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Bob Balaban
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bob Balaban | |
| Born | August 16, 1945 Chicago, Illinois |
Bob Balaban (born Robert Elmer Balaban on August 16, 1945) is an American actor and director.
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Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jewish parents - Elmer Balaban and Eleanor Pottasch. His family was a dominant force in the theatre business, as his father and uncles built some of the largest cinemas in Chicago in the 1920s. His uncle Barney Balaban was the head of Paramount Pictures[1] for nearly 30 years in the 1940s-1960s and his maternal grandfather, Sam Katz, headed production at MGM.[2] Balaban is an alumnus of Colgate University and lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his family. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity. He is Jewish,[3] with his paternal grandparents having immigrated from Russia to Chicago.[4]
One of his earliest appearances was as a young gay man in 1969's Midnight Cowboy. Among his early roles in the 1970s were those of Orr in Catch-22, and the interpreter David Laughlin in the 1977 Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In 1979 he received a Tony Award nomination for his role in The Inspector General. The 1980s were relatively quiet for him although he did appear in Altered States and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. He also appeared in the 1981 film, "Absence of Malice."
In the 1990s and beyond he has made many appearances in films such as Clockwatchers, Pie in the Sky, Gosford Park (which he helped to conceive along with the director Robert Altman) and Capote. Balaban is possibly most recognizable as one of the regulars of the Christopher Guest films. He has appeared in Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration. Most recently, he appeared as a pompous film and book critic in M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water. He has also directed, mostly for television but his most regarded film directing credit is Parents starring Randy Quaid; a satire of the values and prejudices of Eisenhower-era America.
In the 1990s, Balaban starred as Russell Dalrymple, the fictional president of NBC and eventually Elaine's love interest on Seinfeld. He also played Warren Littlefield, another NBC executive, in The Late Shift, about the battle between Jay Leno and David Letterman for NBC's The Tonight Show. In 1998 Balaban made a guest appearing in the sitcom Friends as Phoebe's Dad Frank Buffay in "The One With Joey's Bag".
In 1999, Balaban directed Y2K, a play by Arthur Kopit, produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville as the "centerpiece" of the 23rd Humana Festival of New American Plays.[5]
Balaban wrote a book about his experience shooting Close Encounters of the Third Kind called Spielberg, Truffaut & Me: An Actor's Diary. Since 2002, Balaban has been authoring a series of children's books: the McGrowl series.
- Beware of Dog
- It's a Dog's Life
- Every Dog Has His Day
- Good Dog!
- It's a Dog-Eat-Dog World
- Puppy Tales
- ^ http://moviepoopshoot.com/interviews/30.html
- ^ http://www.cinema.com/people/005/230/bob-balaban/index.phtml
- ^ Pine, Dan. "Hooked on ‘Addicted’", The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, 2004-09-24. Retrieved on 2006-12-13.
- ^ http://movies.ign.com/articles/387/387771p1.html
- ^ Mel Gussow. "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; In Louisville, Now the Car Is a Stage (Phone Is Too)", New York Times, March 24, 1999.