The Story of Brendan Fraser, an Actor Who Had a Difficult Life but Is Still Loved No Less Than Keanu Reeves

 At the beginning of the 2000s, Brendan Fraser was a Hollywood actor with great potential. We all remember the handsome savage from the comedy, George of the Jungle, or the brave Richard O’Connell from The Mummy. But suddenly, he disappeared from the big screen. Now social media users are wondering what happened to this once-so-popular actor.

At Bright Side, we decided to share the true story of Brendan Fraser’s life and acting career with you.

Brendan James Fraser was born in the US. His mother was a sales counselor and his father was a Canadian foreign service officer. In 1990, Fraser graduated from Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts and moved to Hollywood. Before he started acting, he worked in different places — he even juggled in a department store.

The first movie to star Fraser was California Man. It’s about the adventures of a caveman in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Many critics called this comedy silly, so it was rated quite low. Later, he played a few more leading roles in not-so-famous movies, like School Ties, Airheads, and The Passion of Darkly Noon.

28-year-old Fraser became famous in 1997, when the movie, George of the Jungle, was released. The story about a man who was raised by apes conquered the hearts of viewers and earned $174 million worldwide.

“I was a walking steak,” Fraser said about his then looks for which he had to work out a lot and go on a strict diet.

The actor did all the stunts himself. “I remember once I was hoisted on a crane 60 feet in the air, I had to swing down at 30 miles per hour for a 300-foot swoop,” Fraser recalled. Eventually, he got injured.

People may also remember Fraser for his role in Blast from the Past where he played a man who was born and raised in a nuclear fallout shelter and came outside for the first time at age 35. Even though the movie received mixed reviews from critics, many people loved it. Nonetheless, critics praised Fraser’s acting talent many times. For example, after the release of the movie, Gods and Monsters, one of the critics said, “Unrecognized but simply outstanding.”

Fraser’s big break happened in 1999 when Stephen Sommers filmed him in the adventure movie, The Mummy. Initially, the role of Rick O’Connell was offered to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Ben Affleck, but the film director and the producer watched the comedy, George of the Jungle, and decided that Brendan Fraser was perfect for this role. The movie was filmed in Morocco in the Sahara Desert where snakes, sandstorms, and the scorching sun made the work really hard for the filming crew.

As a result, the movie became a commercial success, and nowadays, it’s referred to as one of the main blockbusters of the 1990s. Critics also mentioned that Brendan Fraser’s character was ahead of its time: a man obsessed with showing off how uber-masculine he was, yet he was just a normal man with real emotions, and he didn’t view his love interest, played by Rachel Weisz, as a prize.

Right after The Mummy, a few other movies starring Fraser were released. The comedy, Dudley Do-Right, a story about a kind mountie, received unfavorable reviews from critics and was a box office bomb.

The comedy, Bedazzled (2000), a story about a man who made a deal with the devil to conquer the heart of the woman he loved, received mixed reviews from critics even though it was a commercial success.

In 2001, the fantasy comedy, Monkeybone, was released and became a box office flop, earning only $7 million worldwide with a $75 million-dollar budget.