HOLLYWOOD — Sacha Baron Cohen is perhaps the unlikeliest British movie star since the plain, self-effacing and rather asexual Sir Alec Guinness. But like the brilliant knight — who happened to be half-Jewish — Baron Cohen seemingly becomes the character he plays, even to the point of declining television interviews unless he can appear as the character in his latest film. Ironically, Baron Cohen's two most famous movie characters are anti-Semitic (likewise, Guinness elicited widespread controversy for his stereotypical portrayal of Fagin in the 1948 film of "Oliver Twist").
Baron Cohen, born Oct. 13, 1971, and standing 190 cm tall, is something of an enigma, even though several facts about him have leaked out over the years since he became Britain's most popular — or notorious — TV star. Although he played a semiliterate, would-be black but nonblack character named Ali G, Baron Cohen is Cambridge-educated, liberal and an observant Jew who spent time living in Israel and working on a kibbutz.
A memorable segment during his latest film, "Bruno," takes place in the Middle East and involves the clueless title character trying to make peace between an Arab and an Israeli. On location in Jerusalem as the stereotypically gay (and Austrian) fashionista, Baron Cohen's outre and abbreviated attire seemed to make fun of Orthodox apparel and incited a small band of Orthodox Jews to chase after him on the street, unaware that a film was being shot.