James Brolin (born July 18, 1940) is an American television,
film, character actor and director who's best known
for his starring roles as Dr. Steven Kiley on Marcus
Welby, M.D. (1969-1976), as Peter McDermott on Hotel
(1983-1988), and as Lt. Bill "Raven" Kelly
on Pensacola: Wings of Gold (1997-2000).
Early life
He was born James Kenneth Bruderlin in Los Angeles,
California to an aeronautical engineer, Henry and a
singer, Helen, and the family settled in Westwood, after
his birth. As a teenager in the mid-1950s, he would
often be fascinated with another actor James Dean, (this
was due to him watching movies of his time). At the
same time, while his parents invited a director over
to his family's house for dinner before auditioning,
he met another fellow actor and classmate Ryan O'Neal,
who's about a year younger than Brolin, and the two
clicked.
Career Stardom
At the age of 20, he changed his last name from Bruderlin
to Brolin, and began his contract over at 20th Century
Fox studios, where he took 5,000 hours of acting classes.
He made his acting debut in 1961 on an episode of
Bus Stop. He also had small roles in several movies
from Take Her, She's Mine (1963), Dear Brigitte (1965),
Fantastic Voyage (1966), among many others. He also
had a recurring role on the short-lived series The
Monroes, but was soon canceled. The following year,
his first big role was The Cape Town Affair (1967),
where it did not receive any recognition from the
box office. Despite of the issues Brolin had, he was
fired from 20th Century Fox Studios.
Marcus Welby, M.D. and Film Work
In 1968, he would then transfer to another job at
Universal Studios, where he auditioned for a co-starring
role opposite longtime actor Robert Young in the 1960s
medical drama, Marcus Welby, M.D. for ABC in 1969.
On the show, he played Dr. Steven Kiley, a young and
highly-skilled trained doctor who was asked to work
with another doctor of experience, and the chemistry
of Brolin & Young clicked. In its first season
in 1970, he was nominated and won the Emmy Award for
Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting
Role, but was nominated for three more times for a
total of four Emmy nominations. He was also nominated
for Golden Globes three times for Best Supporting
Actor, and won twice between 1971 and 1973, and the
actor was on his way to greater fame as the years
went on. He would also had two hiatuses in a year
when he wasn't working on Marcus Welby, he would then
star in a couple of movies, such as, Skyjacked (1972),
and Westworld (1973). After launching a movie career
in 1976, Brolin was very pleased that his first show
finally went off the air so that the actor could concentrate
on his movie career.
Film Work
In the mid-1970s, he became one of Hollywood's leading
man starring in a lot of movies from Gable and Lombard
(1976), to High Risk (1981). When Roger Moore expressed
his desire to leave the role of James Bond, Brolin
did a screen test for Octopussy (1983) to become the
next actor to play the super-spy, but Moore ultimately
decided to continue in the series, making the audition
moot.
Hotel
Brolin went back to series television to star in yet
another popular series, in 1983, where he teamed up
with Aaron Spelling to produced a pilot for the prime-time
soap opera, Hotel, for ABC. On his second show, he
played Peter MacDermott, a hotel manager who helped
everybody tried to solve their own problems and to
let love in his own life at the same time. Compared
to his 1970s series, Marcus Welby, his show was also
a ratings winner in the first season, as he invited
several guest stars to talk about their own issues
and personal feelings as the show progressed. In his
first year, Brolin was nominated for 2 additional
Golden Globes between 1983 and 1984 for Best Performance
By an Actor in a TV Series, but didn't win. He would
also serve as series director of the show making him
the driving force of the show. In 1985, while his
marriage to Jane was falling, his emotional anger
took a turn for the worst {when he was asked to invite
Jan Smithers on the set of Hotel) when the writers
suggested they do a storyline for Peter in which a
woman needed to take very good care of him throughout
this difficult time. By 1988, after 5 seasons, Hotel
was about to close its doors for goods as the show
was cancelled.
TV/Film Work
As the new decade approached, Brolin was about to
become a popular 1990s film star again, as he would
star in yet more films before he would star in both
Angel Falls for CBS and Extreme for ABC, neither one
of those shows matched Brolin's popularity of both
Marcus Welby and Hotel.
Personal life
Brolin had been married three times. In 1966, he met
Jane Cameron Agee, an aspiring actress who was working
over at 20th Century Fox Studios, and she and Brolin
were married that October and the couple had 2 children,
(Josh Brolin, b. February 12, 1968), and {Jesse, b.
1972), they were divorced in 1985, after 19 years
of marriage. His first wife died in a serious car
accident on February 11, 1995, 1 day shy before son
Josh's 27th birthday. Also in 1985, he met actress
Jan Smithers on the set of Hotel, and were married
in 1986, the following year where the couple had a
daughter (Molly Elizabeth, b. 1987). After his first
wife's Jane's death, Jan filed for a divorce from
Brolin, a few weeks after. In 1997, he met veteran
stage actress, Barbra Streisand, through a fellow
friend, and the two were married the following year.
Film and television appearances
The Amityville Horror (1979)
The Reagans (2003)
A Guy Thing (2003)
In 1985, Brolin parodied his near-hiring as James
Bond in the film "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."
In a film within the film, he merged the characters
of Bond and Pee-Wee Herman, the "real" version
of whom was played by Paul Reubens.In
2004, Brolin played Governor Robert Ritchie of Florida,
the Republican opponent of President Jed Bartlet on
the TV series "The West Wing." In Bartlet's
words, he'd "turned being unengaged into a Zen-like
thing," and seemed to enjoy it. The character
seemed to be a parody of real-life President George
W. Bush, whose brother, John Ellis "Jeb"
Bush, was then the real-life Governor of Florida.\
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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