Anderson, Anthony

Anthony Anderson

1970—

Actor

One of the fastest-rising African-American comic actors of the early 2000s was Anthony Anderson, who broke through to fame in 2000 with roles in the hit films Big Momma's House and Me, Myself & Irene. Following in the footsteps of other modern comedians such as Bernie Mac, he created comic situations modeled closely on his own life and experiences; his television series All About the Andersons (2003) drew on his relationship to his family. With his friendly, quick-witted image and his strong feel for the comedy inherent in family relationships, Anderson became a familiar face even to casual film and television fans.

Born in Los Angeles on August 15, 1970, Anderson grew up in the tough but culturally fertile suburb of Compton, California. He was born into the acting life; his mother Doris was a telephone operator and an aspiring actress who had roles as an extra in such films as Uptown Saturday Night, and she put her son on stage in a play while he was still a baby. The strong male figure in Anderson's life was his stepfather Sterling Bowman, the owner of a chain of stores with clothes for plus-sized women. "For my sixth birthday my biological father said he was going to bring me a bike but never did," Anderson recalled to Jeannine Amber of Essence. "So my real daddy went out and got me one. That's my dad."

Saw Mother Perform in Play

Anderson appeared in a television commercial at the age of five, and soon his mother inspired him to pursue acting as a career. "I remember sitting in Compton Community College...in their theater at nine years old and my mother was doing a production of A Raisin in the Sun... man, and it just hit me," he told interviewer Tavis Smiley of National Public Radio. "I was like, you know what, that's what I'm going to do for the rest of my life." Anderson attended a performing arts high school and went on with the help of a scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C. One of his classmates at Howard was comedian Marlon Wayans.

After graduating from Howard, Anderson returned to the Los Angeles area and moved back in with his mother and stepfather—much to their displeasure, for they had told Anderson and his siblings that they needed to plan to be out on their own after they turned 18. Anderson's stepfather pushed him gradually in the direction of independence, providing him with a rich source of future comic material in the process. He installed a pay telephone and a coin-operated washer and dryer in his own home, forcing the young graduate to end his freeloading when it came to phone calls and laundry. The hope was that Anderson would join the family clothing business, but when he refused and got a job in a mall instead, his stepfather padlocked the household refrigerator. "That's how my father systematically tried to get me out of the house," Anderson explained to TelevisionWeek.

Television Career Grew

Gradually, Anderson got his life in gear and began pursuing performance opportunities. His career began with small television roles, including one on the UPN series In the House in 1995. He had a recurring role as Theodore "Teddy" Brodis on NBC's Hang Time from 1996 to 1998, and he garnered roles in episodes of such top-rated series as NYPD Blue and Ally McBeal. In 1999 Anderson broke into films with a small role in the Martin Lawrence-and-Eddie Murphy comedy Life. Film roles followed thick and fast after that, with the actor showing his range by appearing in non-comic roles like one in the martial-arts Shakespeare adaptation Romeo Must Die. He had his first starring role in the Martin Lawrence comedy Big Momma's House (2000).

Top-notch slapstick turns in several huge comedy hits over the next few years made Anderson a familiar face among both industry people and audiences. He appeared opposite Jim Carrey as one of triplet sons of Carrey's split-personality character in Me, Myself & Irene, and in Barbershop (2002) he played one of a hapless pair of thieves who steal an automatic teller machine but then find that it becomes an enormous millstone as they struggle to move it from place to place. Anderson functioned well in the flourishing African-American ensemble film genre, taking a turn in the funeral-themed comedy-drama Kingdom Come.

The year 2003 brought Anderson, whose friends call him "Ant," no fewer than four film parts, including his first lead role, in Kangaroo Jack. That comedy featured Anderson as one of a pair of friends who try to recover $50,000 in an envelope lost to an aggressive kangaroo in Australia; it received generally lukewarm reviews but topped American box-office lists for a week. Anderson also appeared that year in Cradle 2 the Grave, Scary Movie 3, and the hip-hop spoof Malibu's Most Wanted.

Pay Phone Resurfaced as Gag

Meanwhile, Anderson and writing partner Adam Glass had been working on a big leap back into the world of television for the portly 270-pound actor: an idea and then a pilot episode for a weekly sitcom, starring Anderson and based in large part on his own experiences after he moved back in with his parents after college. Finally, after three years of meetings, the WB network signed on and premiered All About the Andersons in 2003. The pay phone and padlocked refrigerator resurfaced as plot elements in the show, although new characters (such as an eight-year-old son) were introduced and other details altered. Critics and audiences gravitated toward Anderson's enthusiastic personality, but the series suffered from uneven scripts. People opined that "the show gets close to a kind of truth that it's not really brave enough to confront," and it was canceled after a year.

Anderson bounced back easily, starring in the films Hustle & Flow and My Baby's Daddy, and signing on to appear in at least 10 episodes of a crime drama, The Shield, on the FX cable network in 2005. That marked a new challenge for the actor; he was set to take on his first dramatic television role, as a former drug dealer whose claims to have reformed were questionable. Happily married with two daughters and a son, Anderson was an unlikely candidate for the Hollywood rumor mill, and a rape charge leveled against the actor by a Memphis woman in 2004 was thrown out by a judge who termed the accuser's testimony some of the most suspicious he had ever heard. Continuing to expand his reach and hone his technique, Anderson seemed set to remain a fixture of both large and small screens in years to come.

At a Glance...

Born August 15, 1970, in Los Angeles, CA; married; children: two daughters and one son. Education: Howard University, Washington, DC.

Career: Actor, 1996–.

Selected awards: Acapulco Black Film Festival, Rising Star Award, 2001.

Addresses: Agent— William Morris Agency, 151 El Camino Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90212.

Selected works

Films

Life, 1999.

Liberty Heights, 1999.

Romeo Must Die, 1999.

Big Momma's House, 2000.

Me, Myself & Irene, 2000.

Kingdom Come, 2001.

Two Can Play That Game, 2001.

Exit Wounds, 2001.

Barbershop, 2002.

Kangaroo Jack, 2002.

Scary Movie 3, 2003.

Malibu's Most Wanted, 2003.

Cradle 2 the Grave, 2003.

My Baby's Daddy, 2003.

Hustle & Flow, 2004.

Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, 2004.

King's Ransom, 2005.

Television

Hang Time, 1996-98.

All About the Andersons, 2003.

The Shield, 2005.

Sources

Periodicals

Chicago Sun-Times, January 22, 2003, p. 50.

Daily News (Los Angeles), September 12, 2003, p. U30.

Essence, March 2004, p. 128.

Jet, February 3, 2003, p. 54; October 25, 2004, p.35.

People, October 27, 2003, p. 36; November 17, 2003, p. 120.

TelevisionWeek, April 28, 2003, p. 10.

Toronto Sun, October 23, 2003, p. 78.

Variety, January 12, 2005, p. 14.

On-line

"Anthony Anderson," All Movie Guide, http://www.allmovie.com (March 1, 2005).

Other

The Tavis Smiley Show, National Public Radio, October 24, 2003, transcript.

—James M. Manheim