Bob BalabanBirth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA Date of Birth: August 16, 1945 Heritage: American Contact Bob Balaban | 
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Gosford Park
Background: “God, I'd love to do a big commercial movie that made a lot of money and whose plot was interesting too.” Bob Balaban Bob Balaban is an American actor of stage, television and film, producer and director. He is known for playing roles in “Catch-22” (1970), “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977), “Absence of Malice” (1981), “2010” (1984), “Cradle Will Rock” (1999), “Jakob the Liar” (1999), “Best in Show” (2000), “Ghost World” (2001), “The Majestic” (2001), “Capote” (2005), “Lady in the Water” (2006), “For Your Consideration” (2006) and “Dedication” (2007). For his work in Robert Altman's “Gosford Park” (2001), where he served as producer and also played the role of Morris Weissman, the Chicago native shared an Academy Award for Best Picture, the BAFTA Alexander Korda Award as well as a series of the Best Acting Ensemble honors. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his supporting role in the HBO film “Recount” (2008). An alum of Chicago's Second City, Balaban was nominated for a Tony for Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for his performance in “The Inspector General” (1979). Behind the scenes as director, Balaban is perhaps recognized for his efforts in “The Last Good Time” (1994, won an Avignon Film Festival Award and a Hamptons International Film Festival), HBO's “Bernard and Doris” (2006, also a producer) and Lifetime's “Georgia O'Keeffe” (2009). He received Emmy nominations for the latter two films. “And I think being a good director is being able to be completely tyrannical and you've got to be an absolute dictator while at the same time, you have to listen and see everything because it can all change on a dime.” Bob Balaban Robert Elmer Childhood and Family: Robert Elmer Balaban, who would later be popular as Bob Balaban, was born on August 16, 1945, in Chicago, Illinois, to parents Eleanor (née Pottasch) and Elmer Balaban. Starting in the 1920s, his family owned and ran several beautiful movie theaters in the United States. His father and uncle founded the H & E Balaban Corporation in Chicago. His grandfather, Sam Katz, was Vice president at MGM beginning in 1936 and also served as President of the Publix theatre division of Paramount Pictures, while his uncle, Barney Balaban, was President of Paramount Pictures for nearly 30 years from 1936-1964. He is the cousin of director Burt Balaban. Bob himself developed his love for the entertainment industry when he was a young child and started making short films with his father's 8mm movie camera. When he was a teenager, he joined the prestigious Second City theater troupe. After high school, Bob moved to New York and attended Colgate University and New York University. He also trained at the HB Studio. His sister, Namcy Balaban Magidson, operated Balaban's Fine Food in Chicago. On April 1, 1977, Bob married Lynn Grossman. The couple have two daughters, Mariah Balaban (born 1977) and Hazel Balaban (born February 25, 1987). His wife wrote the script of the comedy film “Tokyo Pop” (1988), with director Fran Rubel Kuzui, as well as the segment “The 5: 24” of HBO's “Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground,” which was directed by Mr. Balaban. Bob is Jewish. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity. Bernard and Doris Career: Starting out with Chicago's Second City troupe while still in high school, Bob Balaban moved into the Off-Broadway circuit when he was a student of NYU by playing a blanket-toting Linus in the 1967 musical hit “You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.” His first Broadway role came a year later when he was cast as bellhop in Neil Simon's comedy play, “Plaza Suite,” opposite George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton. Balaban made his big screen debut with a notable small role as the young student-New York in the film adaptation of James Leo Herlihy's 1965 novel, “Midnight Cowboy” (1969), directed by John Schlesinger. The film won three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1970, Balaban offered a memorable supporting turn as Captain Orr (bomber pilot) in Mike Nichols' satirical war film adaptation of the Joseph Heller book, “Catch-22,” opposite Alan Arkin. The same year, he also appeared with Bruce Davison and Kim Darbyin the cult movie “The Strawberry Statement,” which was loosely based on the non-fiction book by James Simon Kunen about the Columbia University protests of 1968. In the following year, he co-starred with Paul Appleby and Carol Arthur in the comedy/drama film “Making It” and made his television movie debut in NBC's “Marriage: Year One,” starring Sally Field and Robert Pratt. He could also be seen on stage in the NY Shakespeare Festival presentation of “The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel” (1971), where he played the title role. Balaban returned to the wide screen in 1974 when he landed a supporting role in the George C. Scott crime/comedy vehicle “Bank Shot,” which was adapted from a novel by Donald E. Westlake. He continued to appear in such films as Milton Katselas's “Report to the Commissioner” (1975), Steven Spielberg's “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977, as the interpreter David Laughlin) and Claudia Weill's “Girlfriends” before scoring a success on Broadway with his Tony nominating turn as the aging servant of Khlestakov in “The Inspector General” (1979). Entering the 1980s, Balaban branched into directing with the New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Girls, Girls, Girls” (1980). He went on to direct the TV films “The Brass Ring” (1983) and “Invisible Thread” (1987) as well as the pilot of “Tales from the Darkside” (1983) and an episode of “Amazing Stories” called “Fine Tuning” (1985). Meanwhile, the actor maintained his screen presence by having roles in Ken Russell's “Altered States” (1980, as Arthur Rosenberg), “Prince of the City” (1981), Sydney Pollack's “Absence of Malice” (1981, with Paul Newman and Sally Field), John Badham's “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” (1981), Peter Hyams's “2010” (1984, as Dr. R. Chandra), “End of the Line” (1987) and John Frankenheimer's “Dead Bang” (1989, starred Don Johnson, Penelope Ann Miller and William Forsythe). Around 1985-1986, he had a two episodic role as Ira Stone in “Miami Vice.” Balaban made his feature directorial debut with the horror/comedy “Parents” (1989), which starred Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy Dennis, and Bryan Madorsky. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a flop at the box office. In early1990s, Balaban had small roles in Woody Allen's “Alice,” starring Joe Mantegna, Mia Farrow and Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins' feature directing debut, “Bob Roberts,” which was based on a short segment of the same name and featured the same character that Robbins did for “Saturday Night Live” on December 13, 1986, E. Max Frye's “Amos & Andrew” (starred Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson), Barry Sonnenfeld's “For Love or Money” (starred Michael J. Fox and Gabrielle Anwar), Jonathan Lynn's “Greedy” (reunited with Michael J. Fox) and Billy Crystal's “City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold.” Additionally, he played Russell, a TV executive modeled after Warren Littlefield, in several episodes of the NBC sitcom “Seinfeld” (1992-1993). After directing episodes of the short lived sitcom “Eerie, Indiana” (1991-1992), Balaban had his second directing effort with “My Boyfriend's Back” (1993), a comedy/fantasy starring Andrew Lowery, Traci Lind and Danny Zorn. The film was met with very negative reviews and had a very poor box office gross, grossing $3,335,984. He next wrote, directed and produced the film adaptation of “The Last Good Time” (1994), which earned a battalion of positive reviews from critics in its limited release. Balaban won the Prix Tournage at the Avignon Film Festival and the Audience Award for Most Popular Film at the Hamptons International Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Special Prize at the Deauville Film Festival for his work in the film. Balapan directed episodes of UPN's “Legend,” where he also appeared as Harry Parver in the episodes “Revenge of the Herd” and “Birth of a Legend” (both 1995), was featured in Armin Mueller-Stahl's directorial debut, “Conversations With a Beast” (1996), played NBC executive Warren Littlefield in the HBO movie “The Late Shift” (1996) and reunited with Woody Allen for the black comedy “Deconstructing Harry” (1997). In 1997, he directed “5:24” segment of HBO's anthology movie “Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground,” which was written by his wife, and followed it up with directing efforts in episodes of the HBO prison series “Oz” (1998) and Comedy Central's “Strangers with Candy” (1999). Balaban reteamed with director Claudia Weill for the Lifetime film “Giving Up the Ghost” (1998), where he played Bob Shadyac, appeared in the off-Broadway production of David Mamet's one-person show, “Mr. Happiness” (1999, produced at the Atlantic Theatre Company) and guest starred as the long-lost father of Phoebe (played by Lisa Kudrow) on an episode of the hit sitcom “Friends” called “The One with Joey's Bag” (1999). 1999 also saw him in four films: “Swing Vote” (TV), Tim Robins' “Cradle Will Rock” (with Hank Azaria), “Jakob the Liar” (played a suicidal barber), “Natural Selection” and “Three to Tango.” He also directed the plays “Vick's Boy” and “Y2K” (both 1999). Balaban starred as Frederick Lizzard in an episode of “Now and Again” called “Lizzard's Tale” (2000), which he also directed. He also directed an episodes of “Deadline” called “Perception” (2000) and appeared as Ted Marcus in the episode “20 Hours in L.A.” (2000) of “The West Wing.” The same year, he also portrayed Dr. Theodore W. Millbank, III in Christopher Guest's ensemble comedy, “Best in Show,” which Guest also wrote with Eugene Levy. The film received high critical praise from critics and grossed over $20.7 million at the box office. He then appeared in the films “The Mexican,” “Plan B,” “ Ghost World” (as Thora Birch's hapless father) and “The Majestic” (all 2001) and directed the television series “Dead Last” (2001). Also in 2001, Balaban was cast as American film producer Morris Weissman in the Robert Altman comedy/drama film “ Gosford Park,” which he also produced with Altman and David Levy. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and was a box office success. It brought him an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, the BAFTA Alexander Korda for Best British Film, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble, a Florida Film Critics Circle for Best Ensemble Cast, an Online Film Critics Society for Best Ensemble, the Satellite Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble, a Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture, an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Foreign Film and a Phoenix Film Critics Society nomination for Best Acting Ensemble. From 2002 to 2004, Balaban could be seen in such films as “The Tuxedo” (with Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt), Christopher Guest's “A Mighty Wind,” from which he shared a Florida Film Critics Circle for Best Ensemble Cast and a Phoenix Film Critics Society nomination in the same category, “The Burbs” (TV), “Marie and Bruce,” “Gerald L'Ecuyer: A Filmmaker's Journey” (TV) and “Scene Stealers.” He also directed episodes of “ The Twilight Zone” (2002-2003) and the TV documentary “The First Amendment Project: No Joking” (2004). In 2005, he played William Shawn in the critically acclaimed film “Capote,” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and provided the voice of Sam in the animated TV series “Hopeless Pictures,” which he also directed. He also directed the made for TV film “The Exonerated.” 2006 saw Balaban co-star with Bryce Dallas Howard and Paul Giamatti in M. Night Shyamalan's “Lady in the Water” and play a screenwriter in the Christopher Guest ensemble “For Your Consideration.” Additionally, he directed Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fienned in the HBO film “Bernard and Doris,” where he also served as an executive producer. Premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, “Bernard and Doris” earned the director two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special and Outstanding Made for Television Movie, an Artios nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Casting - Television Movie at the 2008 Casting Society of America, a Directors Guilds of America nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Miniseries, and a PGA nomination for Television Producer of the Year Award in Longform. Balaban co-starred in Justin Theroux's directing debut, “Dedication (2007), “License to Wed” (2007), appeared in “No Reservations” (2007) as the therapist, and played Ben Ginsberg, the national counsel to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign in the HBO film “Recount” (2008), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV-Movie. He also had a recurring role on “Web Therapy” (2008, as Ted Mitchell). In 2009, he directed the television film biopic “Georgia O'Keeffe” (Lifetime ), starring Joan Allen as the title role. He received an Emmy nomination for Emmy Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special and a Directors Guild of America nomination for his efforts. Balaban appeared as Judge Clayton Horn in the Rob Epstein/Jeffrey Friedman directed film “Howl” (2010) and reunited with “Dedication” co-star Billy Crudup and Greg Kinnear for the crime/drama film “Thin Ice” (2011), which was directed and co-written by Jill Sprecher. He guest starred in “Web Therapy” (2001, as Ted Mitchell) and “The Good Wife” (2011-2012, as Gordon Higgs) and also directed two episodes of “Nurse Jackie” (2011). The actor will appear in the upcoming films “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), “ Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight “ (2012) and “ Landlocked” (2012, as Professor Irwin). Awards: Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC): Best Ensemble Cast, “A Mighty Wind,” 2004 BAFTA: Alexander Korda, Best British Film, “Gosford Park,” 2002 Broadcast Film Critics Association: Critics Choice Award, Best Acting Ensemble, “Gosford Park,” 2002 Online Film Critics Society (OFCS): Best Ensemble, “Gosford Park,” 2002 Satellite: Special Achievement Award, Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble, “Gosford Park,” 2002 Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture, “Gosford Park,” 2002 Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC): Best Ensemble Cast, “Gosford Park,” 2001 Avignon Film Festival: Prix Tournage, USA, “The Last Good Time,” 1995 Hamptons International Film Festival: Audience Award, Most Popular Film, “The Last Good Time,” 1994 |
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Bob Balaban
Bob Balaban
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