Bob Balaban

Bob Balaban
Balaban at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Robert Elmer Balaban (1945-08-16) August 16, 1945 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Film, television actor
Years active	1965-present
Spouse(s)	Lynn Grossman (1977-present; 2 children)
Children	Mariah Balaban (b. 1977) Hazel Balaban (b. 1987)

Robert Elmer "Bob" Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, producer, and director.

Personal life

Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor (née Pottasch) and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television. His mother acted under the name Eleanor Barry. His uncles were dominant forces in the theatre business; they founded the Balaban and Katz Theatre circuit in Chicago, a chain which included the Chicago and Uptown Theatres. Balaban and Katz operated some of the most beautiful movie palaces in the United States beginning in the 1920s. Bob Balaban's father and his uncle Harry founded the H & E Balaban Corporation in Chicago. H & E Balaban Corporation operated their own movie palaces including the Esquire Theatre in Chicago. They later owned a powerful group of television stations and cable television franchises. His uncle Barney Balaban was president of Paramount Pictures for nearly 30 years from 1936 to 1964. His maternal grandmother's second husband, Sam Katz, was a vice president at MGM beginning in 1936. Sam had early partnered with Bob's uncles Abe, Barney, John, and Max to form Balaban and Katz. Sam also served as President of the Publix theatre division of Paramount Pictures.

Balaban began his college career at Colgate University where he joined Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity and then transferred to New York University. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his family. He is Jewish. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Russia to Chicago.

Career

One of his earliest appearances in film was in 1969's Midnight Cowboy. Prior to that, he filled the role of "Linus" in the original off-Broadway production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1967. Among his early roles in the 1970s were those of Orr in Catch-22 and the interpreter David Laughlin in the 1977 Steven Spielberg science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In 1979 he received a Tony Award nomination for his role in The Inspector General. During the 1980s he appeared in films such as Altered States and 2010. He directed the Randy Quaid picture Parents, and the Armin Mueller-Stahl picture The Last Good Time.

Balaban has had supporting roles in films such as Absence of Malice, Bob Roberts, Deconstructing Harry, Ghost World, The Majestic, Lady in the Water and Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration.

Balaban appeared in Miami Vice as reporter Ira Stone, a nemesis of G. Gordon Liddy's character. In the 1990s, Balaban had a recurring role on the fourth season of Seinfeld as Russell Dalrymple, the fictional president of NBC. He also played Warren Littlefield, a real-world NBC executive, in The Late Shift, about the battle between Jay Leno and David Letterman for NBC's The Tonight Show. Balaban continued his ties to Littlefield in 2012 with his performance of Littlefield's autobiography, Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV. In 1999 Balaban made a guest appearance in the sitcom Friends as Phoebe Buffay's father Frank in "The One With Joey's Bag". In 2010, Balaban appeared as Judge Clayton Horn, the real-life judge who presided over the obscenity trial of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Bookstore in the movie Howl.

In 2001, Balaban produced the Robert Altman picture Gosford Park, for which he received a nomination for Best Picture. He also appeared in the movie as Morris Weissman, a Hollywood producer. He appeared in an episode of Entourage as a doctor known for writing prescriptions for medical marijuana.

He directed the film Bernard and Doris, starring Susan Sarandon; and also the biopic Georgia O'Keeffe (2009) starring Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons. He has also directed several episodes of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie.

Balaban is the author of a series of six children's novels featuring a bionic dog named McGrowl.

In September 2011, Balaban was featured with Morgan Freeman and John Lithgow in the Broadway debut of the play, '8' — a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage — as Judge Vaughn Walker. The production was held at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1969	Me, Natalie	Morris
	Midnight Cowboy	The Young Student - New York
1970	Catch-22	Capt. Orr
	The Strawberry Statement	Elliot
1977	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	David Laughlin
1978	Girlfriends	Martin
1980	Altered States	Arthur Rosenberg
1981	Absence of Malice	Rosen
	Prince of the City	Santimassino
	Whose Life Is It Anyway?	Carter Hill
1984	2010	Dr. Chandra
1987	End of the Line	Warren Gerber
1989	Dead Bang	Elliot Webly
1990	Alice	Sid Moscowitz
1991	Little Man Tate	Quizmaster	Uncredited
1992	Bob Roberts	Michael Janes
1993	For Love or Money	Ed Drinkwater
	Amos & Andrew	Dr. R.A. 'Roy' Fink
1994	Greedy	Ed
	City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold	Dr. Jeffrey Sanborn	Uncredited
1996	The Late Shift	Warren Littlefield	TV Movie
	Waiting for Guffman	Lloyd Miller
	Pie in the Sky	Paul Entamen
	Conversation with the Beast	Philip Koontz
1997	Clockwatchers	Milton Lasky
	Deconstructing Harry	Richard
1999	Three To Tango	Decker
	Cradle Will Rock	Harry Hopkins
	Jacob the Liar	Kowalsky
	Swing Vote	Justice Eli MacCorckle	TV Movie
2000	Best in Show	Dr. Theodore W. Millbank, III
2001	Ghost World	Enid's Father
	Gosford Park	Morris Weissman	Also Writer/Producer
	The Majestic	Elvin Clyde
	The Mexican	Bernie Nayman
2002	The Tuxedo	Winton Chalmers	Uncredited
2003	A Mighty Wind	Jonathan Steinbloom
2004	Marie and Bruce	Roger
2005	Trust the Man	Tobey's Therapist	Uncredited
	Capote	William Shawn
2006	Lady in the Water	Harry Farber
	For Your Consideration	Philip Koontz
2007	No Reservations	Therapist
	Dedication	Arthur Planck
	License to Wed	Jewelry Store Clerk	Uncredited
2008	Recount	Ben Ginsberg	TV
2009	Rage	Mr. White
2010	Howl	Judge Clayton Horn
2011	A Monster in Paris	Inspector Pâté
	Thin Ice	Leonard Dahl
2012	Moonrise Kingdom	Narrator
2013	Monuments Men		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	First episode	Notes
1965	Hank	Harvey	"Will The Real Harvey Wheatley Please Stand Up?"	1 episode
1969	Room 222	Grady Garrett	"Father & Sons"	1 episode
1971	Love, American Style	none	"Love and the Fuzz"	1 episode
1985–1986	Miami Vice	Ira Stone	"Back In The World" and "Stone's War"	2 episodes
1992–1993	Seinfeld	Russell Dalrymple	"The Pitch"	5 episodes
1995	Legend	Harry Parver	"Birth of a Legend" and "Revenge of the Herd"	2 Episodes
1998	Friends	Frank Buffay Sr.	"The One With Joey's Bag"	1 Episode
2000	The West Wing	Ted Marcus	"20 Hours in L.A."	1 Episode
2006	Tom Goes to the Mayor	Walt Pickle	"The Layover"	1 episode
2011–2012	The Good Wife			3 episodes
2013	Girls	Therapist	"It's Back"	1 Episode

Further reading

• Balaban, David. The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz, Arcadia Publishing, 2006
• Balaban, Bob. Spielberg, Truffaut & Me: An Actor's Diary, Titan Books, 1978 (revised 2002)

External links

• Bob Balaban at IMDb
• Bob Balaban at AllMovie
• Bob Balaban at the Internet Broadway Database
• Bob Balaban interview on AMC-TV's Sci-Fi Department web show