Best Known As: Hunky star of Law & Order and The Cleaner
After several years of small roles in movies and on TV, Benjamin Bratt made his name in the late 1990s as lean and hunky detective Reynaldo Curtis on TV's Law & Order. He left the show in 1999 to work in feature films, playing clean-cut straight men in movies such as Red Planet (2000, with Carrie-Anne Moss), Miss Congeniality (2000, starring Sandra Bullock) and Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000, with Benicio Del Toro). He received critical raves and surprised fans with his portrayal of junkie-poet Miguel Piñero in the 2001 film Piñero (co-starring Talisa Soto, his wife since 2002), and proved his versatility as a supporting player in The Woodsman (2004, with Kevin Bacon), Catwoman (2004, starring Halle Berry) and Thumbsucker (2005, with Keanu Reeves). He returned to series television with Dennis Hopper in 2005's Jerry Bruckheimer's E-Ring, but the show was short-lived. Bratt appeared in the 2007 film version of Love in the Time of Cholera (starring Javier Bardem), then began another series, the cable drama The Cleaner, in 2008.
Career Highlights: Miss Congeniality, Demolition Man, The Next Best Thing
First Major Screen Credit: Blood In Blood Out (1993)
Biography
Benjamin Bratt was already an experienced film and TV actor by the time his four-year stint as Det. Reynaldo "Rey" Curtis on NBC's long-running hit Law and Order made him famous. Born and raised in San Francisco, Bratt studied acting at UC-Santa Barbara and in his hometown. After roles in two short-lived 1980s TV series, Bratt made his film debut as John Travolta's foe in the shelved, then straight-to-cable Chains of Gold (1991). Concentrating on building a movie career, Bratt played supporting roles in the action films Demolition Man (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), and The River Wild (1994), as well as one of the lead roles in Bound by Honor (1993), about Chicano gang life. After joining Law and Order in 1995 as the coolly-passionate Curtis, the half-Peruvian Indian, half-Caucasian Bratt's chiseled looks received positive notices along with his acting, but rather than rest on his laurels, Bratt used his hiatus time to produce (with his director brother Peter Bratt) and star in the indie film Follow Me Home (1997). After leaving the show in 1999 (girlfriend Julia Roberts guest-starred in one of Bratt's last episodes), Bratt moved back to San Francisco to be closer to his family and focus on making movies. He costarred as Madonna's paramour in The Next Best Thing (2000).
Untouched by The Next Best Thing's failure, Bratt joined the prestigious ensemble cast of Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed, Oscar-winning narcotics drama Traffic (2000), becoming nearly unrecognizable in a brief appearance as a sleazy drug dealer. Scoring his second Christmas 2000 hit, Bratt played off his smooth, sexy law enforcement officer image as Sandra Bullock's FBI ally-turned-love interest in the comedy Miss Congeniality (2000).
Though the first half of 2001 was marked by his well-publicized break-up with Roberts, Bratt was poised to leave his days as tabloid fodder behind with his lead performance in the independent biopic Piñero (2001). Winning the title role over such high profile Latino actors as Jimmy Smits, Bratt's uncanny evocation of troubled Nuyorican writer and drug casualty Miguel Piñero attracted early dark horse Oscar buzz. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Bratt was born in San Francisco, California, the son of nurse Eldy (née Banda) and a sheet metal worker father.[1][2] Bratt's father, Peter W Bratt, was an American of German and English descent[3] and his mother is a Peruvian Indian activist; she was born in Peru and moved to the U.S. at age fourteen.[4][5][6] They married 30 Dec 1960 in San Francisco,[7] but divorced in September of 1967.[8] Bratt's paternal grandfather, George Cleveland Bratt (05 Mar 1893-29 Mar 1984), was a Broadway actor who married his grandmother Wiltrude Hildner on 06 Aug 1920 in Detroit, Michigan.[9][10][11]
As a child, Bratt's mother took Bratt along with his siblings to participate in the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz.[12] Today Bratt is an active supporter of Native American causes such as the American Indian College Fund[12] and We Shall Remain, a ground breaking mini-series and provocative multi-media project, narrated by Bratt, that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history from PBS's acclaimed series American Experience.[13]
Has been a strong supporter and board member of San Francisco Bay Area's Friendship House Association of American Indians and Native American Health Center for years.[14]
In 1998 he began dating Julia Roberts. He escorted her to the March 25, 2001 Academy Awards ceremony at which she won an Oscar for Best Actress. Three months later in June 2001 they announced that they were no longer a couple.[15]
Less than a year later he married his pregnant actress girlfriend Talisa Soto on April 13, 2002, in San Francisco. The two met while filming Piñero. Their first child, daughter Sophia Rosalinda Bratt, was born on December 6, 2002. Their second child, son Mateo Bravery Bratt, was born on October 3, 2005, in Los Angeles.
Career
Bratt's best-known role has been that of Det. Rey Curtis on the television showLaw & Order. In 1999, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on the series. His more popular films include Miss Congeniality, Blood in Blood out and Traffic. On June 23, 2009, Bratt appeared on The View to promote The Cleaner. But before he was completely in the lime-light, he played on an episode of the hit series "Charmed" as a demon, where the main stars were Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano, and Shannen Doherty.
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