Early life

Fraser was born December 3, 1968, in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of Canadian parents. His mother, Carol Mary (née Genereux), was a sales counselor, and his father, Peter, was a former journalist who worked as a Canadian foreign service officer for the Government Office of Tourism. His maternal uncle, George Genereux, was the only Canadian to win a gold medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Fraser has three older brothers: Kevin, Regan, and Sean. His surname is properly pronounced /ˈfreɪzər/, not /ˈfreɪʒər/. The correct pronunciation of his surname is a running gag in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, in which his character's surname is pronounced /frɛrəˈʒʊər/. His ancestry includes Irish, Scottish, German, Czech, and French Canadian. His family moved often during his childhood, living in Eureka, California, Seattle, Ottawa, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Fraser attended the private boys' boarding school, Upper Canada College, in Toronto. While on vacation in London, Fraser attended his first professional theatrical performance at the West End. He graduated from Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts in 1990. He began acting at a small acting college in New York. He originally planned on attending graduate school in Texas but stopped in Hollywood on his way south and decided to stay in Los Angeles to work in film productions.

Career

Fraser made a brief appearance in the reenactment of America's Most Wanted, as a friend of murder victim Rodney Mark Peterson. After his film debut Encino Man, he starred with Matt Damon and Chris O'Donnell in School Ties. In 1994, he starred with Steve Buscemi and Adam Sandler in Airheads, played Steve Nebraska in The Scout and Montgomery "Monty" Kessler in With Honors. He went on to play supporting roles, such as Philip Ridley's The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995) and The Twilight of the Golds (1997). He went on to appear in several comedy films, such as Blast from the Past (1999), Bedazzled (2000) and Monkeybone (2001). He also starred in two films based on Jay Ward creations, George of the Jungle and Dudley Do-Right, but did not reprise his role in the former's sequel.

He also starred in Gods and Monsters (1998), which was based on the life of James Whale (Ian McKellen) who directed Frankenstein. The film was written and directed by Bill Condon, and follows the loss of creativity, ambiguous sexuality and unlikely bonds between a heterosexual gardener and a homosexual, tortured and ailing filmmaker. His biggest commercial success came with the adventure fantasy film, The Mummy (1999) and its sequel The Mummy Returns (2001), both of which were hugely successful at the box office. He lent his voice for the unreleased animated film Big Bug Man. In 2004, he appeared in the Academy Award-winning film Crash. He has also made guest appearances on the television shows, Scrubs, King of the Hill and The Simpsons. In March 2006, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame, the first American-born actor to receive the honor. However as of 2014, he does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After a six-year hiatus in the franchise, Fraser returned for the second sequel to The Mummy released in August 2008 and titled The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Filming started in Montreal on July 27, 2007 and also starred Jet Li as Emperor Han. His other releases in 2008 were the 3D film adaptation of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth and the fantasy film Inkheart (chosen personally for the lead role by the novel's author Cornelia Funke). In 2010, he starred in Extraordinary Measures with Harrison Ford.

Fraser starred as "Brick" in the West End production of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in September 2001, directed by Anthony Page. Castmates included Ned Beatty, Frances O'Connor and Gemma Jones. The show closed on January 12, 2002, with Fraser garnering many excellent reviews. Fraser recently starred in a Broadway production of Elling, but the play closed after 9 performances due to lackluster reviews. After appearing in the critically panned Furry Vengeance in 2010, Fraser moved from being represented by William Morris Endeavor to the Creative Artists Agency. He starred in Whole Lotta Sole directed by Terry George and in 2011 was set to play William Tell in The Legend of William Tell: 3D, directed by Eric Brevig. Fraser had also worked with Brevig on Journey to the Center of the Earth. However, filming was delayed and late in 2011, Fraser sued the producer Todd Moyer for promised wages. Moyer later countersued. The film is now in development limbo.

Personal life

Fraser met actress Afton Smith while attending a barbecue at Winona Ryder's house on July 4, 1993, after arriving in Los Angeles. Fraser married Smith on September 27, 1998, and they have three sons: Griffin Arthur Fraser, born in 2002, Holden Fletcher Fraser, born in 2004, and Leland Francis Fraser, born in 2006. On December 27, 2007, Fraser's publicist announced the couple had decided to divorce. In early 2013, Fraser petitioned the courts for a reduction of his alimony and child support payments, asserting that he was unable to meet the annual obligation of $900,000; his ex-wife, in turn, accused Fraser of hiding financial assets.

Fraser speaks fluent French, and serves on the board of directors for FilmAid International. He is an accomplished amateur photographer, and has used several Polaroids in movies and on TV shows, most notably on his guest roles on Scrubs. In his first appearance he used a folding pack camera; and on his second appearance he used a Holga with a Polaroid back, a Japanese-only model. The book Collector's Guide to Instant Cameras has a dedication to Fraser.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Dogfight	Sailor No. 1
1992	Encino Man	Link
1992	School Ties	David Greene
1993	Twenty Bucks	Sam Mastrewski
1993	Younger and Younger	Winston Younger
1993	Son in Law	Link	Cameo
1994	With Honors	Montgomery 'Monty' Kessler
1994	Airheads	Chester 'Chazz' Darby
1994	In the Army Now	Link	Cameo
1994	The Scout	Steve Nebraska
1995	The Passion of Darkly Noon	Darkly Noon
1995	Now and Then	Vietnam Veteran	Uncredited
1996	Brain Candy	Placebo Patient	Uncredited
1996	Mrs. Winterbourne	Bill / Hugh Winterbourne
1996	Glory Daze	Doug	Cameo
1996	The Twilight of the Golds	David Gold
1997	George of the Jungle	George
1998	Still Breathing	Fletcher McBracken
1998	Gods and Monsters	Clayton Boone
1999	Blast from the Past	Adam Webber
1999	The Mummy	Richard 'Rick' O'Connell
1999	Dudley Do-Right	Dudley Do-Right
2000	Bedazzled	Elliot Richards / Jefe / Mary / Abraham Lincoln
2000	Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists	Sinbad (voice)
2001	Monkeybone	Stu Miley
2001	The Mummy Returns	Richard 'Rick' O'Connell
2002	The Quiet American	Alden Pyle
2003	Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star	Himself	Uncredited
2003	Looney Tunes: Back in Action	DJ Drake / Himself / Voice of Tasmanian Devil and She-Devil
2004	Crash	Rick Cabot
2006	Journey to the End of the Night	Paul
2006	The Last Time	Jamie Bashant	Executive producer
2007	The Air I Breathe	Pleasure
2008	Journey to the Center of the Earth	Professor Trevor Anderson	Executive producer
2008	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor	Richard 'Rick' O'Connell
2009	Inkheart	Mortimer Folchart
2009	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Sgt. Stone	Cameo
2010	Extraordinary Measures	John Crowley
2010	Furry Vengeance	Dan Sanders	Executive producer
2012	Stand Off	Joe Maguire	Executive producer
2013	Escape from Planet Earth	Scorch Supernova (voice)
2013	A Case of You	Tony
2013	HairBrained	Leo Searly
2013	Pawn Shop Chronicles	Ricky Baldoski
2013	Breakout	Jack Damson	Producer Direct-to-DVD
2013	Gimme Shelter	Tom Fitzpatrick
2014	The Nut Job	Grayson (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	My Old School	Chevy	Short film
1991	Child of Darkness, Child of Light	John's friend	Television film
1991	Guilty Until Proven Innocent	Bobby McLaughlin	Television film
1995	Fallen Angels	Johnny Lamb	Episode: "The Professional Man"
1997	Duckman	Sammons Cagle (voice)	Episode: "Dammit, Hollywood"
1998	The Simpsons	Brad (voice)	Episode: "King of the Hill"
2000/05	King of the Hill	David Kalaiki-Ali / Irv Bennet / Jimmy Beardon (voices)	2 episodes
2002/04	Scrubs	Ben Sullivan	3 episodes
2009	Wishology	Turbo Thunder (voice)	Television film
2015	Texas Rising	Billy Anderson	Miniseries

Awards

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
1993	Chicago Film Critics Association Award	Most Promising Actor	Encino Man and School Ties	Nominated
1997	Seattle International Film Festival Award	Best Actor	Still Breathing	Won
2000	Saturn Award	Best Actor	The Mummy	Nominated
	Blockbuster Entertainment Award	Favorite Actor - Action		Nominated
2001	Teen Choice Award	Film - Choice Actor	The Mummy Returns	Nominated
2005	Gotham Awards	Best Ensemble Cast	Crash	Nominated
	Hollywood Film Festival Award	Ensemble of the Year		Won
2006	Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Cast		Won
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture		Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]