Matthew Broderick

Of all the Jewish stars, the eternally boyish Matthew has a special place in the hearts of Chicagoans for starring in the 1980's beloved Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in which he plays a high schooler who cuts class to tour all around Chicago. Hey-- it's cute in a movie, but don't you try it! (The role is so popular, Matthew parodied it in a Super Bowl ad in 2012!)

His recent hit is about a bunch of people who were cheated by a rich dude who try to steal their money back. Irt's called Tower Heist and it's one of our Movies of the Month! Matthew is also in another one of our movies, also from the 1980s. He plays a high schooler in the computer-paranoia classic WarGames with Jewish actress Ally Sheedy. And he's still a high-school-age kid in the lyrical fantasy Ladyhawke. Of course now, he's old enough to play the teacher role, like in Election, when he tries to put a stop to a runaway high-school, um, election.

Matthew got his start on stage, and now Matthew is back there, big time, with his Tony-winning role in The Producers. First, that story was a movie by Mel Brooks starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel. Then it was a stage musical, with Matthew in the Gene part. And then they made a movie out of the musical version, still with Matthew (although Gene can sing, as he does in the original Willy Wonka movie.)

Next, Matthew is in Margaret, about a Jewish girl who witnesses a bus accident. And he's in Wonderful World, about an inter-racial relationship. And then he's in Tower Heist, with (deep breath): Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Tea Leoni, Alan Alda, Gabourey "Precious" Sidibe, and Judd Hirsch!

But you know Matthew as the voice of the grown-up Simba in The Lion King. (BTW, did you see the stage verson? Wasn't awesome?! Well, a Jewish woman named Julie Taymor is why. She was the director and designed the animal-icious costumes!)

Now Matthew's in another animation (with Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Kline), as a mouse named Despereaux in The Tale of Despereaux, who despereau-tely tries to rescue someone. It's one of our Movies of the Month!

He's a also voice in Jerry Seinfeld's new movie, Bee Movie, another one of our Movies of the Month! It also stars Larry Miller, Larry King, and Larry Bevinson-- Oops! We mean Barry Levinson. (Guess we got a little Larry'd away!)

Another cartoon-based movie Matthew starred it was Inspector Gadget. In the original TV toon, Inspector Gadget's voice was done by a Jewish actor named Don Adams. The cartoon was a spoof of a TV show called Get Smart, also starring Don Adams and created by... guess who? Mel Brooks! And now, they made a Get Smart movie! (Mel gets an environmental award for recycling his own work!)

Even with all that voice work, Matthew is still 90% a live-action actor. In a Jewish role, Matthew plays a young Neil Simon in that playwrights' autobiographical Biloxi Blues, about being a Jewish Army private in 1950s Mississippi. Harvey Fierstein, another Jewish actor and writer, put Matthew in his autobiographical movie, Torch Song Trilogy, about being a Jewish gay man in 1950s New York, in which Matthew plays Fierstein's boyfriend.

He sometimes plays historic roles. He stars with Jennifer Jason Leigh in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, about Jewish American writer Dorothy Parker, and plays a white general in charge of an African-American platoon in the Civil War movie Glory.

He was also in two movies with Oscar winner Helen Hunt. One was called Project X, about an evil experiment on some cute chimps, and the latest is a new comedy-drama called And Then She Found Me.

As Matthew told the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, "My background is very much that style of writing, Neil Simon and Mel Brooks, and the Your Show of Shows guys are what I grew up loving. So I probably drew on my New York background and my Jewish background for that, sure." (What's Your Show of Shows? See the Bonus under Woody Allen and find out!)

Matthew's married to Sarah Jessica Parker and has two Tony Awards. He's very talented, very much a mensch, and deserves all the success he has earned.

Bonus:

As we said, Matthew is the star of Broadway's The Producers, about a couple of, um, Broadway's producers. Well, we'd like to introduce you to two of the biggest producers Broadway has ever seen, and they're both Jewish:

One of the greatest producers in Broadway history was a Jewish man named David Merrick (real last name: Margulois). He and/or is plays were nominated for Tonys more than 40 times between 1958 and 1986— a rough average of  2 nominations a year for 20 years!

David, who was born in St. Louis, dominated Broadway in the 1960s. In 1961, he won Best Play and a Special Tony. In 1964, he won Best Play, Musical, and Producer. In 1968, he won Best Play and Producer— and another Special Tony! He also won Best Play in 1966 and 1976… and then David came back again to win the Tony for Best Musical in 1981. His last play was onstage in 1996. And to think… he almost became a lawyer!

And if you think that’s impressive, meet Harold Prince (his real name!). Harold has won more Tonys than anyone else— 21 (so far!). Eight are for directing, but another 10 are for producing.

Born in New York, he started college at 16 and finished in just 3 years! He won his first Tony in 1955 with The Pajama Game and then had a slump until Cabaret (with Joel Grey, see his story here) in 1966. Then he started working with another genius, Jewish lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim. They had already done West Side Story together and realized they had lots of the same ideas about musical theater as an art that had something important to say. Together, they put on one of the greatest string of musicals ever: ...Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures and Sweeny Todd!

Harold went on to direct everything from Fiddler on the Roof to a Superman musical, from operas to Phantom of the Opera! He won a lifetime achievement Tony in 2006.