Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is a Tony Award-winning American film and stage actor who is perhaps best known for his role as the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He also received considerable acclaim for his role as Leo Bloom in the 2001 Broadway revival of The Producers.Broderick was born in New York City, the son of actor James Wilke Broderick and Patricia (née Biow), a playwright, actress and painter whose work was posthumously shown at the Tibor de Nagy gallery in New York. Broderick's mother was Jewish and his father a Catholic of Irish descent. Broderick attended grade school at the City & Country School, a progressive K–8 school in Manhattan; and high school at Walden School (now closed), a private school in Manhattan with a strong drama program.
Broderick met actress Jennifer Grey on the set of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In 1987, Broderick was involved in a multi-car collision while driving in Ireland with Grey (his fiancée at the time). The collision killed a woman and her daughter. Broderick (who fractured his leg and a rib) was cleared of all charges but paid a fee of $175 to the victims' family. Drinking was not involved in the crash. Martin Doherty, the elder victim's son, was quoted by Bill Hoffman in 2002 saying "I would like to reassure him that there are no bad feelings from us." The accident occurred close to the US release of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Broderick met actress Sarah Jessica Parker through her brother. The couple were married on May 19, 1997 in a civil ceremony in a historic deconsecrated synagogue on the Lower East Side; and while Broderick considers himself Jewish, the ceremony was performed by his sister, the Reverend Janet Broderick Kraft, an Episcopal priest.
Parker and Broderick's first child, James Wilkie Broderick (born on October 28, 2002), is named after his grandfather James Brian Broderick. His middle name is that of author Wilkie Collins, an author Broderick and Parker greatly admire. They spend a considerable amount of time at their holiday home in County Donegal, Ireland where Broderick spent his summers as a child.
He is left-handed, a fact made evident already in his first movie, Max Dugan Returns, where he is playing baseball. Broderick is an avid baseball fan. His favorite team is the New York Mets.
