Wallace Shawn filmography and biography
Date of birth: 12 November 1943, New York City, New York, USA
Wallace Shawn biography
American character actor and writer Wallace Shawn has one of those fun,
mischievously homely faces just made to entertain. Though he got out of
the starting gate rather slowly, he has since excelled on stage, TV and
film while managing to turn himself into a winner with his loser-type
looks. Woody Allen's character in the movie
Manhattan amusingly describes Wallace's character as "a
homunculus," which is a pretty fair description of this predominantly
bald, wan, pucker-mouthed, butterball-framed, slightly lisping gent.
Wallace made his movie debut in Allen's heralded classic playing
Diane Keaton's ex-husband.
Born to privilege on November 12, 1943, in New York City, Wallace was
the son of renowned editor William Shawn of "New Yorker" fame and
educated at both Harvard University, where he studied history, and
Magdalen College, Oxford. Wallace initially taught English in India on
a Fulbright scholarship, and then English, Latin, and drama back in New
York. A keen interest in writing and acting, however, soon compelled
him to leave his cushy position and pursue a stage career as both
playwright and actor. During his distinguished career, Wallace turned
out several plays. "Our Late Night", the first of his works to be
performed, was awarded an off-Broadway Obie in 1975. "A Thought in
Three Parts" (1976); "The Mandrake" (1977), which he translated from
the original Italian and in which he made his acting debut; "Marie and
Bruce" (1979); "Aunt Dan and Lemon" (1985); and "The Fever", in which
received his second Obie Award for "Best New Play" during the 1990-91
season, then followed.
A popular support player in both comedy and occasional drama, his
assorted kooks, creeps, eggheads, and schmucks possessed both endearing
and unappetizing qualities. He earned some of his best early notices
partnered with theatre director/actor Andre Gregory in the
unique Louis Malle-directed film
My Dinner with Andre. Shawn co-wrote the improvisatory,
humanistic piece and his brother, Allen Shawn, was the composer.
Shawn and Gregory would collaborate again for Malle in another superb,
original-concept film Vanya on 42nd Street. Among the
quality offbeat filming involving has been Bruce Paltrow's
A Little Sex; James Ivory's
The Bostonians; Stephen Frears'
Prick Up Your Ears; Rob Reiner's
The Princess Bride; Alan Rudolph's
The Moderns and
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle;
Paul Bartel (I)'s
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills; and
several others for Woody Allen: Radio Days,
Shadows and Fog,
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and
Melinda and Melinda. Of late he has lent his vocal
talents to a considerable number of animated pictures including
A Goofy Movie, Toy Story (and its sequel),
The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998) (V),
The Incredibles, Chicken Little and
Happily NEver After.
Over the decades Shawn has scurried about effortlessly in a number of TV
guest appearances including "Taxi", "Homicide: Life on the Street",
"Ally McBeal", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Desperate
Housewives", and has drummed up a few recurring roles for himself in
the process, including "The Cosby Show", "Murphy Brown", "Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine" and "Crossing Jordan". In the series
Clueless, based on the highly successful 1995 "Valley
Girl" movie of the same name, Shawn revisited his role as the owlish
high school teacher.
Wallace Shawn trivia
- Brother is Allen Shawn, American composer
- Sister-in-law is Jamaica Kincaid, West Indian author
- Father was William Shawn, editor of The New Yorker, 1952-1987.
- Does not own a television set.
- Shawn met Andre Gregory, his co-star in
My Dinner with Andre, by arranging to attend every
performance of Gregory's New York staging of "Alice in Wonderland" in
1970 -- a run which lasted for a year. The two have been friends and
occasional collaborators ever since.
- In 2005 he received a career achievement award from the PEN/Laura Pels
Foundation. The writers organizations gave him this honor for his work
in the theater.
- He wrote an adaptation of the Threepenny Opera, which opened on Broadway
on April 20, 2006 at Studio 54. Its many stars include Alan Cumming,
Ana Gasteyer and Cyndi Lauper.
- Is the long-time companion of Deborah Eisenberg.
- Is afraid of heights.
- Was considered for the role of Eddie Valiant in
Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Wallace Shawn quotes
- "I don't happen to have a sense of humor personally, so I don't know
what's funny about a character... This happens to be a feature of my
life generally. I do things, and other people laugh at them. I rarely
know what the joke is supposed to be or why they're laughing."