Angel-faced with impossibly blue eyes, this young thespian was born Elijah Jordan Wood on the 28th of January, 1981, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a town of some 200,000 souls a couple of hundred miles due west of Chicago. His parents, Warren and Debbie, ran a deli in town, and were already supporting 7-year-old Zack, later a video game producer in San Diego (sister Hannah, later a poet, would arrive two years after Elijah). He’s widely known as the most talented and hard-working child actor of the 1990s, and he’s still going strong. Preferring to spend his time acting than posing for the press’s cameras, he hadn’t been so much of a star sensation as someone who has proved himself through his craft.
Wood began his career as a model and quickly moved on to television commercials. But it wasn’t long at all before Hollywood came knocking. He first did some smaller roles, as children actors are wont to do: notable first films include Back to the Future II (1989) and Internal Affairs (1990). He began to draw some important attention to himself, however, in another 1990 film, Avalon, Barry Levinson’s epic family saga film about immigrants to the United States. By 1992, he was doing starring roles; Radio Flyer was a great forum for Wood, who played a victim of child abuse. The next year, he starred in Disney’s The Adventures of Huck Finn, and did small but important roles in the Oscar-winning Witness, and Showtime 30-Minute Movie, where he played a little Jewish boy haunting a Nazi taking children to the gas chamber.
From there it’s been smooth sailing. He co-starred with another child star, Macauley Culkin, playing the ‘straight man’ in the psychological thriller The Good Son (1993). 1994 saw Wood star in an hilarious comedy, Rob Reiner’s North, as a child looking around the world for better parents. He then entered the world of Kevin Costner in the coming-of-age film The War (1994), and then starred in Flipper (1996) as a troubled teen who befriends a dolphin. Next came a role in the fantastic ensemble film by Ang Lee, The Ice Storm (1997), followed by strong appearances in Deep Impact and The Faculty (both 1998). This young man hasn’t stopped to look back once: his next huge venture was The Lord of the Rings, in which he stars as hobbit Frodo Baggins, and all three films were shot at once, making for one long shoot! We look forward to all three, and anything else Wood might decide to do at this early stage in what will be a long and rewarding career.