Frankie Muniz

Frankie Muniz
Frankie Muniz, November 2007
Born	Francisco Muniz IV December 5, 1985 (1985-12-05) (age 23) Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor Professional racer
Years active	1997—present

Francisco "Frankie" Muniz IV (born December 5, 1985)^[1] is an American actor and racecar driver. He is known as the star of the FOX television family sitcom, Malcolm in the Middle. In 2003, Muniz was considered "one of Hollywood's most bankable teens".^[2] In 2007, he put his acting career on hold to pursue a racing career. He currently competes in the Atlantic Championship.

Early life

Muniz was born on December 5, 1985 and grew up in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, the son of Denise, a former nurse, and Francisco Muniz III, a restaurant manager.^[3][4] His father is Puerto Rican and his mother is of Irish and Italian ancestry.^[5] He has an older sister, Christine.^[5] Muniz was first discovered at age eight at a talent show in the Raleigh, North Carolina, suburb of Knightdale (shortly after the family moved from Wood-Ridge), where he was cast as Tiny Tim in a local production of A Christmas Carol. His parents divorced shortly after. Muniz subsequently moved to Burbank, California, with his mother. He appeared in commercials and made his film debut in the made-for-television movie, To Dance With Olivia (1997), starring Lou Gossett Jr. The same year, he appeared in the CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of What the Deaf Man Heard. A small role in the film Lost & Found (1999) led up to his breakthrough role as the title character on Malcolm in the Middle, which would make him a familiar face in millions of households.

Career

Fox premiered Malcolm in the Middle on January 9, 2000, as a mid-season replacement, and the show was quickly overcome with accolades. The premiere episode was watched by 23 million^[6] and the second episode by 26 million.^[7] Muniz then won many awards for the series, including young star awards, young artist awards and kids' choice awards. Muniz anchored the show with his narration and central role in many of the series' plots, although he has said that he does not consider himself a comic actor and does not find himself funny.^[8] He was nominated for Golden Globes in 2000 and 2001, the Emmy Awards in 2001,^[9] and was honored with the Hollywood Reporter "Young Star Award" for his work in the series.

Throughout his television career Muniz made guest appearances on the shows Lizzie McGuire, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and MADtv. His first starring role in a feature film was as Willie Morris in the family period piece My Dog Skip (2000), released around the same time as the pilot for Malcolm In The Middle. He won a Young star award for his work on the movie. Muniz then contributed a voice to the animal cast of Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001). He had a moderate hit with the 2002 release Big Fat Liar, which teamed him with teen actress Amanda Bynes as a pair of students seeking revenge on a sleazy movie producer (Paul Giamatti). He was nominated for many awards but did not win any of them. He was also part of the ensemble for the gang film, Deuces Wild, released that same year. In 2003, he made a cameo appearance as Cher's underage boyfriend in Stuck on You. Also in 2003, Muniz appeared on the first episode of the MTV series Punk'd, hosted by Ashton Kutcher.^[10] Kutcher tricked Muniz into thinking that his car had been stolen. What Muniz didn't know is that his car was being secretly driven around by Ashton Kutcher's field agent, BJ Novak. After the joke had escalated Muniz became upset and began spewing profanity at which point Kutcher told Muniz that he had been "punk'd."

Muniz subsequently played the title role in the film Agent Cody Banks, as well as its sequel, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. The first film opened in March 2003 and grossed $47 million; the sequel, which opened a year later, grossed $23 million.^[11] Muniz trained in martial arts for the films, and performed most of his own stunts; he also commented that it was the point in his career where he should "make the transition from child actor to an adult actor or a respectable actor."^[8]

Muniz had a cameo in the comedy Stuck on You and voiced a racing zebra, 'Stripes' in the 2005 film Racing Stripes. He then went on to play a part in the horror movie Stay Alive, which opened on March 24, 2006. Malcolm in the Middle finished its run May 14, 2006. Muniz expressed a desire to leave traditional Hollywood film roles behind, saying:

Muniz made a guest appearance on the Arrested Development episode "Mr. F" where Michael and his girlfriend Rita were taking a studio tram tour through the fictional Tantamount Studios when the tour disrupted a filming of Malcolm in the Middle (although none of the footage was actually seen in Malcolm in the Middle). After the filming equipment is cleared to make way for the tram, Muniz sarcastically says, "It's more important to show how we film the show than actually film it." He then mutters under his breath, "Fuck Tantamount."

In April 2006, Muniz began filming My Sexiest Year, an independent film which also stars Oscar nominee Harvey Keitel as Muniz's father. Muniz's character has a love scene in the film.^[13] The same month, Muniz announced he was taking a break from acting to pursue a career in race car driving, with a full-time two year racing deal with Jensen Motorsport in the Formula BMW competition,^[14] saying:

In May 2006, despite his announcement to temporarily leave acting, Muniz signed on to star in the R-rated, raunchy teen sex comedy Extreme Movie.^[16] The film was originally planned to be released in 2007 by Dimension Films^[17] but was ultimately released straight to DVD in February 2009.

In late 2007, he made a significant guest appearance in an episode of the popular and critically acclaimed CBS crime drama, Criminal Minds. The episode, entitled "True Night", featured Muniz playing a famous comic book writer who becomes a violent serial killer that preys on a group of local gang-bangers after they force him to watch while they rape and murder his pregnant fiancee. In December 2007 he made a cameo appearance in the movie Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, playing Buddy Holly.

Muniz also voiced Manu in the movie The Legend of Secret Pass, a straight to DVD release in 2008.

Writing and producing

Muniz started writing in 2004, when he wrote the screenplay of the TV movie Granted. To date, that is his only screenplay. In 2004, he was the executive producer of Granted. In 2006, he also executive produced the movie Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman. A year later (2007) he became the associated producer of the film Choose Connor.

Racing career

Muniz's career in car racing traces back to 2005, when he won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race as a celebrity participant. While investigating the possibility of joining a racing team as an owner, Muniz was granted a test in a car and instead signed a two year deal with Jensen Motorsport as a driver.

Muniz entered fourteen races during the 2006 Formula BMW USA series and failed to finish in a points scoring position. Muniz was selected as one of the thirty–six drivers to compete in the annual Formula BMW World Final, despite his poor performance in the national series. The event, dominated by German Christian Vietoris, saw Muniz make a small impact, as he finished twenty–ninth.^[18]

For 2007, Muniz moved up to the more competitive Champ Car Atlantic Series^[19] where he competed in the entire season of 12 races. For the season, his best finish was ninth place and he officially earned a total of 41 points and $17,000 in prize money. Even though he made little progress moving from the bottom half of the pack, by avoiding breakdowns and accidents he was able to log 351 season laps. This was more race mileage than most other drivers except for the winners, indicating more endurance and consistency but less outright speed than other drivers of similar performance.^[20]

In January 2007, he placed second at the Sebring Winter National SCCA race.^[21]

Muniz signed with Atlantic Championship winning team Pacific Coast Motorsports in January 2008 with a goal to compete consistently in the top-ten in the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda. He finished the 2008 season in eleventh place.

At the end of the 2008 season, Muniz won the Jovy Marcelo Sportsmanship Award, an award for sportsmanship voted on by fellow drivers named in memory of the 1991 Atlantic Championship winner who was killed while practicing for the 1992 Indianapolis 500.

Video games

Along with being an actor and voicing characters, Muniz also played the voice of Domino in the PS game, 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue. He was featured on the video game Stargate Worlds.

Personal life

Muniz was homeschooled from sixth grade onward. He has since sold off most of his car collection (except his Smart fortwo, Dodge Ram, the Volkswagen Jetta from The Fast and the Furious, 1964 El Camino, and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG)^{[citation needed]}, and moved to the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, Arizona.

He is a fan of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Filmography

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Frankie Muniz

• Frankie Muniz at the Internet Movie Database
• FrankieMunizRacing.com