Denny Hamlin Biography and Full Profile.

Denny Hamlin was looking for 2010 to be his best chance to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship but a torn ACL may hinder him to begin the season. Hamlin sustained the injury
 playing basketball, Hamlin was scheduled to play in a skills competition at a Charlotte Bobcats home game. Michael Waltrip and Brad Keslowski were among the NASCAR stars that did participate in the event in Charlotte. In an interview discussing the ACL injury and and his disappointment of missing the skills competition, Hamlin jokes that he had a good chance of winning the event. To see the you tube video of the full interview look here.
The injury will affect Hamlin's ability to get in and out of the his car quickly and will hinder him at race courses where there will be a lot of braking, such as Martinsville. Aside from the injury, Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs owned #11 Fed Ex Toyota team, are an early favorite to win the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Hamlin ended 2009 with a victory in the NASCAR finale at Homestead and he is looking to build on that success for 2010.
The torn ACL will not be operated on until next November when the season ends but Hamlin has already had surgery in December for an unrelated injury. Hamlin had to surgically repair the meniscus on his right knee, the operation was performed on December 16.

Hamlin has been living in the shadow of #18 M & M's sponsored driver, Kyle Busch, his fellow Gibbs teammate and now Joey Logano, the young phenom that replaced Tony Stewart in the #20 Home Depot car. Hamlin has become accustomed to playing third fiddle on his talented team but made some waves in 2009 and some enemies.
Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Denny Hamlin and Brad Keslowski had a serious rivalry most of the season. Each driver wrecking the other on several occasions and taking any opportunity to make the others life miserable. This year Keslowski has left Dale Earnhardt Jr's, JR Motorsports NASCAR Nationwide team and will race in NASCAR Sprint Cup for the 2010 season under the Penske Racing banner. It will be interesting to see if there is any carry over of bad blood between the two in 2010.

HJF54S2X8PX8

Denny Hamlin Biography and Full Profile.

Denny Hamlin was looking for 2010 to be his best chance to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship but a torn ACL may hinder him to begin the season. Hamlin sustained the injury
 playing basketball, Hamlin was scheduled to play in a skills competition at a Charlotte Bobcats home game. Michael Waltrip and Brad Keslowski were among the NASCAR stars that did participate in the event in Charlotte. In an interview discussing the ACL injury and and his disappointment of missing the skills competition, Hamlin jokes that he had a good chance of winning the event. To see the you tube video of the full interview look here.
The injury will affect Hamlin's ability to get in and out of the his car quickly and will hinder him at race courses where there will be a lot of braking, such as Martinsville. Aside from the injury, Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs owned #11 Fed Ex Toyota team, are an early favorite to win the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Hamlin ended 2009 with a victory in the NASCAR finale at Homestead and he is looking to build on that success for 2010.
The torn ACL will not be operated on until next November when the season ends but Hamlin has already had surgery in December for an unrelated injury. Hamlin had to surgically repair the meniscus on his right knee, the operation was performed on December 16.

Hamlin has been living in the shadow of #18 M & M's sponsored driver, Kyle Busch, his fellow Gibbs teammate and now Joey Logano, the young phenom that replaced Tony Stewart in the #20 Home Depot car. Hamlin has become accustomed to playing third fiddle on his talented team but made some waves in 2009 and some enemies.
Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Denny Hamlin and Brad Keslowski had a serious rivalry most of the season. Each driver wrecking the other on several occasions and taking any opportunity to make the others life miserable. This year Keslowski has left Dale Earnhardt Jr's, JR Motorsports NASCAR Nationwide team and will race in NASCAR Sprint Cup for the 2010 season under the Penske Racing banner. It will be interesting to see if there is any carry over of bad blood between the two in 2010.

HJF54S2X8PX8

Joan Baez Biography and Full Profile.

Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York, the second of three daughters to Dr. Albert Baez, a physicist, and Joan Bridge Baez. Her mother was English-Scotish, the daughter of an Episcopalian Minister and a professor of drama who had migrated to the United States, and her father was of Mexican parentage, the son of a minister. Her father's activities as a physicist, researcher and UNESCO consultant took him to many parts of the country, and Joan's childhood was spent first in the small town of Clarence Center, New York, and then in Redlands, California. She developed both her social consciousness and her love for music at a relatively tender age. Picking up the ukulele, Baez made her performing debut at a high school talent show when she was 14, performing "Honey Love."

There she began singing both for the high school choir and for herself, and learned to accompany herself on the guitar. When her father took a job at M.I.T. a few years later,the family moved to Boston, where for a short time she studied drama at Boston University. She enrolled at the university and soon began singing at the Boston coffee houses, colleges and later concert halls along the East Coast to increasingly large crowds. Then came her 1959 Newport Folk Festival debut. Baez signed with the then relatively small folk label, Vanguard, which first released her performances at the Newport Folk Festival, and then released her first album, Joan Baez, in 1960 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Her admirers transcend musical strata and national boundaries. Her growth as a musician and as a human being have proceeded hand in hand. Enrolling herself in the Civil Rights cause and the peace movement, a spokesman for non-violent resistance to and protest against immoral authority, she has refused to pay taxes that go to escalate the war in Vietnam, and has sung at almost every historic demonstration, and fosters a school for non-violent protest in California.

Mini Biography
Joan Baez was the middle daughter of Albert Vinicio and Joan Bridge Baez. At age 10, her father took a job (and the family) to Baghdad, Iraq, for a year, after which they moved to Palo Alto, CA, home of Stanford University. In 1956, she bought her first guitar and heard Martin Luther King, Jr.'s lecture on nonviolence; the following year, she heard Ira Sandperl, a Gandhian scholar, who also influenced her strongly. She graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1958, failed with a demo album, and move the next year to Massachusetts where her father had taken a teaching position at MIT. She performed at Club 47, a folk music club in Cambridge, and participated in an album "Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square". The same year, she met Odetta and Bob Gibson while she was performing at Chicago's The Gate Of Horn. Bob invited her to perform July 11 at the Newport Folk Festival, which launched her fame as a folksinger. Her first album for Vanguard, "Joan Baez" (1960), was a huge success. The following year, she met Bob Dylan and released her second very successful album, followed the year later by many southern civil-rights performances and "Joan Baez in Concert" (a Grammy nominee). She launched a tax revolt as part of her protest of the Vietnam war, protested Pete Seeger's exclusion by ABC-TV, and joined in the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley and the civil rights march in Selma AL. In 1967, she spent two brief periods in jail for anti-war protests. In 1969, she gave birth to Gabriel Earl while his father, David Harris, was serving 20 months of a three year sentence for draft resistance. In 1971, her songs were featured in the films Sacco e Vanzetti (1971) (aka Sacco And Vanzetti) and "Celebration At Big Sur". A 1974 world tour included Japan, Australia, Israel, Lebanon, Tunisia and Argentina. The 1978 film Renaldo and Clara (1978) featured her performances in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder tours. In 1980, Antioch University and Rutgers University awarded her the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for her music and her activism. Next year, PBS aired the documentary "There But For Fortune: Joan Baez in Latin America". The albums, causes and concerts continue, far too numerous to list here.

American folk singer Joan Baez is recognized for her nonviolent, antiestablishment (against a nation's political and economic structure), and anti-war positions. She has used her singing and speaking talents to criticize violations of human rights in a number of countries.
Early life
 
Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941, in Staten Island, New York. Her father, Albert V. Baez, was a physicist who came to the United States from Mexico at a very early age, and her mother was of western European descent. Joan inherited her father's dark complexion, and the occasional racial prejudice (hatred of a race) she suffered as a child probably led to her later involvement in the civil rights movement, a movement that called for equal rights for all races. Although as an adult she claimed not to share her parents' strict religious faith, it undoubtedly contributed to what some called her keen "social conscience."

Baez was exposed to an intellectual atmosphere with classical music during her childhood, but rejected piano lessons in favor of the guitar and rock and roll. Her father's research and teaching positions took the family to various American and foreign cities. When Joan was ten, she spent a year in Iraq with her family. There she was exposed to the harsh and intensely poor conditions of the Iraqi people, something that undoubtedly had an affect on her later career as a singer and activist. Baez went on to attend high school in Palo Alto, California, where she excelled in music more than in academic subjects. Shortly after her high school graduation in 1958, her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where Baez's interest in folk music surfaced after visiting a coffee shop where amateur folk singers performed.
From Boston coffeehouses to Newport,
Rhode Island

Baez briefly attended Boston University, where she made friends with several semi-professional folk singers from whom she learned much about the art. In addition to simple folk songs, she began to sing Anglo American ballads, blues, spirituals, and songs from various countries. As she worked to develop her technique and range of songs, Baez began to perform professionally in Boston coffeehouses and quickly became a favorite of Harvard University students. She was also noticed by other folk singers, including Harry Belafonte (1927–), who offered her a job with his singing group.

In the summer of 1959 Baez was invited to sing at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. This performance made her a star—especially to young people—and led to friendships with other important folk singers such as the Seeger family and Odetta. Although the performance brought her offers to make recordings and concert tours, she decided to resume her Boston coffee shop appearances.

After Baez's second Newport appearance in 1960, she made her first album for Vanguard Records. Simply labeled Joan Baez, it was an immediate success. She was then such a "hot item" that she could choose her own songs and prop designs for her performances. In the following years Baez sang to capacity crowds on American college campuses and concert halls and on several foreign tours. Her eight gold albums and one gold single demonstrated her popularity as a singer.
Politics a source of controversy

While many critics agreed that Baez's untrained singing voice was unusually haunting, beautiful, and very soothing, they saw her spoken words, lifestyle, and actions as conflicting and sometimes anti-American. In the changing world of the1960s, Baez became a center of controversy (open to dispute) when she used her singing and speaking talents to urge nonpayment of taxes used for war purposes and to urge men to resist the draft during the Vietnam War (1965–73; when the United States aided South Vietnam's fight against North Vietnam). She helped block induction centers (which brought in new recruits) and was twice arrested for such violations of the law.

Baez was married to writer and activist David Harris in March 1968. She was pregnant with their son, Gabriel, in April 1969, and three months later she saw her husband arrested for refusing induction into the military forces. He spent the next twenty months in a federal prison in Texas.
 
In the early 1970s Baez began to speak with greater harshness. By the end of the decade she had offended dozens of her former peace-activist allies—such as Jane Fonda (1937–) and attorney William Kunstler—with her views on postwar Vietnam. As she had done in the case of Chile and Argentina (without public outcries from former associates), Baez called for human rights to be extended to those centers in the war-torn country.
Baez's career through the 1980s and 1990s

In later years Baez's singing career faltered despite various attempts to revive it. Her 1985 effort featured a more conventional
Joan Baez. Reproduced by permission of AP/Wide World Photos.
Joan Baez.hairstyle and attire. Her supporters believed she would regain her prominence in the entertainment industry because her voice, although deeper, had the same qualities that made her so successful earlier. Meanwhile, she was quite busy throughout the world as the head of the Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, which concentrated on distracting (in any possible nonviolent way) those whom it believed exercised unauthorized power.

Baez has continued to make music and to influence younger performers. In 1987 Baez released Recently, her first studio solo album in eight years. She was nominated for a 1988 Best Contemporary Folk Recording Grammy Award for "Asimbonanga," a song from the album. Also in 1988 Baez recorded Diamonds and Rust in the Bullring in Bilbao, Spain. The album was released the following April. In 1990 Baez toured with the Indigo Girls and the threesome were recorded for a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) video presentation, "Joan Baez In Concert." In 1993 two more Baez recordings were released: Play Me Backwards, consisting of new material; and Rare, Live & Classic, a collection of her career from 1958 to 1989, featuring twenty-two previously unreleased tracks. Baez released Gone from Danger in 1997 and Farewell Angelina in 2002.

The singer's interest in politics and human rights has continued as well. In 1993 she was invited by Refugees International to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to help bring attention to the suffering there. In September of that same year Baez became the first major artist to perform in a professional concert on Alcatraz Island (the former Federal Penitentiary) in San Francisco, California. It was a benefit performance for her sister Mimi Farina's organization, Bread & Roses. She returned to the island for a second benefit in 1996 along with the Indigo Girls and Dar Williams. She has also supported the gay and lesbian cause. In 1995 she joined Janis Ian in a performance at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Fight the Right fundraising event in San Francisco.

In 2001 Farrar, Straus, and Giroux released Positively Fourth Street by David Hajdu. The book is an intimate portrait that explores the relationships between Joan, Mimi Farina, Richard Farina, and fellow folkster Bob Dylan (1941–) during New York City's folk scene of the early 1960s.

Read more: Joan Baez Biography - life, family, childhood, parents, school, mother, young, son, book, information, born, college, husband, house, year, sister http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ba-Be/Baez-Joan.html#ixzz15p3p8Ku3

Joan Baez Biography and Full Profile.

Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York, the second of three daughters to Dr. Albert Baez, a physicist, and Joan Bridge Baez. Her mother was English-Scotish, the daughter of an Episcopalian Minister and a professor of drama who had migrated to the United States, and her father was of Mexican parentage, the son of a minister. Her father's activities as a physicist, researcher and UNESCO consultant took him to many parts of the country, and Joan's childhood was spent first in the small town of Clarence Center, New York, and then in Redlands, California. She developed both her social consciousness and her love for music at a relatively tender age. Picking up the ukulele, Baez made her performing debut at a high school talent show when she was 14, performing "Honey Love."

There she began singing both for the high school choir and for herself, and learned to accompany herself on the guitar. When her father took a job at M.I.T. a few years later,the family moved to Boston, where for a short time she studied drama at Boston University. She enrolled at the university and soon began singing at the Boston coffee houses, colleges and later concert halls along the East Coast to increasingly large crowds. Then came her 1959 Newport Folk Festival debut. Baez signed with the then relatively small folk label, Vanguard, which first released her performances at the Newport Folk Festival, and then released her first album, Joan Baez, in 1960 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Her admirers transcend musical strata and national boundaries. Her growth as a musician and as a human being have proceeded hand in hand. Enrolling herself in the Civil Rights cause and the peace movement, a spokesman for non-violent resistance to and protest against immoral authority, she has refused to pay taxes that go to escalate the war in Vietnam, and has sung at almost every historic demonstration, and fosters a school for non-violent protest in California.

Mini Biography
Joan Baez was the middle daughter of Albert Vinicio and Joan Bridge Baez. At age 10, her father took a job (and the family) to Baghdad, Iraq, for a year, after which they moved to Palo Alto, CA, home of Stanford University. In 1956, she bought her first guitar and heard Martin Luther King, Jr.'s lecture on nonviolence; the following year, she heard Ira Sandperl, a Gandhian scholar, who also influenced her strongly. She graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1958, failed with a demo album, and move the next year to Massachusetts where her father had taken a teaching position at MIT. She performed at Club 47, a folk music club in Cambridge, and participated in an album "Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square". The same year, she met Odetta and Bob Gibson while she was performing at Chicago's The Gate Of Horn. Bob invited her to perform July 11 at the Newport Folk Festival, which launched her fame as a folksinger. Her first album for Vanguard, "Joan Baez" (1960), was a huge success. The following year, she met Bob Dylan and released her second very successful album, followed the year later by many southern civil-rights performances and "Joan Baez in Concert" (a Grammy nominee). She launched a tax revolt as part of her protest of the Vietnam war, protested Pete Seeger's exclusion by ABC-TV, and joined in the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley and the civil rights march in Selma AL. In 1967, she spent two brief periods in jail for anti-war protests. In 1969, she gave birth to Gabriel Earl while his father, David Harris, was serving 20 months of a three year sentence for draft resistance. In 1971, her songs were featured in the films Sacco e Vanzetti (1971) (aka Sacco And Vanzetti) and "Celebration At Big Sur". A 1974 world tour included Japan, Australia, Israel, Lebanon, Tunisia and Argentina. The 1978 film Renaldo and Clara (1978) featured her performances in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder tours. In 1980, Antioch University and Rutgers University awarded her the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for her music and her activism. Next year, PBS aired the documentary "There But For Fortune: Joan Baez in Latin America". The albums, causes and concerts continue, far too numerous to list here.

American folk singer Joan Baez is recognized for her nonviolent, antiestablishment (against a nation's political and economic structure), and anti-war positions. She has used her singing and speaking talents to criticize violations of human rights in a number of countries.
Early life
 
Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941, in Staten Island, New York. Her father, Albert V. Baez, was a physicist who came to the United States from Mexico at a very early age, and her mother was of western European descent. Joan inherited her father's dark complexion, and the occasional racial prejudice (hatred of a race) she suffered as a child probably led to her later involvement in the civil rights movement, a movement that called for equal rights for all races. Although as an adult she claimed not to share her parents' strict religious faith, it undoubtedly contributed to what some called her keen "social conscience."

Baez was exposed to an intellectual atmosphere with classical music during her childhood, but rejected piano lessons in favor of the guitar and rock and roll. Her father's research and teaching positions took the family to various American and foreign cities. When Joan was ten, she spent a year in Iraq with her family. There she was exposed to the harsh and intensely poor conditions of the Iraqi people, something that undoubtedly had an affect on her later career as a singer and activist. Baez went on to attend high school in Palo Alto, California, where she excelled in music more than in academic subjects. Shortly after her high school graduation in 1958, her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where Baez's interest in folk music surfaced after visiting a coffee shop where amateur folk singers performed.
From Boston coffeehouses to Newport,
Rhode Island

Baez briefly attended Boston University, where she made friends with several semi-professional folk singers from whom she learned much about the art. In addition to simple folk songs, she began to sing Anglo American ballads, blues, spirituals, and songs from various countries. As she worked to develop her technique and range of songs, Baez began to perform professionally in Boston coffeehouses and quickly became a favorite of Harvard University students. She was also noticed by other folk singers, including Harry Belafonte (1927–), who offered her a job with his singing group.

In the summer of 1959 Baez was invited to sing at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. This performance made her a star—especially to young people—and led to friendships with other important folk singers such as the Seeger family and Odetta. Although the performance brought her offers to make recordings and concert tours, she decided to resume her Boston coffee shop appearances.

After Baez's second Newport appearance in 1960, she made her first album for Vanguard Records. Simply labeled Joan Baez, it was an immediate success. She was then such a "hot item" that she could choose her own songs and prop designs for her performances. In the following years Baez sang to capacity crowds on American college campuses and concert halls and on several foreign tours. Her eight gold albums and one gold single demonstrated her popularity as a singer.
Politics a source of controversy

While many critics agreed that Baez's untrained singing voice was unusually haunting, beautiful, and very soothing, they saw her spoken words, lifestyle, and actions as conflicting and sometimes anti-American. In the changing world of the1960s, Baez became a center of controversy (open to dispute) when she used her singing and speaking talents to urge nonpayment of taxes used for war purposes and to urge men to resist the draft during the Vietnam War (1965–73; when the United States aided South Vietnam's fight against North Vietnam). She helped block induction centers (which brought in new recruits) and was twice arrested for such violations of the law.

Baez was married to writer and activist David Harris in March 1968. She was pregnant with their son, Gabriel, in April 1969, and three months later she saw her husband arrested for refusing induction into the military forces. He spent the next twenty months in a federal prison in Texas.
 
In the early 1970s Baez began to speak with greater harshness. By the end of the decade she had offended dozens of her former peace-activist allies—such as Jane Fonda (1937–) and attorney William Kunstler—with her views on postwar Vietnam. As she had done in the case of Chile and Argentina (without public outcries from former associates), Baez called for human rights to be extended to those centers in the war-torn country.
Baez's career through the 1980s and 1990s

In later years Baez's singing career faltered despite various attempts to revive it. Her 1985 effort featured a more conventional
Joan Baez. Reproduced by permission of AP/Wide World Photos.
Joan Baez.hairstyle and attire. Her supporters believed she would regain her prominence in the entertainment industry because her voice, although deeper, had the same qualities that made her so successful earlier. Meanwhile, she was quite busy throughout the world as the head of the Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, which concentrated on distracting (in any possible nonviolent way) those whom it believed exercised unauthorized power.

Baez has continued to make music and to influence younger performers. In 1987 Baez released Recently, her first studio solo album in eight years. She was nominated for a 1988 Best Contemporary Folk Recording Grammy Award for "Asimbonanga," a song from the album. Also in 1988 Baez recorded Diamonds and Rust in the Bullring in Bilbao, Spain. The album was released the following April. In 1990 Baez toured with the Indigo Girls and the threesome were recorded for a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) video presentation, "Joan Baez In Concert." In 1993 two more Baez recordings were released: Play Me Backwards, consisting of new material; and Rare, Live & Classic, a collection of her career from 1958 to 1989, featuring twenty-two previously unreleased tracks. Baez released Gone from Danger in 1997 and Farewell Angelina in 2002.

The singer's interest in politics and human rights has continued as well. In 1993 she was invited by Refugees International to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to help bring attention to the suffering there. In September of that same year Baez became the first major artist to perform in a professional concert on Alcatraz Island (the former Federal Penitentiary) in San Francisco, California. It was a benefit performance for her sister Mimi Farina's organization, Bread & Roses. She returned to the island for a second benefit in 1996 along with the Indigo Girls and Dar Williams. She has also supported the gay and lesbian cause. In 1995 she joined Janis Ian in a performance at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Fight the Right fundraising event in San Francisco.

In 2001 Farrar, Straus, and Giroux released Positively Fourth Street by David Hajdu. The book is an intimate portrait that explores the relationships between Joan, Mimi Farina, Richard Farina, and fellow folkster Bob Dylan (1941–) during New York City's folk scene of the early 1960s.

Read more: Joan Baez Biography - life, family, childhood, parents, school, mother, young, son, book, information, born, college, husband, house, year, sister http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ba-Be/Baez-Joan.html#ixzz15p3p8Ku3

Brett Favre Biography and Full Profile.

Brett Favre (born October 10, 1969 in Kiln, Mississippi) has been the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers football team in the National Football League since 1992.Favre played college football at Southern Mississippi, and was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1991, where he was a second string quarterback with unremarkable numbers. Favre was acquired by the Packers in 1992 in a trade with the Falcons.
He has started every Green Bay Packers game after September 20, 1992, when he was summoned in to replace an injured Don Majkowski during game 2 of the season against the Cincinnati Bengals. He holds the longest consecutive starts streak for quarterbacks in NFL history, a number that continues to grow despite numerous injuries, including a broken thumb on his right (throwing) hand that he played with for all of 2003.

Favre has won the National Football League's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award three times, all in consecutive years (1995-1997; the last was shared with Barry Sanders).During that time, while being treated for various injuries, Favre developed an addiction to Vicodin. He went public with his problem in May, 1996, and immediately sought rehabilitation after a press conference admitting his problem. He remained in rehab for 46 days. Shortly thereafter, he led the Packers to their greatest season in thirty years; the Packers won the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Super Bowl XXXI against the New England Patriots at the end of the 1996 season.The Packers, led by Favre, fought their way to a second Super Bowl in the 1997 season, losing to the Denver Broncos.

One of the defining moments of Favre's career took place on December 22, 2003, in a Monday-night game against the Oakland Raiders. The day before, his father, who had been his high school coach and lifelong mentor, died. Where most players would have taken the week off, Favre elected instead to play. He threw for an outstanding 399 yards in the game. He then went to his father's funeral in Pass Christian, Mississippi and returned in time to lead the Packers to a 2003 NFC North title with a win over the Denver Broncos.
As of this writing, Brett Favre is still the starting quarterback for the Packers, although in his thirteenth season, rumors are beginning to surface about when he will retire. Favre himself has given indications that he will play for 5-7 more years.He led his team, the Green Bay Packers, to its first Super Bowl championship, in January 1997, since Vince Lombardi was coach, almost three decades earlier. The team won its first championship in 29 seasons, a 35-21 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. Bret Favre also led his team to another Super Bowl the next season in Super Bowl XXXII, in which the Packers lost to the Denver Broncos 31-24. Despite playing with a painful thumb injury on his right or passing hand throughout the season in 1999, Favre became the most durable professional quarterback ever, playing in his 125th straight game. He beat the record of Ron Jaworski of the Philadelphia Eagles of 116 straight games from 1977-1984. He is the only quarterback ever to be named NFL “Most Valuable Player” for three consecutive seasons—1995-1997.

Bret Favre is known for more than football only, however. His Bret Favre Forward Foundation, which was established to support charities that provide aid for disadvantaged or disabled children in Mississippi or Wisconsin, has donated more than $395,000 to charities. The charity has given money to: Special Olympics; Cystic Fibrosis; Gaits to Success; Make-A-Wish; Hope Haven; U.S.M. Foundation: Cerebral Palsy; Mississippi Chapter Make-A-Wish Foundation; Mississippi Special Olympics; MHG Development Foundation and Candlelighter for Childhood Cancer.

Favre, who was originally from Mississippi, gives the money to charities in his home state and the state the Packers play in. Money is generated for the charities in a variety of ways including golf tournaments, softball games and dinners.From May 5-6, 2,000, the 5th annual Bret Favre Celebrity Golf Tournament was held at the Bridges Golf Resort in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. A pairings party was May 5, followed by the tournament on May 6.The Bret Favre Celebrity Softball Game was June 3, 2,000 at the Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wisconsin.

The golf tournament raised $100,000. The money was given to: Make-A-Wish Foundation, Mississippi Chapter, $20,000; Mississippi Special Olympics, $20,000; MHG Development Foundation, $10,000; Candelighter for Childhood Cancer, $10,000; Hope Haven, $20,000 and Gaits to Success, $20,000.

“ This is certainly a reward to me to be able to contribute money to the many worthwhile charities, which will benefit the children of Mississippi,” Favre said on the website, www.brunoeventteam.com. “ I am blessed for the opportunity to give back to the state of Mississippi and the communities that have supported me for years.”“The Brett Favre Found Forward Foundation is appreciative for the corporate support that allows us to distribute the funds generated for the state of Mississippi’s worthwhile charity organizations,” said Eric Wooten, attorney and Bret Favre Forward Foundation Board of Directors member on the same website.

The charity featured the Brett Favre Forward Foundation Dinner on September 24, 1999, in Green Bay Wisconsin at the Brett Favre Steakhouse. The dinner was preceded by a reception and silent auction. All the proceeds went to charities in Wisconsin and Mississippi. The event marked the first time the community in the Packers hometown became involved in supporting the charity.

There were two corporate packages offered as part of the dinner. In the “Gold” Package, participants paid $2,500 and received: a meal for eight; prepared by Bret’s chef; table wine; a reception prior to the dinner; one autographed Bret Favre jersey; a color photograph of Favre for everyone at the table and a raffle ticket for the Packers game against Seattle and other prizes.

Those purchasing a “Green” ticket for $1,500 received a table for eight, a meal prepared by Brett’s chef and wine and access to a reception prior to the dinner.

Those in attendance saw several highlights during the evening. Local sportscaster Larry McCarren was the emcee. Then Packer head coach, Ray Rhodes was the guest speaker. Packers Leroy Butler, Bernardo Harris and Matt Hasslebeck also made appearances.

During the softball game, the Packers’ defensive team beat the offensive team, 15-11. A capacity crowd of 6,279 watched the game. “Elvis Presley,” representing a local radio station, rushed pitcher Bill Schroeder for a pitch he thought was too close. The pitcher playfully dropped the pitcher to the ground, grabbed his wig and waved it to the crowd. Favre said he planned on making the game an annual event.

Many children who have terminal illnesses in the Make-A-Wish foundation, those with cerebral palsy, cancer and other conditions are glad Favre cares about them. His accomplishments in football are many. He has more goals than just championships and records, however.
 
There is no doubt, however, that his accomplishments will one day bring him entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Favre was originally a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons before being traded to Green Bay. Green Bay is the least populated city in the country with a major professional sports franchise. The team was hungry for another championship, as in the days of Vince Lombardi and a new star as it then had quarterback Bart Starr. Favre became the most popular NFL quarterback since Joe Montana.

Favre is one of only four quarterbacks to throw for more than 4,000 yards at least three times. The others were: Dan Marino, six times; Warren Moon, four times and Hall of Fame quarterback, Dan Fouts, three. Favre was also chosen as the ninth best player in NFL Player of the Century voting. He has also thrown for 30 or more touchdowns five times, more than any player in history. Marino accomplished the feat four times.

Considering the Packer’s history of championships years before Favre arrived, his club records might seem more impressive. During his tenure, the team had a club record seven straight winning seasons from 1992-1998 and a club record six consecutive playoff appearances from 1993-1998. He was also elected to five Pro Bowls in his first eight seasons and chosen as starter for the NFC from 1995-1997. He did not play in 1997 because of an injury.

Another impressive accomplishment is that Favre threw more touchdown passes than any quarterback in the 1990’s, even though he was not in the league in 1990 and barely played his rookie season with Atlanta. Other quarterbacks who played in the 1990’s included Dan Marino, John Elway, Joe Montana and Steve Young.

New Green Bay offensive coordinator, Tom Rossley said on www.packers.com that he is “excited about the opportunity to coach a three time MVP. I think there’s a great fire within him,” he said, adding he thinks Favre can with a fourth MVP.

Favre showed his skills before the NFL. At Southern Mississippi University he set school records for passing, 8,193 yards, attempts, 1,234, completions, 656, percentage, 53% and touchdowns, 55. His 1.57% interception rate was the lowest among the 50 top college passers.

He also showed his toughness just as much as he later would in the NFL. Seriously injured in a traffic accident before his senior season, he opened the season and played one month after having a great deal of his intestines removed. Favre led his team to an 8-3 record that season and was the MVP of the All American Bowl.

After leading Green Bay to it's second consecutive 12-4 record and the team's fourth division title and eighth playoff trip in his 11 years at the helm, the Kiln, Miss., native earned further accolades by being chosen NFL 'Player of the Year' by Sports Illustrated. "Brett is at a stage of his career where there is not a whole lot happening out on the field that he has not experienced at one time or another," explains Mike Sherman head coach of the Packers. "This experience, along with his God-given talent and never-ending passion to play, are what puts him in a league of his own."

A veritable sage in the 'West Coast' offense with over a decade of experience, Favre is equally valuable off the field for his game-planning contributions as he is on it with his patented spirals. His consistently high production level is attested to by his completions, attempts, yards and touchdown totals, tops in the NFL over the past 12 seasons (1991-2002).

Favre Is assured of finishing his career in Green Bay upon the signing of a "lifetime" contract on March 1, 2001, Sherman, calling the signing day "historic," commented on the uniqueness of Favre's relationship with the Packers' organization and fans, saying, "No player in the NFL identifies, or is more closely linked to, a specific team like Brett Favre is to the Green Bay Packers. He embodies the spirit and character of Packer fans everywhere. I do not think there is a player in the NFL that experiences a relationship with the fans like Brett Favre does. That is very, very special." Favre echoed the sentiment, saying, "I enjoy it here. I enjoy the fans and I couldn't envision myself playing for another team."

In a time when personal statistics and individual accolades are often placed ahead of team success, the perennially productive field general desires nothing more than to lead his team to victory, a pursuit at which he has excelled in over a decade at the helm of the Packers.

Not just a football player Favre established the 'Brett Favre Forward Foundation' in 1996; over the past eight years, in conjunction with his annual golf tournament, celebrity softball game and fundraising dinners, foundation has donated in excess of $1.25 million to charities in his home state of Mississippi as well as to those in his adopted state of Wisconsin. An avid golfer, he possesses a handicap in the "one to two" range.

Some of his accomplishments are:

    * NFL's only three-time MVP (1995-97)
    * Voted to the Pro Bowl (as a starter) for the seventh time in 11 seasons with Green Bay
    * Second year in a row, leading vote-getter in fan balloting for the Pro Bowl
    * Posted a passer rating of 100-or-more in six games, second-most in the NFL in 2002
    * Ranks fifth all-time in passer rating
    * Ranked as the ninth-best player in 'NFL Player of the Century' voting
    * Won 115 games as a starter - fifth-most in NFL history
    * Won at least eight games an NFL-record 11 consecutive seasons (1992-2002)
    * Eight playoff berths, including a club-record six in a row (1993-98)
    * Three straight NFC Central Division crowns (1995-97)
    * Three consecutive NFC Championship Games (1995, 1996, 1997)
    * Back-to-back Super Bowl appearances
    * Started 173 consecutive games (190 including playoffs) - an all-time NFL record for a quarterback
    * Thrown 20-or-more touchdowns in nine consecutive seasons (1994-2002)
    * Third place in NFL history in career touchdown passes, with 314
    * Only the fourth player ever to reach 300 TDs
    * Owns the sixth-best career TD-to-INT ratio in NFL history
    * Fourth player in NFL annals to lead the league in TD throws as many as three consecutive seasons (1995-96-97)
    * In 2002, became just the eighth player in league history to post 40,000 career passing yards, attaining the plateau in 166 games - third-fastest in NFL history
    * Owner of 14 career 4-touchdown games - the third-highest total in NFL history behind only the 21 of Marino and the 17 of Johnny Unitas
    * Has (35) 300-yard passing performances - tops among active NFL players
    * Only the fourth player in NFL history to pass for both 40,000 yards in the regular season and 4,000 yards in the playoffs

(born Oct. 10, 1969, Gulfport, Miss., U.S.) American professional gridiron football player who broke all the major National Football League (NFL) career passing records as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.

Favre grew up in Kiln, Miss., and attended the University of Southern Mississippi, where he became the football team's starting quarterback while a freshman. He was drafted by the NFL's Atlanta Falcons in 1991 but was traded to Green Bay the following year after falling out of favour with Atlanta's coaching staff. Originally a backup quarterback, he started for an injured teammate in the third game of the 1992 season and never relinquished the position. In 1993 Favre led the Packers to their first play-off appearance in 10 years, and he established himself as one of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL. Known for his agility, competitiveness, and field presence, he was named the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) a record three consecutive times (1995, 1996, 1997) and led the league in touchdown passes in each MVP year.

At the end of the 1996 season, Favre led the Packers to victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. He returned to the Super Bowl the following year, but the Packers lost to John Elway's Denver Broncos in the waning minutes of the game. The Packers were less successful in the years following their two Super Bowl runs, but Favre continued to be productive. He led the league in pass completions in 1998 and 2005, and he had the most passing yards and touchdown passes in 1998 and 2003, respectively. He finished in the top 10 in completions, passing yards, and touchdown passes in every season between 1992 and 2007. In addition to these single-season accomplishments, Favre reached unprecedented individual statistical milestones over the course of his career. In the 2007 season he broke Elway's record of 148 career wins as a starting quarterback and Dan Marino's all-time records of 420 touchdown passes and 61,371 passing yards, as well as George Blanda's career interception record of 277. Favre announced his retirement from professional football at the end of the 2007 NFL season.

In July 2008 Favre let it be known that he wanted to return to the NFL, and he was reinstated by the league the following month. However, his strained relationship with Packers management—as well as the team's commitment to a new starting quarterback—led the Packers to trade him to the New York Jets before the start of the 2008 NFL season. While he was named to his 10th career Pro Bowl in 2008, Favre's one season with the Jets was nevertheless a disappointment. Not only did he lead the league in interceptions and finish the year ranked 21st in passer rating, but, after an 8-3 start, the Jets won a total of only nine games and missed the play-offs. Citing diminished playing skills and an injured biceps, Favre retired once more in February 2009. His previous indecision led many to speculate that he would end his second retirement as the NFL season neared, and, just weeks after publicly stating that he would not be returning, in August 2009 Favre signed to play with the Minnesota Vikings.

Brett Favre Biography and Full Profile.

Brett Favre (born October 10, 1969 in Kiln, Mississippi) has been the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers football team in the National Football League since 1992.Favre played college football at Southern Mississippi, and was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1991, where he was a second string quarterback with unremarkable numbers. Favre was acquired by the Packers in 1992 in a trade with the Falcons.
He has started every Green Bay Packers game after September 20, 1992, when he was summoned in to replace an injured Don Majkowski during game 2 of the season against the Cincinnati Bengals. He holds the longest consecutive starts streak for quarterbacks in NFL history, a number that continues to grow despite numerous injuries, including a broken thumb on his right (throwing) hand that he played with for all of 2003.

Favre has won the National Football League's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award three times, all in consecutive years (1995-1997; the last was shared with Barry Sanders).During that time, while being treated for various injuries, Favre developed an addiction to Vicodin. He went public with his problem in May, 1996, and immediately sought rehabilitation after a press conference admitting his problem. He remained in rehab for 46 days. Shortly thereafter, he led the Packers to their greatest season in thirty years; the Packers won the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Super Bowl XXXI against the New England Patriots at the end of the 1996 season.The Packers, led by Favre, fought their way to a second Super Bowl in the 1997 season, losing to the Denver Broncos.

One of the defining moments of Favre's career took place on December 22, 2003, in a Monday-night game against the Oakland Raiders. The day before, his father, who had been his high school coach and lifelong mentor, died. Where most players would have taken the week off, Favre elected instead to play. He threw for an outstanding 399 yards in the game. He then went to his father's funeral in Pass Christian, Mississippi and returned in time to lead the Packers to a 2003 NFC North title with a win over the Denver Broncos.
As of this writing, Brett Favre is still the starting quarterback for the Packers, although in his thirteenth season, rumors are beginning to surface about when he will retire. Favre himself has given indications that he will play for 5-7 more years.He led his team, the Green Bay Packers, to its first Super Bowl championship, in January 1997, since Vince Lombardi was coach, almost three decades earlier. The team won its first championship in 29 seasons, a 35-21 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. Bret Favre also led his team to another Super Bowl the next season in Super Bowl XXXII, in which the Packers lost to the Denver Broncos 31-24. Despite playing with a painful thumb injury on his right or passing hand throughout the season in 1999, Favre became the most durable professional quarterback ever, playing in his 125th straight game. He beat the record of Ron Jaworski of the Philadelphia Eagles of 116 straight games from 1977-1984. He is the only quarterback ever to be named NFL “Most Valuable Player” for three consecutive seasons—1995-1997.

Bret Favre is known for more than football only, however. His Bret Favre Forward Foundation, which was established to support charities that provide aid for disadvantaged or disabled children in Mississippi or Wisconsin, has donated more than $395,000 to charities. The charity has given money to: Special Olympics; Cystic Fibrosis; Gaits to Success; Make-A-Wish; Hope Haven; U.S.M. Foundation: Cerebral Palsy; Mississippi Chapter Make-A-Wish Foundation; Mississippi Special Olympics; MHG Development Foundation and Candlelighter for Childhood Cancer.

Favre, who was originally from Mississippi, gives the money to charities in his home state and the state the Packers play in. Money is generated for the charities in a variety of ways including golf tournaments, softball games and dinners.From May 5-6, 2,000, the 5th annual Bret Favre Celebrity Golf Tournament was held at the Bridges Golf Resort in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. A pairings party was May 5, followed by the tournament on May 6.The Bret Favre Celebrity Softball Game was June 3, 2,000 at the Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wisconsin.

The golf tournament raised $100,000. The money was given to: Make-A-Wish Foundation, Mississippi Chapter, $20,000; Mississippi Special Olympics, $20,000; MHG Development Foundation, $10,000; Candelighter for Childhood Cancer, $10,000; Hope Haven, $20,000 and Gaits to Success, $20,000.

“ This is certainly a reward to me to be able to contribute money to the many worthwhile charities, which will benefit the children of Mississippi,” Favre said on the website, www.brunoeventteam.com. “ I am blessed for the opportunity to give back to the state of Mississippi and the communities that have supported me for years.”“The Brett Favre Found Forward Foundation is appreciative for the corporate support that allows us to distribute the funds generated for the state of Mississippi’s worthwhile charity organizations,” said Eric Wooten, attorney and Bret Favre Forward Foundation Board of Directors member on the same website.

The charity featured the Brett Favre Forward Foundation Dinner on September 24, 1999, in Green Bay Wisconsin at the Brett Favre Steakhouse. The dinner was preceded by a reception and silent auction. All the proceeds went to charities in Wisconsin and Mississippi. The event marked the first time the community in the Packers hometown became involved in supporting the charity.

There were two corporate packages offered as part of the dinner. In the “Gold” Package, participants paid $2,500 and received: a meal for eight; prepared by Bret’s chef; table wine; a reception prior to the dinner; one autographed Bret Favre jersey; a color photograph of Favre for everyone at the table and a raffle ticket for the Packers game against Seattle and other prizes.

Those purchasing a “Green” ticket for $1,500 received a table for eight, a meal prepared by Brett’s chef and wine and access to a reception prior to the dinner.

Those in attendance saw several highlights during the evening. Local sportscaster Larry McCarren was the emcee. Then Packer head coach, Ray Rhodes was the guest speaker. Packers Leroy Butler, Bernardo Harris and Matt Hasslebeck also made appearances.

During the softball game, the Packers’ defensive team beat the offensive team, 15-11. A capacity crowd of 6,279 watched the game. “Elvis Presley,” representing a local radio station, rushed pitcher Bill Schroeder for a pitch he thought was too close. The pitcher playfully dropped the pitcher to the ground, grabbed his wig and waved it to the crowd. Favre said he planned on making the game an annual event.

Many children who have terminal illnesses in the Make-A-Wish foundation, those with cerebral palsy, cancer and other conditions are glad Favre cares about them. His accomplishments in football are many. He has more goals than just championships and records, however.
 
There is no doubt, however, that his accomplishments will one day bring him entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Favre was originally a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons before being traded to Green Bay. Green Bay is the least populated city in the country with a major professional sports franchise. The team was hungry for another championship, as in the days of Vince Lombardi and a new star as it then had quarterback Bart Starr. Favre became the most popular NFL quarterback since Joe Montana.

Favre is one of only four quarterbacks to throw for more than 4,000 yards at least three times. The others were: Dan Marino, six times; Warren Moon, four times and Hall of Fame quarterback, Dan Fouts, three. Favre was also chosen as the ninth best player in NFL Player of the Century voting. He has also thrown for 30 or more touchdowns five times, more than any player in history. Marino accomplished the feat four times.

Considering the Packer’s history of championships years before Favre arrived, his club records might seem more impressive. During his tenure, the team had a club record seven straight winning seasons from 1992-1998 and a club record six consecutive playoff appearances from 1993-1998. He was also elected to five Pro Bowls in his first eight seasons and chosen as starter for the NFC from 1995-1997. He did not play in 1997 because of an injury.

Another impressive accomplishment is that Favre threw more touchdown passes than any quarterback in the 1990’s, even though he was not in the league in 1990 and barely played his rookie season with Atlanta. Other quarterbacks who played in the 1990’s included Dan Marino, John Elway, Joe Montana and Steve Young.

New Green Bay offensive coordinator, Tom Rossley said on www.packers.com that he is “excited about the opportunity to coach a three time MVP. I think there’s a great fire within him,” he said, adding he thinks Favre can with a fourth MVP.

Favre showed his skills before the NFL. At Southern Mississippi University he set school records for passing, 8,193 yards, attempts, 1,234, completions, 656, percentage, 53% and touchdowns, 55. His 1.57% interception rate was the lowest among the 50 top college passers.

He also showed his toughness just as much as he later would in the NFL. Seriously injured in a traffic accident before his senior season, he opened the season and played one month after having a great deal of his intestines removed. Favre led his team to an 8-3 record that season and was the MVP of the All American Bowl.

After leading Green Bay to it's second consecutive 12-4 record and the team's fourth division title and eighth playoff trip in his 11 years at the helm, the Kiln, Miss., native earned further accolades by being chosen NFL 'Player of the Year' by Sports Illustrated. "Brett is at a stage of his career where there is not a whole lot happening out on the field that he has not experienced at one time or another," explains Mike Sherman head coach of the Packers. "This experience, along with his God-given talent and never-ending passion to play, are what puts him in a league of his own."

A veritable sage in the 'West Coast' offense with over a decade of experience, Favre is equally valuable off the field for his game-planning contributions as he is on it with his patented spirals. His consistently high production level is attested to by his completions, attempts, yards and touchdown totals, tops in the NFL over the past 12 seasons (1991-2002).

Favre Is assured of finishing his career in Green Bay upon the signing of a "lifetime" contract on March 1, 2001, Sherman, calling the signing day "historic," commented on the uniqueness of Favre's relationship with the Packers' organization and fans, saying, "No player in the NFL identifies, or is more closely linked to, a specific team like Brett Favre is to the Green Bay Packers. He embodies the spirit and character of Packer fans everywhere. I do not think there is a player in the NFL that experiences a relationship with the fans like Brett Favre does. That is very, very special." Favre echoed the sentiment, saying, "I enjoy it here. I enjoy the fans and I couldn't envision myself playing for another team."

In a time when personal statistics and individual accolades are often placed ahead of team success, the perennially productive field general desires nothing more than to lead his team to victory, a pursuit at which he has excelled in over a decade at the helm of the Packers.

Not just a football player Favre established the 'Brett Favre Forward Foundation' in 1996; over the past eight years, in conjunction with his annual golf tournament, celebrity softball game and fundraising dinners, foundation has donated in excess of $1.25 million to charities in his home state of Mississippi as well as to those in his adopted state of Wisconsin. An avid golfer, he possesses a handicap in the "one to two" range.

Some of his accomplishments are:

    * NFL's only three-time MVP (1995-97)
    * Voted to the Pro Bowl (as a starter) for the seventh time in 11 seasons with Green Bay
    * Second year in a row, leading vote-getter in fan balloting for the Pro Bowl
    * Posted a passer rating of 100-or-more in six games, second-most in the NFL in 2002
    * Ranks fifth all-time in passer rating
    * Ranked as the ninth-best player in 'NFL Player of the Century' voting
    * Won 115 games as a starter - fifth-most in NFL history
    * Won at least eight games an NFL-record 11 consecutive seasons (1992-2002)
    * Eight playoff berths, including a club-record six in a row (1993-98)
    * Three straight NFC Central Division crowns (1995-97)
    * Three consecutive NFC Championship Games (1995, 1996, 1997)
    * Back-to-back Super Bowl appearances
    * Started 173 consecutive games (190 including playoffs) - an all-time NFL record for a quarterback
    * Thrown 20-or-more touchdowns in nine consecutive seasons (1994-2002)
    * Third place in NFL history in career touchdown passes, with 314
    * Only the fourth player ever to reach 300 TDs
    * Owns the sixth-best career TD-to-INT ratio in NFL history
    * Fourth player in NFL annals to lead the league in TD throws as many as three consecutive seasons (1995-96-97)
    * In 2002, became just the eighth player in league history to post 40,000 career passing yards, attaining the plateau in 166 games - third-fastest in NFL history
    * Owner of 14 career 4-touchdown games - the third-highest total in NFL history behind only the 21 of Marino and the 17 of Johnny Unitas
    * Has (35) 300-yard passing performances - tops among active NFL players
    * Only the fourth player in NFL history to pass for both 40,000 yards in the regular season and 4,000 yards in the playoffs

(born Oct. 10, 1969, Gulfport, Miss., U.S.) American professional gridiron football player who broke all the major National Football League (NFL) career passing records as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.

Favre grew up in Kiln, Miss., and attended the University of Southern Mississippi, where he became the football team's starting quarterback while a freshman. He was drafted by the NFL's Atlanta Falcons in 1991 but was traded to Green Bay the following year after falling out of favour with Atlanta's coaching staff. Originally a backup quarterback, he started for an injured teammate in the third game of the 1992 season and never relinquished the position. In 1993 Favre led the Packers to their first play-off appearance in 10 years, and he established himself as one of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL. Known for his agility, competitiveness, and field presence, he was named the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) a record three consecutive times (1995, 1996, 1997) and led the league in touchdown passes in each MVP year.

At the end of the 1996 season, Favre led the Packers to victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. He returned to the Super Bowl the following year, but the Packers lost to John Elway's Denver Broncos in the waning minutes of the game. The Packers were less successful in the years following their two Super Bowl runs, but Favre continued to be productive. He led the league in pass completions in 1998 and 2005, and he had the most passing yards and touchdown passes in 1998 and 2003, respectively. He finished in the top 10 in completions, passing yards, and touchdown passes in every season between 1992 and 2007. In addition to these single-season accomplishments, Favre reached unprecedented individual statistical milestones over the course of his career. In the 2007 season he broke Elway's record of 148 career wins as a starting quarterback and Dan Marino's all-time records of 420 touchdown passes and 61,371 passing yards, as well as George Blanda's career interception record of 277. Favre announced his retirement from professional football at the end of the 2007 NFL season.

In July 2008 Favre let it be known that he wanted to return to the NFL, and he was reinstated by the league the following month. However, his strained relationship with Packers management—as well as the team's commitment to a new starting quarterback—led the Packers to trade him to the New York Jets before the start of the 2008 NFL season. While he was named to his 10th career Pro Bowl in 2008, Favre's one season with the Jets was nevertheless a disappointment. Not only did he lead the league in interceptions and finish the year ranked 21st in passer rating, but, after an 8-3 start, the Jets won a total of only nine games and missed the play-offs. Citing diminished playing skills and an injured biceps, Favre retired once more in February 2009. His previous indecision led many to speculate that he would end his second retirement as the NFL season neared, and, just weeks after publicly stating that he would not be returning, in August 2009 Favre signed to play with the Minnesota Vikings.

Brendan Fraser Biography and Full Profile.

Name: Brendan Fraser
Born: 3 December 1968 (Age: 41)
Birth Stone:  Blue Topaz
Parents:  Peter J. & Carol G Fraser
City:  Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Siblings: Three  older brothers, Regan is 5yrs. older, Sean 6 yrs, and Kevin 8 yrs.
Eyes:  Blue
Married to:   Afton Smith, September 27th, 1998
Hobbies:  Photography, collecting old/antique Polaroid cameras, skiing, rock climbing.
Favorite Movie:   BladeRunner, The Director's Cut
Where: Indianapolis, USA
Height: 6' 3"
Awards: No major awards
In cinema, some reputations are hard to shake. Many, like Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy, have found it tough to escape their teen-movie past. Some, like Tim Allen, seem forever doomed to entertain an even younger audience. So the fact that Brendan Fraser has managed to have himself taken seriously as an actor is little short of miraculous. Breaking through in Encino Man and School Ties, then moving on to Airheads, George Of The Jungle and Dudley Do-Right, he could so easily have been trapped in one or both of the aforementioned cul-de-sacs. Yet suddenly there he was, up there next to Michael Caine and Ian McKellan, a bona fide thespian. How the hell did he DO that?

He was born Brendan James Fraser on the 3rd of December, 1968, in Indianapolis, to Canadian parents. The Frasers were an old Canadian family, with strong traditions in education and sport. Indeed, his uncle George had won a gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. His father, Peter, had been a journalist and now worked for the Canadian Government's office of tourism. Mother Carol was a sales counsellor, and also looked after Brendan and his three older brothers - Kevin, Sean and Regan. Peter's job took the family all over the world, meaning that, by the age of 13, Brendan had lived in Ottawa, Detroit, Cincinnati, London, Rome, Switzerland, Wassenaar in Holland, and Seattle. While in Holland, aged 7, he hung out with the "army brat" kids of military personnel, and took to calling himself a "Brochure Brat".

By 12, he was in London, and this is where he first made contact with acting. Seeing a matinee of Oliver! in the West End, he was immediately taken with the thrill of it all. When his parents then chose to settle in Seattle, young Brendan quickly joined the chorus of a school production of Oklahoma! In the 8th Grade at the Sacred Heart school in Redmond, a suburb of Seattle, he would play Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore. He remembers this as a real turning point. Making a grand entrance, he tossed his cape high in the air, only for it to land on his head. The audience, naturally, burst into laughter. What was he to do? Would he give in to embarrassment and walk off, or would he brave it out and continue? Recognising that, despite the laughter, he was having a great time, he went on. And has kept going on ever since.

At 13, Brendan had been sent to the Upper Canada College in Toronto, a prestigious boarding school. Here, though his academic averages were not good, he would work in the school's little theatre, appearing in plays and revues, and acting as stage manager and ticket seller. Before his final year, though, Peter opted to leave his government office, thus losing Brendan's tuition subsidy and bringing the boy back to Seattle.

A muscular, darkly handsome actor who defies easy categorization, Brendan Fraser has an enviable versatility that has allowed him to be equally convincing in comedies, dramas, and adventure films alike. The son of a Canadian tourism executive, Fraser was born in Indianapolis on December 3, 1968. Thanks to his father's job, Fraser and his family led a fairly peripatetic existence, living in locales as varied as Ottawa, London, Rome, and Seattle. During his time in London, Fraser became interested in theater and eventually enrolled in Seattle's Cornish Institute for training.
 
After an early appearance in Dogfight (1991), Fraser got his break in 1992's Encino Man as a Stone-Age man unfrozen in modern-day California. He went on to gain audience prominence in diverse roles such as a Jewish football player in an all-WASP environment in School Ties (1992), a grunged-out musician in Airheads (1994), a Harvard student who loses his thesis in With Honors (1994), and a quirky baseball phenom in The Scout (1994). Fraser has been quoted in one magazine article as saying that he seeks out roles combining "silliness and sexiness"; his work during the second half of the '90s certainly reflected this. Particular highlights were George of the Jungle (1997), a witty satire of jungle adventure films; Gods and Monsters (1998), the acclaimed rendering of the last days of director James Whale, for which Fraser earned particular praise in his role as Whale's strapping gardener; the romantic comedy Blast From the Past (1999); and a big-budget remake of The Mummy (1999) that effectively showcased Fraser as a hero well-suited to old-school adventure. So successful were the extravagantly computer generated exploits of the revived Mummy franchise that a sequel soon went into production, resulting in the decidedly Indiana Jones-flavored The Mummy Returns (2001). Pitting Fraser against not only the fearsome Imhotep but the dreaded Scorpion King (wrestling superstar The Rock) as well, The Mummy Returns upped the ante in terms of action and special effects, providing audiences with even more summertime chills and thrills than its predecessor. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for 2001's ill-received Monkeybone which, despite an energetic performance from Fraser, did not fare in the theaters as well as 20th Century Fox had hoped.
Luckily for him, Fraser's career remained intact despite Monkeybone and the equally mediocre Bedazzled (2000) with Elizabeth Hurley. In 2002, Fraser starred in the critically acclaimed The Quiet American, which featured the young actor as Alden Pyle, a naïve American who travels to Saigon as part of a medical mission. Fraser would rekindle his penchant for the silly in 2003, during which he made an appearance as himself in the David Spade vehicle Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and again in Looney Tunes: Back in Action with Steve Martin and Jenna Elfman.

Best-known for his roles in family-oriented adventure films like “The Mummy” franchise and “George of the Jungle” (1997), actor Brendan Fraser has enjoyed an unpredictable career that has taken him to the heights of art film greatness, as well as down to the depths of lowest common denominator comedy. It was from those depths that he began his career with “Encino Man” (1991), before going on to earn accolades for his clean-cut charisma in award-winning offerings like “Gods and Monsters” (1998), “The Quiet American” (2002) and the Oscar-winning Best Picture “Crash” (2005).

Born on Dec. 3, 1968 in Indianapolis, IN, Fraser’s father, who worked for Canada’s Office of Tourism, moved the family from place to place – all around Europe, the United States and Canada – during his youth. It was while in London that the elementary school boy saw his first live play – a West End production of “Oliver” – and became captivated by the theater. He jumped right into the school drama department and went on to earn a bachelor of fine arts in acting from the Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle, WA. He landed a one-line role in the River Phoenix film “Dogfight” (1991), which was shooting in Seattle, then decided to forego his graduate school plans and head to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. The 6’3” newcomer made an immediate impression, landing a series pilot and winning raves for his co-starring turn as Martin Sheen's son in the telefilm "Guilty Until Proven Innocent" (NBC, 1991).

By some miracle, Fraser’s first starring feature role as an unfrozen caveman unearthed by skateboarding valley teens in “Encino Man” (1992) failed to put the death knell on his fledgling career. He was subsequently cast as the lead in the drama "School Ties" (1992), effectively playing a new student at a private boarding school who encounters a backlash of anti-Semitism. The film was a great showcase of Fraser’s sensitive core and launched not only his career, but those of co-stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris O’Donnell. A string of respected indie films followed, including "Twenty Bucks" (1993), “Young and Younger” (1993) and the cult comedy classic "Airheads" (1994), where Fraser starred alongside Adam Sandler and Steve Buscemi as a rock band that takes a radio station hostage to get their music played.

His strapping athletic physique was tapped for the baseball comedy "The Scout" (1994), which paired him with neurotic sports scout Albert Brooks. He then returned to drama as a Harvard student who falls into an odd relationship with a conniving homeless man (Joe Pesci) in the wildly improbable “With Honors” (1994). Fraser had a stronger turn as a backwoodsman who goes mad from unrequited love in the stylish thriller "The Passion of Darkly Noon" (1996), while the period romantic comedy “Mrs. Winterburne” (1996) was an out-and-out misfire. Despite wanting to be taken seriously, Fraser struggled in his early dramas, but managed to triumph in several very different roles. He made for a sweet and very human incarnation of the cartoon character "George of the Jungle" (1997) in Disney’s family blockbuster and also shined in an award-winning portrayal of a street performer who falls for a grifter in "Still Breathing" (1998).

But Fraser’s ringing artistic accomplishment was his co-starring role in "Gods and Monsters" (1998), where he played a handsome gardener befriended by a gay, aging film director (Ian McKellen). The film earned several Oscar nominations won for Best Adapted Screenplay, while Fraser’s stellar performance created murmurs that he finally might be in the league of art film leading men. But that glimpse of craftsmanship was quickly forgotten with his next role in the stoner comedy "Blast From the Past" (1999), where he played a 35-year old raised in a bomb shelter who emerges to discover the world of the late 1990s. He went on to appear in his most commercially successful role as Rick O'Connell, a dashing, heroic Indiana Jones-like figure who discovers an Egyptian tomb unleashing "The Mummy" (1999). The adventure blockbuster marked the beginning of a profitable franchise. Before Fraser reprised his role in “The Mummy Returns” (2001), he starred in another cartoonish matinee offering as the live-action embodiment of square-jawed Royal Canadian Mountie "Dudley Do-Right" (1999), then played a dweeb granted seven wishes by a hellaciously tempting Satan (Elizabeth Hurley) in Harold Ramis' "Bedazzled" (2000).

Following the resounding financial failure of multi-media comedy "Monkeybone" (2001), Fraser returned to dramatic fare with a starring role in a well-received London stage revival of "Cat on Hot Tin Roof" opposite Ned Beatty and "Bedazzled" co-star Frances O'Connor. He went on to co-star as an undercover CIA operative opposite Michael Caine’s reporter in the excellent, but underappreciated adaptation of Graham Greene’s Vietnam saga, "The Quiet American" (2002). Though Caine and director Philip Noyce earned multiple award nominations and widespread critical praise for their efforts, Fraser was noted for his subtle standout performance, ably playing a character who is not what he appears to be and reminding audiences of a range that extended beyond gimmicky comedies. But old loves die hard. Fraser leapt headfirst into another cartoon-centric role when he took on the part of security guard DJ Drake, the human leading man opposite Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and the rest of the Warner Brothers stable of characters in "Looney Tunes: Back In Action" (2003).
 
Returning to serious fare, Fraser joined the A-list acting ensemble of the racially charged, multi-plot drama "Crash" (2005) for a brief turn as a high-powered Los Angeles District Attorney whose carjacking by a pair of black men looms as both a political and personal liability. The film received multiple Oscar awards, including Best Picture of the year. Fraser stayed in the indie world for another go-round, starring opposite Michelle Geller in “The Air I Breathe” (2007), an episodic crime drama that told four divergent stories centering around an ancient Chinese proverb about the emotional cornerstones of life: happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. The following year, Fraser starred in a pair of summer adventure releases, starting with an adaptation of Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (2008), which was released in 3-D, then reprising the role of adventurer Rick O’Connell in “The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (2008).

Also Credited As:
      Brendan James Fraser
    * Born:
      Brendan James Fraser on December 3, 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
    * Job Titles:
      Actor

Family
    * Brother: Kevin Fraser. Born c. 1960
    * Brother: Regan Fraser. Born c. 1963
    * Brother: Sean Fraser. Born c. 1962
    * Father: Peter Fraser. Canadian; born c. 1936; worked for Canada s tourism office
    * Mother: Carol Fraser. Canadian; born c. 1936
    * Son: Griffin Arthur Fraser. Born Sep. 17, 2002; mother, Afton Smith
    * Son: Hudson Fletcher Fraser. Born Aug. 16, 2004; mother, Afton Smith
    * Son: Leland Fraser. Born May 2, 2006; mother, Afton Smith

Education
    * Upper Canada College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Milestones
    * 1991 Made feature debut in a bit part with one line in Nancy Savoca s Dogfight
    * 1991 TV acting debut in Guilty Until Proven Innocent (NBC)
    * 1992 First lead role, Encino Man
    * 1992 Played opposite Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris O Donnell in School Ties
    * 1995 Appeared in the L.A. production of John Patrick Shanley s play Four Dogs and a Bone
    * 1995 Had small role of a Vietnam veteran in the 1970s flashback segments of Now and Then
    * 1996 Made uncredited cameo appearance in Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
    * 1997 Earned critical praise for his dramatic performance in Still Breathing
    * 1997 Had title role in the live-action, George of the Jungle
    * 1998 Portrayed the gardener who is befriended by film director James Whale in Bill Condon s Gods and Monsters
    * 1999 Cast as an Indiana Jones-like archeologist in the remake of The Mummy
    * 1999 Played a 35-year old who was raised in an underground bunker in the comedy Blast From the Past
    * 1999 Starred in the live-action adaptation of the cartoon Dudley Do-Right
    * 2000 Starred in the Harold Ramis remake of Bedazzled
    * 2001 Reprised role for the sequel The Mummy Returns
    * 2002 Co-starred in the drama feature The Quiet American
    * 2002 Made two-episode guest appearance on the NBC sitcom Scrubs
    * 2003 Starred as D.J. Drake in Looney Tunes: Back in Action
    * 2004 Revised his guest starring role on NBC s Scrubs
    * 2005 Starred in Paul Haggis directorial debut Crash ; a multicharacter study of L.A. race relations
    * 2007 Co-starred with Michael Keaton in The Last Time
    * 2008 Reprised role for the second sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
    * 2008 Starred in the 3-D adventure film, Journey to the Center of the Earth ; also executive produced
    * 2009 Starred in the adaptation of the hit children s book Inkheart
    * 2010 Portrayed American biotechnology executive John F. Crowley in Extraordinary Measures, which is based on the true story of his fight to save his children
    * 2010 Starred in the family comedy Furry Vengeance
    * Interned at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle after college
    * Raised in Europe and Canada

Brendan Fraser Biography and Full Profile.

Name: Brendan Fraser
Born: 3 December 1968 (Age: 41)
Birth Stone:  Blue Topaz
Parents:  Peter J. & Carol G Fraser
City:  Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Siblings: Three  older brothers, Regan is 5yrs. older, Sean 6 yrs, and Kevin 8 yrs.
Eyes:  Blue
Married to:   Afton Smith, September 27th, 1998
Hobbies:  Photography, collecting old/antique Polaroid cameras, skiing, rock climbing.
Favorite Movie:   BladeRunner, The Director's Cut
Where: Indianapolis, USA
Height: 6' 3"
Awards: No major awards
In cinema, some reputations are hard to shake. Many, like Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy, have found it tough to escape their teen-movie past. Some, like Tim Allen, seem forever doomed to entertain an even younger audience. So the fact that Brendan Fraser has managed to have himself taken seriously as an actor is little short of miraculous. Breaking through in Encino Man and School Ties, then moving on to Airheads, George Of The Jungle and Dudley Do-Right, he could so easily have been trapped in one or both of the aforementioned cul-de-sacs. Yet suddenly there he was, up there next to Michael Caine and Ian McKellan, a bona fide thespian. How the hell did he DO that?

He was born Brendan James Fraser on the 3rd of December, 1968, in Indianapolis, to Canadian parents. The Frasers were an old Canadian family, with strong traditions in education and sport. Indeed, his uncle George had won a gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. His father, Peter, had been a journalist and now worked for the Canadian Government's office of tourism. Mother Carol was a sales counsellor, and also looked after Brendan and his three older brothers - Kevin, Sean and Regan. Peter's job took the family all over the world, meaning that, by the age of 13, Brendan had lived in Ottawa, Detroit, Cincinnati, London, Rome, Switzerland, Wassenaar in Holland, and Seattle. While in Holland, aged 7, he hung out with the "army brat" kids of military personnel, and took to calling himself a "Brochure Brat".

By 12, he was in London, and this is where he first made contact with acting. Seeing a matinee of Oliver! in the West End, he was immediately taken with the thrill of it all. When his parents then chose to settle in Seattle, young Brendan quickly joined the chorus of a school production of Oklahoma! In the 8th Grade at the Sacred Heart school in Redmond, a suburb of Seattle, he would play Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore. He remembers this as a real turning point. Making a grand entrance, he tossed his cape high in the air, only for it to land on his head. The audience, naturally, burst into laughter. What was he to do? Would he give in to embarrassment and walk off, or would he brave it out and continue? Recognising that, despite the laughter, he was having a great time, he went on. And has kept going on ever since.

At 13, Brendan had been sent to the Upper Canada College in Toronto, a prestigious boarding school. Here, though his academic averages were not good, he would work in the school's little theatre, appearing in plays and revues, and acting as stage manager and ticket seller. Before his final year, though, Peter opted to leave his government office, thus losing Brendan's tuition subsidy and bringing the boy back to Seattle.

A muscular, darkly handsome actor who defies easy categorization, Brendan Fraser has an enviable versatility that has allowed him to be equally convincing in comedies, dramas, and adventure films alike. The son of a Canadian tourism executive, Fraser was born in Indianapolis on December 3, 1968. Thanks to his father's job, Fraser and his family led a fairly peripatetic existence, living in locales as varied as Ottawa, London, Rome, and Seattle. During his time in London, Fraser became interested in theater and eventually enrolled in Seattle's Cornish Institute for training.
 
After an early appearance in Dogfight (1991), Fraser got his break in 1992's Encino Man as a Stone-Age man unfrozen in modern-day California. He went on to gain audience prominence in diverse roles such as a Jewish football player in an all-WASP environment in School Ties (1992), a grunged-out musician in Airheads (1994), a Harvard student who loses his thesis in With Honors (1994), and a quirky baseball phenom in The Scout (1994). Fraser has been quoted in one magazine article as saying that he seeks out roles combining "silliness and sexiness"; his work during the second half of the '90s certainly reflected this. Particular highlights were George of the Jungle (1997), a witty satire of jungle adventure films; Gods and Monsters (1998), the acclaimed rendering of the last days of director James Whale, for which Fraser earned particular praise in his role as Whale's strapping gardener; the romantic comedy Blast From the Past (1999); and a big-budget remake of The Mummy (1999) that effectively showcased Fraser as a hero well-suited to old-school adventure. So successful were the extravagantly computer generated exploits of the revived Mummy franchise that a sequel soon went into production, resulting in the decidedly Indiana Jones-flavored The Mummy Returns (2001). Pitting Fraser against not only the fearsome Imhotep but the dreaded Scorpion King (wrestling superstar The Rock) as well, The Mummy Returns upped the ante in terms of action and special effects, providing audiences with even more summertime chills and thrills than its predecessor. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for 2001's ill-received Monkeybone which, despite an energetic performance from Fraser, did not fare in the theaters as well as 20th Century Fox had hoped.
Luckily for him, Fraser's career remained intact despite Monkeybone and the equally mediocre Bedazzled (2000) with Elizabeth Hurley. In 2002, Fraser starred in the critically acclaimed The Quiet American, which featured the young actor as Alden Pyle, a naïve American who travels to Saigon as part of a medical mission. Fraser would rekindle his penchant for the silly in 2003, during which he made an appearance as himself in the David Spade vehicle Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and again in Looney Tunes: Back in Action with Steve Martin and Jenna Elfman.

Best-known for his roles in family-oriented adventure films like “The Mummy” franchise and “George of the Jungle” (1997), actor Brendan Fraser has enjoyed an unpredictable career that has taken him to the heights of art film greatness, as well as down to the depths of lowest common denominator comedy. It was from those depths that he began his career with “Encino Man” (1991), before going on to earn accolades for his clean-cut charisma in award-winning offerings like “Gods and Monsters” (1998), “The Quiet American” (2002) and the Oscar-winning Best Picture “Crash” (2005).

Born on Dec. 3, 1968 in Indianapolis, IN, Fraser’s father, who worked for Canada’s Office of Tourism, moved the family from place to place – all around Europe, the United States and Canada – during his youth. It was while in London that the elementary school boy saw his first live play – a West End production of “Oliver” – and became captivated by the theater. He jumped right into the school drama department and went on to earn a bachelor of fine arts in acting from the Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle, WA. He landed a one-line role in the River Phoenix film “Dogfight” (1991), which was shooting in Seattle, then decided to forego his graduate school plans and head to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. The 6’3” newcomer made an immediate impression, landing a series pilot and winning raves for his co-starring turn as Martin Sheen's son in the telefilm "Guilty Until Proven Innocent" (NBC, 1991).

By some miracle, Fraser’s first starring feature role as an unfrozen caveman unearthed by skateboarding valley teens in “Encino Man” (1992) failed to put the death knell on his fledgling career. He was subsequently cast as the lead in the drama "School Ties" (1992), effectively playing a new student at a private boarding school who encounters a backlash of anti-Semitism. The film was a great showcase of Fraser’s sensitive core and launched not only his career, but those of co-stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris O’Donnell. A string of respected indie films followed, including "Twenty Bucks" (1993), “Young and Younger” (1993) and the cult comedy classic "Airheads" (1994), where Fraser starred alongside Adam Sandler and Steve Buscemi as a rock band that takes a radio station hostage to get their music played.

His strapping athletic physique was tapped for the baseball comedy "The Scout" (1994), which paired him with neurotic sports scout Albert Brooks. He then returned to drama as a Harvard student who falls into an odd relationship with a conniving homeless man (Joe Pesci) in the wildly improbable “With Honors” (1994). Fraser had a stronger turn as a backwoodsman who goes mad from unrequited love in the stylish thriller "The Passion of Darkly Noon" (1996), while the period romantic comedy “Mrs. Winterburne” (1996) was an out-and-out misfire. Despite wanting to be taken seriously, Fraser struggled in his early dramas, but managed to triumph in several very different roles. He made for a sweet and very human incarnation of the cartoon character "George of the Jungle" (1997) in Disney’s family blockbuster and also shined in an award-winning portrayal of a street performer who falls for a grifter in "Still Breathing" (1998).

But Fraser’s ringing artistic accomplishment was his co-starring role in "Gods and Monsters" (1998), where he played a handsome gardener befriended by a gay, aging film director (Ian McKellen). The film earned several Oscar nominations won for Best Adapted Screenplay, while Fraser’s stellar performance created murmurs that he finally might be in the league of art film leading men. But that glimpse of craftsmanship was quickly forgotten with his next role in the stoner comedy "Blast From the Past" (1999), where he played a 35-year old raised in a bomb shelter who emerges to discover the world of the late 1990s. He went on to appear in his most commercially successful role as Rick O'Connell, a dashing, heroic Indiana Jones-like figure who discovers an Egyptian tomb unleashing "The Mummy" (1999). The adventure blockbuster marked the beginning of a profitable franchise. Before Fraser reprised his role in “The Mummy Returns” (2001), he starred in another cartoonish matinee offering as the live-action embodiment of square-jawed Royal Canadian Mountie "Dudley Do-Right" (1999), then played a dweeb granted seven wishes by a hellaciously tempting Satan (Elizabeth Hurley) in Harold Ramis' "Bedazzled" (2000).

Following the resounding financial failure of multi-media comedy "Monkeybone" (2001), Fraser returned to dramatic fare with a starring role in a well-received London stage revival of "Cat on Hot Tin Roof" opposite Ned Beatty and "Bedazzled" co-star Frances O'Connor. He went on to co-star as an undercover CIA operative opposite Michael Caine’s reporter in the excellent, but underappreciated adaptation of Graham Greene’s Vietnam saga, "The Quiet American" (2002). Though Caine and director Philip Noyce earned multiple award nominations and widespread critical praise for their efforts, Fraser was noted for his subtle standout performance, ably playing a character who is not what he appears to be and reminding audiences of a range that extended beyond gimmicky comedies. But old loves die hard. Fraser leapt headfirst into another cartoon-centric role when he took on the part of security guard DJ Drake, the human leading man opposite Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and the rest of the Warner Brothers stable of characters in "Looney Tunes: Back In Action" (2003).
 
Returning to serious fare, Fraser joined the A-list acting ensemble of the racially charged, multi-plot drama "Crash" (2005) for a brief turn as a high-powered Los Angeles District Attorney whose carjacking by a pair of black men looms as both a political and personal liability. The film received multiple Oscar awards, including Best Picture of the year. Fraser stayed in the indie world for another go-round, starring opposite Michelle Geller in “The Air I Breathe” (2007), an episodic crime drama that told four divergent stories centering around an ancient Chinese proverb about the emotional cornerstones of life: happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. The following year, Fraser starred in a pair of summer adventure releases, starting with an adaptation of Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (2008), which was released in 3-D, then reprising the role of adventurer Rick O’Connell in “The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (2008).

Also Credited As:
      Brendan James Fraser
    * Born:
      Brendan James Fraser on December 3, 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
    * Job Titles:
      Actor

Family
    * Brother: Kevin Fraser. Born c. 1960
    * Brother: Regan Fraser. Born c. 1963
    * Brother: Sean Fraser. Born c. 1962
    * Father: Peter Fraser. Canadian; born c. 1936; worked for Canada s tourism office
    * Mother: Carol Fraser. Canadian; born c. 1936
    * Son: Griffin Arthur Fraser. Born Sep. 17, 2002; mother, Afton Smith
    * Son: Hudson Fletcher Fraser. Born Aug. 16, 2004; mother, Afton Smith
    * Son: Leland Fraser. Born May 2, 2006; mother, Afton Smith

Education
    * Upper Canada College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Milestones
    * 1991 Made feature debut in a bit part with one line in Nancy Savoca s Dogfight
    * 1991 TV acting debut in Guilty Until Proven Innocent (NBC)
    * 1992 First lead role, Encino Man
    * 1992 Played opposite Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris O Donnell in School Ties
    * 1995 Appeared in the L.A. production of John Patrick Shanley s play Four Dogs and a Bone
    * 1995 Had small role of a Vietnam veteran in the 1970s flashback segments of Now and Then
    * 1996 Made uncredited cameo appearance in Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
    * 1997 Earned critical praise for his dramatic performance in Still Breathing
    * 1997 Had title role in the live-action, George of the Jungle
    * 1998 Portrayed the gardener who is befriended by film director James Whale in Bill Condon s Gods and Monsters
    * 1999 Cast as an Indiana Jones-like archeologist in the remake of The Mummy
    * 1999 Played a 35-year old who was raised in an underground bunker in the comedy Blast From the Past
    * 1999 Starred in the live-action adaptation of the cartoon Dudley Do-Right
    * 2000 Starred in the Harold Ramis remake of Bedazzled
    * 2001 Reprised role for the sequel The Mummy Returns
    * 2002 Co-starred in the drama feature The Quiet American
    * 2002 Made two-episode guest appearance on the NBC sitcom Scrubs
    * 2003 Starred as D.J. Drake in Looney Tunes: Back in Action
    * 2004 Revised his guest starring role on NBC s Scrubs
    * 2005 Starred in Paul Haggis directorial debut Crash ; a multicharacter study of L.A. race relations
    * 2007 Co-starred with Michael Keaton in The Last Time
    * 2008 Reprised role for the second sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
    * 2008 Starred in the 3-D adventure film, Journey to the Center of the Earth ; also executive produced
    * 2009 Starred in the adaptation of the hit children s book Inkheart
    * 2010 Portrayed American biotechnology executive John F. Crowley in Extraordinary Measures, which is based on the true story of his fight to save his children
    * 2010 Starred in the family comedy Furry Vengeance
    * Interned at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle after college
    * Raised in Europe and Canada