Wallace Shawn
Wallace Shawn (born
November 12,
1943) is an
American actor and writer. Ubiquitous on
film and
television, where he is usually cast in comic roles, he has pursued a parallel career as a
playwright whose work is often dark, politically charged and controversial. He is known for talking with a
lisp, and his humorous, high pitched, and somewhat obnoxious, voice.
Shawn was born in
New York City, where he still lives. He is the son of
William Shawn, longtime
editor of
The New Yorker, and journalist
Cecille Lyon Shawn; his brother
Allen is a
composer.
Shawn attended
The Putney School (a liberal arts high school in Putney, VT), and then graduated with a B.A. in history from
Harvard University, and studied economics and philosophy at
Oxford, where he originally intended to become a diplomat; he also traveled to
India as an English teacher. Since 1979, he has primarily made a living as an actor.
Shawn's longtime companion is the writer
Deborah Eisenberg.
His involvement with theater began in 1970 when he met
Andre Gregory, who has directed several of his plays. As a stage actor, he has appeared mostly in his own plays, as well as several other projects with Gregory.
He made his film debut playing
Diane Keaton's ex-husband in
Woody Allen's
Manhattan in
1979, in which Allen's character, a short, balding, bespectacled
ectomorph, dismisses the short, balding, bespectacled Shawn as "a
homunculus." Arguably his best-known film role is as the evil Vizzini in
The Princess Bride (1987) ("Inconceivable!"). Rare non-comic film roles include two collaborations with Andre Gregory, filmed by
Louis Malle: the philosophical and semi-autobiographical dialogue
My Dinner with Andre, and a production of
Uncle Vanya titled
Vanya on 42nd Street.
Shawn is a widely-used character actor on
television, where he has appeared in many genres and series. He has had recurring roles as the Ferengi
Grand Nagus Zek on
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a comic ex-reporter on
Murphy Brown, the Huxtables' neighbor on
The Cosby Show, a psychiatrist on
Crossing Jordan, and on many other shows. He is also an accomplished
voice actor, appearing especially in
animation (including
Toy Story and
Toy Story 2 where he played "Rex the Green Dinosaur" as well as two episodes of
Family Guy playing Stewie's half-brother Bertram) and
commercials. In 2005, he appeared in the second season of
Desperate Housewives.
In a DVD extra for
The Princess Bride, Shawn made the somewhat startling admission that he lacks a sense of humor, and that he played Vizzini in a way that seemed appropriate to him, without actually quite "getting" the jokes.
Shawn's early
plays, such as
Marie and Bruce (1978), portrayed emotional and sexual conflicts in an
absurdist style, with language that was both lyrical and violent. In the conversations with Andre Gregory that became
My Dinner with Andre, Shawn later referred to these plays as depicting "my interior life as a raging beast". Critical response was extremely polarized: some critics hailed Shawn as a major writer, while
John Simon called
Marie and Bruce "garbage" and described Shawn as "one of the worst and unsightliest actors in this city". His play
A Thought in Three Parts caused a minor uproar in London in 1977, when the production was investigated by a
vice squad and attacked in Parliament due to allegedly
pornographic content.
His later plays became more overtly political, drawing parallels between the psychology of his characters and the behavior of governments and social classes. Among the best-known of these are
Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985) and
The Designated Mourner (1997). Shawn's political work has invited controversy, as he often presents the audience with several contradictory points of view: in
Aunt Dan and Lemon, which Shawn described as a cautionary tale against
fascism, the character Lemon explained her neo-
Nazi beliefs with such conviction that some critics called the play effectively pro-fascist. The monologue
The Fever, originally created by Shawn to be performed for small audiences in apartments, was dismissed by some critics as "liberal guilt"; it describes a person who becomes sick while struggling to find a morally consistent way to live when faced with injustice, and harshly criticizes the record of the U.S. in supporting repressive
anti-communist regimes.
Three of Shawn's plays have been adapted into films:
The Designated Mourner (basically a film of
David Hare's stage production),
Marie and Bruce, and
The Fever.
As of 2005, the latter two had been screened only in festivals.
Shawn has also written political commentary for
The Nation, and in
2004 he published the one-issue-only progressive political magazine
Final Edition, which features interviews with and articles by
Jonathan Schell,
Noam Chomsky,
Mark Strand, and Deborah Eisenberg.
Shawn is credited as translator of
The Threepenny Opera, which opened at Studio 54 in Manhattan on March 25, 2006. He appears briefly in voiceover during
Song about the Futility of Human Endeavor.
*
The Hotel Play (1970)
*
Our Late Night (1975)
*
A Thought in Three Parts (1976)
*
Marie and Bruce (1978)
*
Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985)
*
The Fever (1990)
*
The Designated Mourner (1997; film directed by David Hare, 1998)
*
The Threepenny Opera (2006; new translation)
*
All That Jazz (dir.
Bob Fosse, 1979) -
Assistant Insurance Man*
Manhattan (dir.
Woody Allen, 1979) -
Jeremiah*
Atlantic City (dir.
Louis Malle, 1980) -
Walter*
My Dinner with Andre (dir.
Louis Malle 1981) - co-written with
Andre Gregory*
Crackers (dir.
Louis Malle, 1984)
*
The Bostonians (dir.
James Ivory, 1984)
*
The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) - Freud
*
The Princess Bride (1987; dir.
Rob Reiner) -
Vizzini*
Radio Days (dir.
Woody Allen, 1987) -
Masked Avenger*
The Moderns (dir.
Alan Rudolph, 1988)
*
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV series, 1993 to 1999) -
Grand Nagus Zek*
Vanya on 42nd Street (dir.
Louis Malle, 1994) -
Uncle Vanya*
Meteor Man 1993; Mr.Little
*
A Goofy Movie (1995; voice of Principal Mazur)
*
Toy Story (1995; voice of Rex)
*
Clueless (movie & TV Series, 1996-97) -
Mr. Hall'
* Toy Story 2 (1999; voice of Rex)
* The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (dir. Woody Allen, 2001) - George Bond
* Crossing Jordan (TV series, since 2002; recurring role as Dr. Howard Stiles)
* The Incredibles (2004; voice of Gilbert Huph (Bob Parr's soon-to-be ex-boss))
* Melinda and Melinda (2004; dir. Woody Allen) - Sy
* Family Guy (Voice of Bertram)
* Chicken Little (2005; voice of Principal Fetchit)
* Happily N'Ever After'' (2006; Munk, voice)
* King, W.D. (1997).
Writing Wrongs: The Work of Wallace Shawn. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 1566395178
*
Wallace Shawn - photo and filmography
*
*
Voice work of Wallace Shawn - cartoon roles
*
A Wallace Shawn Reference - bio and descriptions of plays
* [
1] Wallace Shawn's reading of
The Fever.
