American screen actor, the dark and handsome son of actor James Brolin and former casting agent Jane Agee. He is the step-son of singer Barbra Streisand. In 2008, he portrayed the American politician Dan White in the movie Milk, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He played Marvel Comics supervillain Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Onscreen from 1985, Josh began his career in high school plays and received good reviews. Josh had reservations about pursuing an acting career, however, recalling the lean times of his childhood after his parents divorced and his father was between jobs. Josh states: “…we were living in a big home one year and in somebody’s guest house the next.” But, inspired by his early successes he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. At age 17 he moved to Los Angeles to live with his dad and study acting. He made his first feature film debut as Brand Walsh in pirate adventure The Goonies (1985) and went on to do various television series and films. Up to the mid ‘90s Josh’s feature work was limited to low-budget films, but he gradually transitioned to supporting roles in major features such as Bed of Roses (1996), Flirting with Disaster (1996) and Mimic (1997).
Josh was raised on a 97-acre ranch near Palo Alto, California, run by mom Jane, an animal activist. Josh admits he had a rebellious streak in high school, giving up sports at one point to play drums in a punk band. He sported spiky blond hair and bathed about once a week. Josh started growing up quickly, however, after taking acting lessons and starring in a high school production of A Streetcar Named Desire. As an adult Josh is very athletic and involved in many sports. He is a high-ranked California surfer, a martial arts competitor and a race car driver. Josh won the 24th Annual Toyota Pro-Celebrity Race in Long Beach, California, in April 2002, 22 years after his father had won the same tournament. Josh’s mother died tragically in a car crash in 1995 on the set of a video she was filming. She had been divorced from James Brolin for 10 years at the time. She was the mother of Josh Brolin as well as his younger brother, Jess Brolin.
Josh’s first marriage was to actress Alice Adair in 1988. They produced a son Trevor and daughter Eden before their divorce in 1992. His next major romance was with actress Minnie Driver from 1999-2001. They became engaged for five and one-half months and then suddenly decided to call off the wedding, without much explanation, except that it was a “mutually agreeable decision.” Josh married second wife actress Diane Lane in August 2004 and they lived on a California ranch with his two children. On 19 December 2004 in West Los Angeles Diane called the police after a domestic dispute at about 3:00 AM. Josh was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of spousal battery. Diane later stated in an interview that she never intended for him to be arrested and that it was all a “big misunderstanding.” Both of them were embarrassed by the incident. Josh is a very private person and likes to shield himself and his family from the press as much as possible. Brolin and Lane divorced in 2013.
Brolin married his former assistant and model Kathryn Boyd, who is 20 years his junior, on 24 September 2016. He announced through Instagram on 4 November 2018, that Boyd had given birth to a daughter, Westlyn Reign Brolin. They welcomed their second daughter, Chapel Grace Brolin, at 6:20 PM on 25 December 2020.
Link to Wikipedia biography