Early on in his career, child actor Erik Per Sullivan proved an unforgettable performer with his heart-wrenching scene-stealing turn in the 1999 Oscar-nominated drama "The Cider House Rules" and a regular role as the odd little brother on the hit Fox sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle". Small in stature with sandy brown hair, expressive features and puppy dog eyes, Sullivan possessed a talent that was most unusual and tagged him as a strong character player. Devoid of the affected precociousness common among his contemporaries, the young actor was a natural choice to play the innocent, bright-eyed Fuzzy, a doomed orphan with underdeveloped lungs living under the tutelage of Michael Caine's Dr. Larch, and was a stand out in the ensemble of young actors populating "The Cider House Rules". A subsequent Oscar campaign plastered his face all over the trades just in time for his television debut in Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle", playing Dewey, a strange child with an inventive approach to troublemaking, the youngest son in this startlingly realistic family. A guest role as the son of psychiatrist Robert Banger (Ted Levine), the forensics specialist, in the ABC medical drama "Wonderland" also came in 2000, and although this was only his third featured acting part, the young performer seemed primed to go far in the industry.