Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin is an American actor born on February 12, 1968, in Santa Monica, California. The son of actor James Brolin and Jane Cameron Agee, a casting director and wildlife activist, he was raised on a ranch in the Adelaida area of Paso Robles and attended elementary and middle school in Templeton, California. Around age eleven, Brolin relocated to the Santa Barbara area, where he attended Santa Barbara High School. He has described his youth as shaped by a surfing peer group he called the "Cito Rats," a mix of children from wealthy and impoverished backgrounds in 1980s Santa Barbara. He has spoken candidly about drug use during that period, including heroin, and has stated that thirty-six friends from his youth have since died. Brolin has also claimed involvement in the early formation of Montecito hardcore punk band Rich Kids on LSD, later clarifying that he helped start the garage band that eventually became known under that name with different musicians.

Brolin began his professional career in television films and guest appearances before landing the role of Brandon Walsh in Richard Donner's adventure film The Goonies in 1985. During that period, he and Johnny Depp were the two finalists for the lead role in 21 Jump Street, a part that ultimately went to Depp; Brolin later guest-starred in an episode of the series. Following his second film, Thrashin', Brolin stepped back from film acting for several years, describing his own performance as "horrendous." During that stretch, he appeared in stage productions in Rochester, New York, frequently working alongside actor and mentor Anthony Zerbe. He also took on the recurring television role of Wild Bill Hickok in the ABC Western series The Young Riders, which ran for three seasons from 1989 to 1992, and later appeared in the short-lived series Winnetka Road in 1994 and Mister Sterling in 2003.

Brolin made his Broadway debut in 2000, appearing in True West. His stage work reflects a career that has moved between screen and live performance, with his earlier years in Rochester providing a foundation in theatrical craft.

By 2006, Brolin had largely shifted away from acting and was trading stocks full time when he was cast in the lead role of the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, released in 2007. The film marked a significant turning point in his career. That same year he appeared in Ridley Scott's American Gangster. In 2008, Oliver Stone cast him in the title role of W., a biopic centered on key events in the life of George W. Bush. Also in 2008, Brolin received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of city supervisor Dan White in Gus Van Sant's Milk, a role for which he also earned New York Film Critics Circle and National Board of Review awards for Best Supporting Actor, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. At the Academy Awards ceremony, Brolin wore a White Knot to express solidarity with the same-sex marriage movement.

In 2009, Brolin executive produced and performed in The People Speak, a documentary drawing on letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. The following year, he wrote and directed the short film X, about an escaped inmate searching for his daughter and investigating his murdered partner, which served as the opening film at the first annual Union City International Film Festival in December 2010. His acting work in the early 2010s included the DC Comics adaptation Jonah Hex in 2010, the Coen Brothers' True Grit in 2010, Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in 2010, and Men in Black 3 in 2012, in which he played the younger version of Tommy Lee Jones's character. Additional credits from that period include Oldboy in 2013, Inherent Vice in 2014, Sicario in 2015, Everest in 2015, and Hail, Caesar! in 2016.

Brolin gained broad international recognition through his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing the villain Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, both released in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and portraying Cable in Deadpool 2 in 2018. He also began an ongoing collaboration with director Denis Villeneuve, appearing as Gurney Halleck in Dune in 2021, Dune: Part Two in 2024, and the forthcoming Dune: Part Three in 2026. Brolin has hosted Saturday Night Live on multiple occasions, including in 2008, April 2012, and March 2024.