Fred Savage Biography

Fred Savage Although Fred Savage has escaped behind the camera in recent years in order to direct, his time as Kevin Arnold on the hit series The Wonder Years remains his most enduring, beloved, and memorable work.Frederick Aaron Savage was born July 9, 1976, in Glencoe, Illinois. His parents are Lew Savage and Joanne Savage, a real estate executive and housewife respectively. A family of entertainers, Savage's brother is Ben Savage of Boy Meets World fame, and his sister is Kala Savage, known for both her acting and music career.Not one to coast through life on his success, Savage challenged himself by attending and graduating from Stanford University. He earned his degree in psychology from the prestigious school.Savage made his onscreen debut in 1980 with the Will Vinton directed claymation/animation short Dinosaur. Savage appeared in many more family-oriented films and television productions including The Boy Who Could Fly in 1986 and Runaway Ralph with Sara Gilbert, Kellie Martin, and Summer Phoenix. But breaking type with the typical child star, Savage also appeared in several dramas containing adult themes such as Crime Story: Crime Pays, with David Caruso and Convicted: A Mother's Story, opposite Ann Jillian, Gloria Loring, and Jenny Gago.But it was his role in The Princess Bride that really made him a recognizable face. Playing Peter Falk's grandson to whom the story is related, the film starred Cary Elwes, Christopher Guest, Robin Wright Penn, and Billy Crystal.Riding off this success, he auditioned for and landed the role of Kevin Arnold in the new series The Wonder Years. He would star for the entirety of the show's run from 1988 to 1993 and his co-stars included on-screen father, Dan Lauria, on-screen sister, Olivia d Abo, and on-screen girlfriend, Danica McKellar. Other guest stars included Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Stein, David Schwimmer, Juliette Lewis, and Seth Green. For Savage's work on the series, he was nominated for two Emmys, two Golden Globes, and won the Young Artist Award. (He won this award two other times for his turn in The Princess Bride and The Boy Who Could Fly.)With the shows eventual end, Savage (still only seventeen years old) found work in an odd mix of independent shorts (A Guy Walks Into a Bar), thrillers where he plays a murderer (No One Would Tell) and Emmy-winning children's programs (How Do You Spell God with fellow child star Hayden Panettiere).But it was his 1997 return to television that rejuvenated his somewhat stagnating career. For two seasons, he played Matt Peyser in the sitcom Working. It was well-received by audiences and critics, leaving both baffled when it was prematurely axed in 1999. In 2006, he made a brief return to network television with the comedy series Crumbs, opposite Jane Curtain.In other arenas, Savage began pursuing his directing aspirations as early as 1993. He began in the most logical place his brother Ben's highly popular series Boy Meets World. He has gone on to direct many young stars in their series such as That's So Raven and Hannah Montana. His most recent directorial work is Daddy Day Camp with Cuba Gooding Jr, due out August 2007.Focusing on his personal life, Savage married Jennifer Lynn Stone August 7, 2004. They welcomed their son, Oliver Philip Savage, on August 5, 2006.