Josh Brolin lost a TV role to Johnny Depp and gained a lifelong friend
Josh Brolin found fame as a teenager in The Goonies, then decided his own acting was so bad he walked away from films for years. A slow rebuild through stage work in Rochester eventually led to No Country for Old Men, an Oscar nomination, and the role of Thanos.
Brolin was born in Santa Monica on February 12, 1968. His father is the actor James Brolin; his mother, Jane Cameron Agee, worked in casting and campaigned for wildlife. Despite that pedigree, he saw little of his father's working life. He grew up on a ranch near Paso Robles, went to school in Templeton, and moved to the Santa Barbara area at about 11. In the punk scene of 1980s Montecito he says he helped start the garage band that became the hardcore group Rich Kids on LSD, and he has called its singer Jason Sears his best friend.
After television films and guest spots, his big break was playing Brandon Walsh in Richard Donner's The Goonies (1985). He and Johnny Depp were the last two contenders to lead 21 Jump Street; Depp got the part, Brolin made a guest appearance in season one, and the pair stayed close. His next film, Thrashin', left him so unhappy with his performance that he turned his back on cinema for years. He called that work horrendous and said Flirting With Disaster (1996) was the first film he could watch without wincing at himself.
In the gap he acted on stage in Rochester, New York, often beside his mentor Anthony Zerbe, and played Wild Bill Hickok for three seasons of the ABC Western The Young Riders. Two later series were axed after only a few episodes.
The comeback arrived with No Country for Old Men (2007), and a year later his turn as Dan White in Milk earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Blockbusters followed: he played Thanos in the Avengers films and Cable in Deadpool 2, and worked repeatedly with Denis Villeneuve, first on Sicario and then as Gurney Halleck across the Dune films. In 2019 he set up Brolin Productions, whose first project was the 2024 crime comedy Brothers.
Source: Josh Brolin
