Adrien Brody wins his 2nd best actor Oscar for ‘The Brutalist,’ again as a Holocaust survivor

Twenty-two years after winning best actor for “The Pianist,” Adrien Brody wins the same Oscar again for his performance as another Holocaust survivor in Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” at the 97th Academy Awards.

Brody’s win comes over Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), who had the chance of becoming the youngest best actor ever, a record owned by Brody – just short of 30 when he won for “The Pianist.”

“Thank you God for this blessed life,” says Brody.

Brody joins an elite group of multiple winners in this category that includes Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson and Spencer Tracy.

Brody has said his mother escaped from Hungary and moved across the Atlantic, echoing the journey of the character he plays, a modernist architect named Laszlo Toth.

“I understand a great deal about the repercussions of that on her life and her work as an artist,” he told reporters at the Venice Film Festival. Brody’s mother is the celebrated photographer Sylvia Plachy.

Brody, whose acting credits include numerous roles in Wes Anderson movies, has worked with a who’s who of prestige directors including Woody Allen, Peter Jackson, Spike Lee, Barry Levinson, Terrence Malick, Roman Polanski and Steven Soderbergh.

His commercial work includes roles in “King Kong” and “Predators.” His upcoming movies include “Emperor,” a medieval action epic.