Adrien Brody

Brody in 2010, DFree / Shutterstock.com

Birth Name: Adrien Nicholas Brody

Place of Birth: Woodhaven, Queens, New York City, New York, U.S.

Date of Birth: April 14, 1973

Ethnicity:
*75% Ashkenazi Jewish
*25% Hungarian

Adrien Brody is an American actor and producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Pianist (2002). He is the youngest winner in the category. His roles also include the films New York Stories, King of the Hill (1993), The Thin Red Line, Summer of Sam, Oxygen (1999), Liberty Heights, Dummy (2002), The Singing Detective, The Village (2004), The Jacket, King Kong (2005), Hollywoodland, The Darjeeling Limited, Cadillac Records, Giallo, Splice, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Predators (2010), Detachment, Midnight in Paris, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bullet Head, Clean (2021), The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun; See How They Run, Blonde (2022), Manodrome, Ghosted, Asteroid City, and The Brutalist; and television’s Houdini (2014), Peaky Blinders, Chapelwaite, Succession, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, and Poker Face.

He is the son of Sylvia Plachý, a prominent photographer, and Elliot Brody, a history professor and painter. His father is Jewish, of Polish Jewish descent. His mother was born in Budapest, Hungary. Adrien’s maternal grandfather was a Hungarian Catholic. Adrien’s maternal grandmother was a Czech Jew, whose own parents were killed in the Holocaust. Adrien’s mother was raised Catholic, and did not know about her own mother’s Jewish background until her teenage years. Sylvia’s mother was hidden by Sylvia’s father during the Holocaust.

Adrien has said that he was raised around both Judaism and Catholicism.

His mother’s surname, Plachý, means “shy” in Czech.

Adrien’s maternal grandfather was named Willy Plachý (the son of Matild Ábrányi). Willy was born outside of marriage, and took on the surname of his stepfather, Zsigmond Plachý. Willy has been described as being of aristocratic background. Matild was the daughter of Ábrányi Lajos/Louis, a noted painter, who was born in Békéscsaba, Békés, Magyarország, and of Róza Vay.

Adrien’s maternal grandmother was the daughter of Jahr Miklos and Iren Shvartz. Jahr was born in Kőrösmező, Czechoslovakia, the son of Shmuel. Adrien’s great-grandfather Jahr was killed in the Dachau concentration camp.

Sources: Interview with The Guardian newspaper – http://www.guardian.co.uk

The New York Sun article about Adrien’s mother – http://www.nysun.com

The Foward article about Adrien’s mother – http://www.forward.com

Genealogy of Adrien Brody (focusing on his mother’s side) – https://www.geni.com

Genealogy of Adrien’s maternal great-grandmother, Matild Ábrányi – http://www.macse.org