopelessness inherent in the character. Also in 1997 he starred in Oliver Twist, as the Artful Dodger. 1998's Deep Impact and The Faculty did not allow Wood the same degree of character development, but were great financial successes and further stepping stones in Wood's evolution from winsome child star to impressive young actor.

1999-2005

Wood as Frodo Baggins gives the audience a powerful look in Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings

Following a brief turn as the boyfriend of a wannabe hip-hop groupie in James Toback's problematic Black and White (1999), Wood further evolved as an actor in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installation of director Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary trilogy. His most hotly anticipated project, the 2001 film gave Wood top billing as Frodo Baggins, alongside a glittering cast that included Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Sean Bean, and Liv Tyler. When the cast were to leave New Zealand from The Lord of the Rings, Jackson gave Wood two gifts; one of the One Rings they used and Sting, Frodo's sword. That same year, the young actor could be seen in less mystical surroundings, courtesy of Ed Burns' Ash Wednesday, a crime drama that also featured Oliver Platt and Rosario Dawson.

In 2002, Wood lent his voice to Disney's straight-to-video release of The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina. Of course, his most substantial role of 2002 is inarguably his return to the role of hobbit Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

2003 proved to be a similar year for Wood - after two relatively small jobs (his role credited as 'The Guy' in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Overand his stint as First Assistant Director in Sean Astin's The Long and Short of It served purely as a break for Elijah), he starred in All I Want and once again resumed his role as Frodo Baggins for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the last chapter in Tolkien's trilogy.

Hot on the heels of the trilogy, Wood quickly appeared in his first post-Frodo role in the off-kilter but highly effective Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), playing an ethically challenged lab technician who helps erase heartbreaking memories' but then uses his knowledge of the past relationship of an unknowing former patient (played by Kate Winslet) to woo her.

He then had a chillingly silent turn as the cannibalistic, bespectacled serial killer Kevin in director Robert Rodriguez and writer-artist Frank Miller's visually arresting adaptation of Miller's crime noir comic book series Sin City (2005), appearing opposite Mickey Rourke in the segment "The Hard Goodbye". On May 12, 2005 , Wood hosted a program called MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed, when the new Xbox 360 was launched.

Wood also starred in the acclaimed Everything Is Illuminated, in which he plays a young American Jewish man on a quest to find the woman who once saved his grandfather during the Second World War, and Green Street Hooligans, as an American college student who falls in with a violent English football firm, both were released in 2005.

2006-present

Wood shot a small part in Paris, je t'aime, which consists of eighteen 5-minute sections. Each section is directed by a different director. Wood's section, called Quartier de la Madeleine, was directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film opened on May 18 at 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was shown at 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. First Look Pictures has acquired the North American rights, and the film is set to open in the US in early 2007.

His most recent films are Emilio Estevez's Bobby, which his character is marrying a girl to change his draft classification. . It premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was released on November 17, 2006 in New York and Los Angeles, wide release followed on November 23, and Happy Feet, which he provided the voice of Mumble, a penguin who can tap dance, but not sing. Happy Feet was released in November 17, 2006.

Wood in his upcoming movie Day Zero

Wood has finished filming Day Zero, a drama about the draft, in which he portrays Aaron Feller. This movie is currently in post-production and will be released in 2007. On November 19, Wood hosted the special Saving a Species: The Great Penguin Rescue for Discovery Kids Channel

Wood also will star with John Hurt in a film adaptation of the novel, The Oxford Murders, in which he will be playing a graduate student, who, along with a professor of logic (Hurt), investigates a series of bizarre, mathematically-based murders in Oxford

His next projects include The Passenger, a biopic about singer Iggy Pop as young man,. He has finished recording voice work for Tim Burton's upcoming animated feature film version of the short film 9. And despite rumors to the contrary, he will not star in a film adapted from a play written by Steve Martin, called Picasso at the Lapin Agile., as there is no such film in the works.

Previous collaborations

During his career, Wood worked with directors including, David Fincher (in video clip), Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson, Richard Donner, Mike Figgis, Stephen Sommers, Ang Lee, Michel Gondry, Peter Jackson, Robert Rodriguez,Vincenzo Natali and George Miller, as well as actors-turned-directors Liev Schreiber, Emilio Estevez and Edward Burns. He also worked on movies produced by Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton.

Other Work

Elijah Wood is one of the biggest collectors of music of Hollywood and he studied music. In 2005 Wood started his own record label called Simian Records. On September 19, 2006 Wood announced that, Simian, had signed The Apples in Stereo as their first band, with their new album New Magnetic Wonder due out in February of 2007. He also directed a video for the band "The Apples in Stereo". The other band signed to Simian thus far is Heloise and the Savoir Faire. Wood declared to be a great fan of these two bands.

Wood provides the voice of Spyro, in the new game The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. and Mumble in Happy Feet (video game).

Personal life

Wood likes to keep his personal life away from the media spotlight, and is particularly private about his romantic relationships. However, it is known that in 2002 he dated the German actress Franka Potente, the relationship ending later that year. Wood blamed the separation on age difference and distance. He still wears a ring Potente gave him, which bears a Hebrew inscription meaning 'if not now, when?', a quote from Hillel the Elder. Wood was also rumored to have dated Bijou Phillips, his co-star in Black And White, but in September 2005, he told Howard Stern that the rumor was untrue. Currently, he is dating Gogol Bordello's backup dancer Pamela Racine; the relationship began sometime after they met on the set of Everything Is Illuminated in 2004.

Wood's favorite movie is Harvey. He is a music buff who admits to owning something in the range of 3,000 CDs, and once cited his favorite band as the Smashing Pumpkins. His personal playlist of favorite songs can be accessed here.

In an interview about Everything Is Illuminated, director Liev Schreiber commented that Wood has a 'generosity of spirit' and a 'sincere goodness as a human being'. He also has supported several campaigns for charity as Keep a Child Alive or ALDO/YouthAIDS

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 waist on the right side. In May 2006, Autograph Collector Magazine published its list of 10 Best & 10 Worst Hollywood Signers, Wood was ranked #7 on the list of Best Signers.

Elijah seems to be rather sentimental about the friends he has made, becoming very close with his hobbit friends during and after the filming of The Lord of the Rings. He also cares very much for memories and pictures and can often be seen in many pictures of premieres and other events clutching a camera in his hand, to take his own. He rightly agrees that he is famous for his beautiful blue eyes - but he can only see a few inches without his contact lenses. He describes himself as "incredibly nearsighted".

Trivia

Wood has, on occasion, been mistaken for Tobey Maguire and Daniel Radcliffe. .

In 2003, his appendix burst, and he had to spend a week in the hospital to recover from its removal.

Elijah's mother named all of her children with biblical names, Zachariah Nathanial, Elijah Jordan and Hannah Blessing.

Elijah contributed his talents to fellow Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen's album pandemoniumfromamerica, singing and playing various instruments on the album.

On January 4, 2007 Wood joined Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg to announce the nominees for the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	9	9 (Voice)	in production
	2007	The Passenger	Iggy Pop	pre-production
	The Oxford Murders	Martin	Filming starts January 22, 2007
	Day Zero	Aaron Feller	post-production
	2006	Bobby	William Avery
	Happy Feet	Mumble (Voice)
	Paris, je t'aime	young American tourist	US release: April, 2007
	2005	Everything Is Illuminated	Jonathan Safran Foer
	Green Street Hooligans	Matt Buckner
	Sin City	Kevin
2004	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Patrick
	2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Frodo Baggins
	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over	The Guy	Cameo
	All I Want aka Try Seventeen	Jones Dillon	Direct-to-video
	The Long and Short of It	first assistant director	short film
	2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Frodo Baggins
	The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina	Tom Thumb (voice)	Direct-to-video
	2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Frodo Baggins
	Ash Wednesday	Sean Sullivan	Direct-to-video
2000	Chain Of Fools	Mikey	Direct-to-video
	1999	Black and White	Wren
	The Bumblebee Flies Anyway	Barney Snow	made-for-television
	1998	The Faculty	Casey Connor
	Deep Impact	Leo Beiderman
	1997	Oliver Twist	Jack 'The Artful Dodger' Dawkins	made-for-television
	The Ice Storm	Mikey Carver
1996	Flipper	Sandy
	1994	The War	Stuart 'Stu' Simmons
	North	North
	1993	The Good Son	Mark Evans
	The Adventures of Huck Finn	Huckleberry Finn
	1992	Day-O	Day-O
	Radio Flyer	Mike
	Forever Young	Nat Cooper
1991	Paradise	Willard Young
	1990	Child in the Night	Luke	made-for-television
	The Witness	Little Boy	short film
	Avalon	Michael Kaye
	Internal Affairs	Sean Stretch	Cameo
1989	Back to the Future Part II	Video-game boy	Cameo

Television work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
	2006	Robot Chicken	? (Voice)	Sausage Fest - TV Episode
	American Dad!	Ethan (Voice)	Iced, Iced Babies - TV Episode
	Punk'd	Himself	TV Episode
	2004	The Osbournes	Himself	TV Episode
	King of the Hill	Jason (Voice)	Girl, You'll Be a Giant Soon- TV Episode
2003	Saturday Night Live	Host	TV Episode
2002	The Electric Playground	?	TV Episode
	1996	Homicide: Life on the Street	McPhee Broadman	The True Test- TV Episode
	Adventures from the Book of Virtues	Icarus (Voice)	Responsibility - TV Episode
1994	Frasier	Ethan (Voice)	Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast - TV Episode

Video clips

Paula Abdul: Forever Your Girl (1989)

The Cranberries: Ridiculous Thoughts (1995)

The Apples in Stereo: Energy (as director) (2006)

Awards and nominations

Young Star Awards 1995 Nominate Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Drama Film The War 1994 1997 Nominated Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy Film Flipper 1996 1998 Won Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Drama Film Deep Impact 1998 1998 Won Best Performance by a Young in a Miniseries/Made for TV Movies Oliver Twist 1997 Young Hollywood Awards 2002 Won Hottest, Coolest Young Veteran - Male N/A Young Artist Awards 1991 Nominated Best Young Actor Starring in a TV Movie, Pilot or Special Child in the Night 1990 1991 Nominated Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture Avalon 1990 1992 Nominated Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture Paradise 1991 1993 Won Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture Radio Flyer 1992 1995 Nominated Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture North 1994 1997 Nominated Best Performance in a Drama Series - Guest Starring Young Actor Homicide: Life on the Street 1993 1998 Nominated Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor The Ice Storm 1997 Visual Effects Society Awards 2003 Won Best Performance by an Actor in a Effect Film Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2002 Teen Choice Awards 2002 Nominated Film - Choice Actor, Drama/Action Adventure FOTR 2001 2003 Nominated Choice Movie Actor - Drama/Action Adventure TTT 2002 2004 Nominated Choice Movie Actor - Drama/Action Adventure ROTK 2003 2005 Nomineted Choice Movie Bad Guy Sin City 2005 ShoWest Convention USA 1994 Won Young Star of the Year Screen Actors Guild Awards 2002 Nominated Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture FOTR 2001 2003 Nominated Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture TTT 2002 2004 Won Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture ROTK 2003 2006 Nominated Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Bobby 2006 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards 2002 Won Best Ensemble Acting FOTR 2001 2003 Won Best Ensemble Acting TTT 2002 2004 Nominated Best Ensemble Acting ROTK 2003 Online Film Critics Society Awards 2003 Won Best Ensemble ROTK 2003 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards 1999 Nominated Favorite Actor - Horror The Faculty 1998 1999 Nominated Favorite Supporting Actor - Sci-Fi Deep Impact 1998 National Board of Review USA 2003 Won Best Acting by an Ensemble ROTK 2003 MTV Movie Awards 2002 Nominated Best On-Screen Team FOTR 2001 2003 Won Best On-Screen Team TTT 2003 Kids' Choice Awards 2002 Nominated Favorite Male Butt Kicker FOTR 2003 Nominated Favorite Male Kicker TTT Empire Awards UK 2002 Won Best Actor FOTR DVD Exclusive Awards 2003 Nominated Best Animated Character Performance The Adventures of Tom Thumb & Thumbelina 2002 2003 Nominated Best Audio Commentary, New Release FOTR 2003 Nominated Best Audio Commentary (New For DVD) TTT Broadcast Film Critics Awards 2004 Won Best Acting Ensemble ROTK 1999 Nominated Favorite Actor - Horror The Faculty 1998 1999 Nominated Favorite Supporting Actor - Sci-Fi- Deep Impact 1998 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films 1994 Won Best Performance by a Young Actor The Good Son 1993 1995 Nominated Best Performance by a Younger Actor North 1994 2003 Nominated Best Performance by a Younger Actor TTT 2004 Won Best Actor ROTK Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences 2004 Won Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance - Male ROTK Hollywood Film Festival 2006 Won Best Ensemble Cast for Bobby

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