Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein; July 22, 1947) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He’s the son of comedian, writer, and actor Harry Einstein and actress Thelma Leads, and younger brother of actor, comedy writer, and producer Bob Einstein. He made his film debut in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976), with Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris, Peter Boyle, and Cybill Shepherd.
Other early roles include Howard Zieff’s Private Benjamin (1980), with Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, Armand Assante, Robert Webber, Sam Wanamaker, Barbara Barrie, Mary Kay Place, and Harry Dean Stanton; a segment in the anthology film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), with Dan Aykroyd; a voice role in James L. Brooks’s Terms of Endearment (1983), with Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, and John Lithgow; Unfaithfully Yours (1984), with Dudley Moore, Nastassja Kinski, Assante, Cassie Yates, and Richard Libertini; and Broadcast News (1987), with William Hurt, Holly Hunter, Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, and Nicholson – the latter he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
He has also written, directed, and starred in several comedy films, such as Real Life (1979), with Charles Grodin, Frances Lee McCain, and J.A. Preston; Modern Romance (1981), with Kathryn Harrold, Bruno Kirby, and George Kennedy; Lost in America (1985), with Julie Hagerty, Maggie Roswell, Michael Greene, Garry Marshall, and Donald Gibb; Defending Your Life (1991), with Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Lee Grant, and Buck Henry; Mother (1996), with Debbie Reynolds, Rob Morrow, Isabel Glasser, John C. McGinley, and Lisa Kudrow; The Muse (1999), with Sharon Stone, Andie MacDowell, and Jeff Bridges; and Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005), with John Carroll Lynch, Sheetal Sheth, Jon Tenney, Fred Thompson, Marco Khan, and Penny Marshall.
Films in the 1990s include I’ll Do Anything (1994), with Nick Nolte, Julie Kavner, Joely Richardson, Tracey Ullman, Anne Heche, and Ian McKellen; Michael Ritchie’s The Scout (1994), with Brendan Fraser, Dianne Wiest, Anne Twomey, Lane Smith, Michael Rapaport, and J.K. Simmons; Sidney Lumet’s Critical Care (1997), with James Spader, Kyra Sedgwick, Helen Mirren, Margo Martindale, Jeffrey Wright, Wallace Shawn, Anne Bancroft, Philip Bosco, Colm Feore, and Edward Herrmann; a voice role in Dr. Dolittle (1998), with Eddie Murphy, Ossie Davis, Oliver Platt, with the voices of Norm McDonald and Chris Rock; and Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998), with George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Dennis Farina, Nancy Allen, Steve Zahn, Catherine Keener, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Films in the 2000s include Christine Lahti’s My First Mister (2001), with Leelee Sobieski, Desmond Harrington, Carol Kane, Michael McKean, and John Goodman; a voice role in Finding Nemo (2003), with Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Hunter, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Vicki Lewis, Austin Pendleton, Stephen Root, Barry Humphries, Eric Bana, and Bruce Spence; Andrew Fleming’s The In-Laws (2003), with Michael Douglas, Robin Tunney, Ryan Reynolds, Candice Bergen, Lindsay Sloane, and David Suchet; and a voice role in The Simpsons Movie (2007), with Dan Castellaneta, Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, and Joe Mantegna.
Films in the 2010s include Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011), with Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, and Oscar Isaac; Judd Apatow’s This Is 40 (2012), with Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Jason Segal, Charline Yi, Tim Bagley, Lithgow, Megan Fox, Chris O’Dowd, and Melissa McCarthy; J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year (2014), with Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, and Alessandro Nivola; a voice role in The Little Prince (2015), with Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Rudd, Bud Cort, Marion Cotillard, Benicio del Toro, James Franco, Ricky Gervais, Paul Giamatti, Riley Osborne, and Mackenzie Foy; Concussion (2015), with Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Arliss Howard, Paul Reiser, Luke Wilson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and David Morse; a voice role in Finding Dory (2016), with DeGeneres, Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Hayden Rolence, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Idris Elba, Dominic West, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Hader, and Kate McKinnon; a voice role in The Secret Life of Pets (2016), with Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Kevin Hart, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, and Steve Coogan; and a voice role in I Love You, Daddy (2017), with C.K. (Who also directed)., Chloë Grace Moretz, Rose Byrne, Charlie Day, Edie Falco, Pamela Adlon, Ebonee Noel, Helen Hunt, and John Malkovich.
In recent years he was the subject matter of the documentary, Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023), directed by longtime friend Rob Reiner; and appeared in Ella McCay (2025), with Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Spike Fearn, Kavner, Rebecca Hall, and Woody Harrelson.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Taxi Driver (1976)** – directed by Martin Scorsese
- Real Life (1979) – also director, co-writer
- Private Benjamin (1980) – directed by Howard Zieff
- Modern Romance (1981) – also director, co-writer
- Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) – directed by John Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller, & Steven Spielberg – anthology
- Terms of Endearment (1983) – directed by James L. Brooks – voice cameo (credited as A. Brooks)
- Unfaithfully Yours (1984) – directed by Howard Zieff
- Lost in America (1985) – also director, co-writer
- Broadcast News (1987) – directed by James L. Brooks
- Defending Your Life (1991) – also director, writer
- I’ll Do Anything (1994) – directed by James L. Brooks
- The Scout (1994) – directed by Michael Ritchie – also co-writer
- Mother (1996) – also director, co-writer
- Critical Care (1997) – directed by Sidney Lumet
- Dr. Dolittle (1998)* – directed by Betty Thomas
- Out of Sight (1998) – directed by Steven Soderbergh
- The Muse (1999) – also director, co-writer
- My First Mister (2001) – directed by Christine Lahti
- Finding Nemo (2003)* – directed by Andrew Stanton
- Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau (2003) – directed by Roger Gould – short
- The In-Laws (2003) – directed by Andrew Fleming
- Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005) – also director, writer
- The Simpsons Movie (2007)* – directed by David Silverman – credited as A. Brooks
- Drive (2011)* – directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
- This is 40 (2012) – directed by Judd Apatow
- A Most Violent Year (2014) – directed by J.C. Chandor
- The Little Prince (2015) – directed by Mark Osborne
- Concussion (2015) – directed by Peter Landesman
- Finding Dory (2016) – directed by Andrew Stanton & Angus MacLane
- The Secret Life of Pets (2016) – directed by Chris Renaud
- I Love You, Daddy (2017) – directed by Louis C.K. – voice cameo (credited as A. Brooks)
- The Super Bob Einstein Movie (2021) – directed by Danny Gold – self – documentary
- Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023) – directed by Rob Reiner – self – documentary
- Ella McCay (2025) – directed by James L. Brooks
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