Albert Brooks
Movie Actor — born 1947
Albert Brooks is an American actor, writer, comedian and director.
Albert Brooks, born Albert Lawrence Einstein on July 22, 1947, in Beverly Hills, California, is an American filmmaker, comedian, and actor whose dry, observational style influenced a generation of American comedy. The son of radio comedian Harry Einstein, he changed his surname to Brooks at age sixteen and began performing stand-up while still in his twenties.
Brooks gained early national attention through short films he created for the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975 and 1976, which experimented with self-aware, mock-documentary humor years before that style entered the mainstream. He directed and starred in Real Life (1979), Modern Romance (1981), Lost in America (1985), and Defending Your Life (1991), each blending neurotic introspection with social satire.
As an actor for other directors, Brooks earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for James L. Brooks's Broadcast News (1987), provided the voice of Marlin in Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003) and Finding Dory (2016), and delivered a chilling dramatic turn as a mob financier in Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive (2011).
In 2011 Brooks published his first novel, 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America, a near-future satire about generational conflict and economic decline. He has remained selective about his projects across five decades while maintaining a steady presence in voice work and supporting film roles.
The name Albert comes from the Old High German Adalberht, combining adal meaning "noble" and beraht meaning "bright," giving a sense of "noble and bright." Brought to England by the Normans, it became widely used in the English-speaking world after Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert in 1840.