Wallace Shawn
- Birthday
- Dec 11, 1943
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
Bio: The son of an editor for the New Yorker, the diminutive comedic actor Wallace Shawn achieved immortality for his portrayal of the Sicilian Vizzini in the 1987 classic The Princess Bride. A graduate of both Harvard and Oxford University, he has taught several courses in English and struggled as a playwright in the early '70s; in 1977 he translated Machiavelli's The… More Bio: The son of an editor for the New Yorker, the diminutive comedic actor Wallace Shawn achieved immortality for his portrayal of the Sicilian Vizzini in the 1987 classic The Princess Bride. A graduate of both Harvard and Oxford University, he has taught several courses in English and struggled as a playwright in the early '70s; in 1977 he translated Machiavelli's The Mandrake. Shawn broke into films soon after, building a successful career as a supporting actor to help fund his playwriting. He debuted in two of the best films of 1979: Woody Allen's Manhattan and Bob Fosse's All That Jazz.In 1981, he co-wrote the semi-autobiographical My Dinner With André, a talky comedy starring himself and theater director André Gregory in a dinner conversation, directed by Louis Malle. The movie was acclaimed by critics and a cult favorite. After this personal project, Shawn would build a career out of playing brief but surprisingly memorable roles in a long list of movies. His performance as the leader of the misfit criminal gang in The Princess Bride proved a pivotal moment, and that same year, he supplied the heroic voice for the Masked Avenger in Woody Allen's Radio Days. Shawn would also go on to do voice acting in projects like The Goofy Movie, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and the Toy Story series. He would also continue to work with Woody Allen throughout the next decade, and picked up a new generation of fans playing debate teacher Mr. Hall in the 1995 high school classic Clueless. Shawn would also take his quirky persona to the small screen with appearances on TV shows likeMurphy Brown, The Cosby Show, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sex and the City, as well as the ABC sitcom version of Clueless. Throughout his acting career, Shawn has managed to continue writing successful plays, and eventually adapted one of them, The Designated Mourner, for a feature film in 1997. In 2002, he played the publishing boss Mr. Gelb for the "Greta" story in Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity: Three Portraits. Shawn would continue to appear regularly on screen in the years to come, playing recurring roles on The L Word, Gossip Girl, and Eureka, ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
Most Popular
Filmography
-
André Gregory: Before and After Dinner (2013)
- Actor
- 77%
-
Admission (2013)
- Clarence
- 43%
-
Vamps (2012)
- Dr. Van Helsing
- 50%
-
A Late Quartet (2012)
- Gideon Rosen
- 79%
-
Hawaiian Vacation (2011)
- Rex
- See all 89 films
Wallace Shawn Videos
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
1 minutes 26 seconds
All Dogs Go To Heaven 2
2 minutes 15 seconds
Happily N'ever After
2 minutes 1 seconds
Hawaiian Vacation
27 seconds
Southland Tales
2 minutes 23 seconds
Born Today
- Adam Gontier (34 years old)
- Hutch Dano (21 years old)
- Mohanlal (53 years old)
- Belladonna (32 years old)
- Mr. T (61 years old)
- Booker Bradshaw (73 years old)
- Richard Hatch (68 years old)
- Eduardo Verástegui (39 years old)
- Jonathan Hyde (65 years old)
- Judge Reinhold (56 years old)
- Kay Kendall (87 years old)
- Fairuza Balk (39 years old)
- Noel Fielding (40 years old)
- Ashlie Brillault (26 years old)
- Brett Tucker (41 years old)
- Scotty Leavenworth (23 years old)
- Lisa Edelstein (47 years old)
- Alexandre Rodrigues (30 years old)
- Paloma Duarte (36 years old)
- Paolo Montalban (40 years old)
- Rick Jason (90 years old)
- Nick Cassavetes (54 years old)
- Al Franken (62 years old)
- Chris Raab (33 years old)
- See more (24)
