Early Life
Bratt was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Eldy (née Banda), a nurse, and Peter Bratt, Sr., a sheet metal worker. Bratt's mother is a Peruvian Indigenous activist of the Quechua ethnic group; born in Peru, she moved to the U.S. at age nine. His father was an American of German and English descent. They married December 30, 1960, in San Francisco, but divorced in September 1967.
Bratt's paternal grandfather, George Cleveland Bratt (March 5, 1893 – March 29, 1984), was a Broadway actor who married Benjamin's grandmother, Wiltrude Hildner, on August 6, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan.
As a child, Bratt went with his mother and siblings to participate in the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz. Today Bratt is an active supporter of such Native American causes as the American Indian College Fund and We Shall Remain, a mini-series and multi-media project, narrated by Bratt, that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history from PBS' acclaimed series American Experience.
His brother, Peter Bratt, wrote and directed the 1996 film Follow Me Home, casting Benjamin as Abel. In 2009 Peter wrote and directed the independent film La Mission also starring Benjamin as Che Rivera, an inhabitant of the Mission District. Bratt has for years been a strong supporter and board member of San Francisco Bay Area's Friendship House Association of American Indians and Native American Health Center.
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