Matthew Broderick

Season 2, Episode 16

Matthew Broderick was born in New York City on March 21, 1962 to playwright Patricia Broderick and the late actor James Broderick. His first acting experience came in 1979 when he starred alongside his father in a workshop production of On Valentine's Day.

In the early 1980s, he appeared in Torch Song Trilogy off Broadway, and the original Broadway production on Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, for which he won the Tony in 1983.

He was offered the role of Alex P. Keaton on the TV sitcom Family Ties, which eventually made a star of Michael J. Fox. Broderick turned down the part, instead opting to stay in New York with his ailing father. He appeared again on Broadway in a second Neil Simon play, Biloxi Blues, in 1985. But at this point, his film career was also starting to take off.

He made his screen debut in 1983 in WarGames, playing a teenage computer hacker who nearly triggers nuclear war. But his true breakout star role was as the loveable hooky-playing rascal in John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). His boyish good looks and natural connection to the character made him an instant star.

However, in order to avoid being typecast in fluffy teenage roles, Broderick felt he needed to take on darker, edgier roles. He appeared in the film version of Torch Song Trilogy (1988), and as the colonel of the first all-black regiment in the Civil War in Glory (1989). Other films included Project X (1987), the film version of Biloxi Blues (1988), Family Business (1989) with Dustin Hoffman and Sean Connery, and The Freshman (1990) alongside Marlon Brando.

In 1994, he returned to Broadway, this time in a musical comedy revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and won his second Tony award. In the 1990s, he took on roles in big budget Hollywood films such as The Cable Guy (1996) with Jim Carrey, Godzilla (1998) and Inspector Gadget (1999). He voiced the grown-up Simba in Disney's blockbuster The Lion King (1994).

But he also has shown a flair for black comedy and flawed characters in smaller films such as Addicted to Love (1997), Election (1999) and You Can Count on Me (2000).

Most recently, he has been part of the 2001 Broadway musical comedy phenomenon, Mel Brooks' stage version of The Producers. Broderick plays the nervous accountant Leo Bloom in the smash show, which has consistently sold out, and won more Tony awards than any other show in history. Though nominated, Broderick lost out on a third trophy to co-star Nathan Lane.

Since 1997, Broderick has been married to Sarah Jessica Parker, star of HBO's Sex and the City.