Age: 53
male
Adrien Nicholas Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the only child of retired history professor Elliot Brody and Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy. He accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice, and credits her with making him feel comfortable in front of the camera. Adrien attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York. Despite a strong performance in The Thin Red Line (1998), time constraints forced the director to edit out much of Adrien's part. In spite of his later work with Spike Lee and Barry Levinson, he never became the star many expected he would become until Roman Polanski called on him to play a celebrated Jewish pianist in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. He pulled off a brilliant performance in The Pianist (2002), drawing on the heritage and rare dialect of his Polish-born grandmother, as well as his father, who lost family members during the Holocaust, and his mother, who fled Communist Hungary as a child during the 1956 uprising against the Soviet Union.
Bruce Wayne neglects the family business and is forced to sell all he has. The disappointing loss causes him to reevaluate his role in Gotham and open a gym, in the hopes of being a positive force in his community. (One of his students is boisterous pre-teen, Dick Grayson.) Meanwhile, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface are plotting to destroy what is left of the Wayne family. Harvey Dent tries to recover from losing her most generous benefactor by engaging in a series of poor, illegal decisions, but eventually descends into madness and emerges as Two-Face, who will leave a trail of blood on her journey to Bruce Wayne. Dr. Victor Fries was reliant on Wayne Enterprises, using their technology to cryogenically freeze his terminally ill wife. In the collapse, he became indebted to the new owners, who require him to bend his morals in exchange for her life. In a laboratory accident, he becomes Mr. Freeze, blaming Bruce Wayne for his new misfortune and hellbent on revenge. Basil Karlo sought to benefit from Bruce Wayne's misfortune by stealing a Wayne Enterprises manufactured face cream, designed to preserve his youth. In using and overusing the product, the toxicity turns him into Clayface, and he also wants Bruce Wayne's head. Two-Face's first motion in taking down Bruce Wayne is killing Alfred, which only brings one thing: the Batman.
