Josh James Brolin (; born February 12, 1968) is an American actor. A son of actor James Brolin, he gained fame in his youth for his role in the adventure film The Goonies (1985). Brolin had a resurgence with his starring role in the crime film No Country for Old Men (2007). Brolin received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for portraying Dan White in the biopic Milk (2008).
Brolin's career progressed with roles in W. (2008), True Grit (2010), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), Men in Black 3 (2012), Oldboy (2013), Inherent Vice (2014), Everest (2015), and Hail, Caesar! (2016). He gained wider recognition for playing Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), including in the films Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), as well as Cable in Deadpool 2 (2018). Brolin also collaborated with filmmaker Denis Villeneuve in the action thriller Sicario (2015) and in the science fiction films Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024), and Dune: Part Three (2026), in which he played Gurney Halleck. In 2019, he founded the production company Brolin Productions, whose first project was the crime comedy film Brothers (2024).
Early life
Brolin was 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. Brolin was raised on a ranch in the Adelaida area of Paso Robles, attending elementary and middle school in Templeton, California. Brolin moved to the Santa Barbara area around the age of 11, where he attended Santa Barbara High School. Brolin had little exposure to his father's acting career.
Brolin said in a 2014 interview that during his youth, he was a member of a surfing friendship group who called themselves the "Cito Rats". In his description of the group, Brolin said, "It was Santa Barbara. It was the '80s. It was punk rock. You either had the children of rich, neglectful parents or children of poor, so it was a mix. But we basically grew up the same way. I've never seen a group like that before or since." He admitted to stealing cars to pay for his drug use, which included heroin, a drug that he explained he did not like: "I mean, I never got into it and I never died from it, which is a good thing. I've had 19 friends who died. Most of those guys I grew up with, they're all dead now." Brolin later said: "The group of guys that I grew up with, 36 of them are dead. Twelve are in jail. Four are in jail and also dead. I keep careful count, all 36 dead guys. I'm from a tough environment, ya know?"
In a 2012 New York Times interview, he claimed to have been a member of Montecito hardcore band Rich Kids on LSD. He later gave more detail about this in a radio interview, stating "Things have gotten confused in interviews and all that. And I said that I was a part of RKL, which is Rich Kids on LSD, which was a big punk band back then. And it was - I was part of the garage band that first started playing. And then they went to be known with other drummers and other musicians as RKL. And they actually became a fairly well-known punk rock band.". On the podcast WTF with Marc Maron, he said Jason Sears was his best friend and has also stated "Rich Kids on LSD was the band that I helped start."
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1980s)
Brolin started his career in TV films and guest roles on TV shows before landing a more notable role as Brandon Walsh in the Richard Donner-directed film The Goonies (1985). Brolin was considered for the role of Tom Hanson in the series 21 Jump Street; Brolin and Johnny Depp were the finalists for the role, and the two became close and remained friends. The role ultimately went to Depp. Brolin guest-starred in an episode of the show in its first season.
Career decline (1990–2006)
Brolin has implied that he turned away from film acting for years after the premiere of his second film, Thrashin', due to what he called his "horrendous" acting. As Brolin said later, "Flirting With Disaster (1996) was the first movie where I thought, 'Oh, thank God I got to do that one.' It's the first movie of mine where I wasn't watching my performance at all. I was just loving the movie." For several years, Brolin appeared in stage roles in Rochester, New York, often alongside mentor and friend Anthony Zerbe. One of Brolin's more prominent roles early in his career was that of Wild Bill Hickok in the ABC Western TV series The Young Riders, which lasted three seasons (1989–92). Two other TV series in which Brolin was involved include the Aaron Spelling production Winnetka Road (1994) and Mister Sterling (2003), both of which were cancelled after a few episodes.
Career resurgence and stardom (2006–2016)
By 2006, Brolin was trading stocks full time when he booked the lead role in the Coen brothers' Academy Award-winning film No Country for Old Men (2007). The film became a critical and commercial success. Brolin went on to book a part in the similarly successful Ridley Scott film American Gangster (2007).
In 2008, Brolin starred in the Oliver Stone film, W., a biopic about key events in the life of George W. Bush. Stone pursued an initially hesitant Brolin for the role. He said of his decision to cast Brolin in the leading role:
It always seemed to me that he was the right person. Although classically handsome, I think he would consider himself a character actor first and foremost, and it was in this context that I thought of him as W. Josh certainly has star appeal and could be a leading man, but I don't think he necessarily wants to be that. I think he really enjoys disappearing into a character.
Brolin received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk as city supervisor Dan White, who assassinated San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. He made news by wearing a White Knot to the Academy Awards ceremony to demonstrate solidarity with the same-sex marriage movement. Brolin told an interviewer that co-star Sean Penn, who portrayed Milk, decided to dispel any nerves the actors had about playing gay men by "grabbing the bull by the horns". At the first cast dinner, which included castmates James Franco, Emile Hirsch, and Diego Luna, "[Penn] walked right up and grabbed me and planted a huge one right on my lips", Brolin said. Brolin has received critical acclaim for his performance, and in addition to his Oscar nomination, received New York Film Critics Circle and National Board of Review awards for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.
Also in 2008, Brolin hosted Saturday Night Live, the same night as musical guest Adele. He hosted again in April 2012 and March 2024.
In 2009, Brolin executive produced and performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. The next year, Brolin wrote and directed the short film X as his directorial debut. The film is about an inmate who escapes prison to reunite with his daughter and searches for her murdered mother. It was the opening film at the first annual Union City International Film Festival in Union City, New Jersey, in December 2010.
In the early 2010s, Brolin appeared in a variety of big-budget studio films. He portrayed the titular character in Jonah Hex (2010), based on the DC Comics' character with the same name. Brolin later admitted that he hated the experience making the film, stating that at one point they had to "[reshoot] 66 pages in 12 days", implying that the filming schedule was hectic. Brolin later blamed the film's failure on studio interference in the film's postproduction and on director Jimmy Hayward, whom he called "inexperienced" and a "bad choice (of director)." Brolin also appeared in the…