Austin Pendleton

Austin Pendleton
Pendleton backstage at the Delacorte Theatre, Central Park, New York City, August, 2006.
Born	March 27, 1940 (1940-03-27) (age 69) Warren, Ohio, USA
Occupation	Actor
Spouse(s)	Katina Commings (1970-present)

Austin Pendleton (born 27 March 1940) is an American film, television, and stage actor, a playwright, and a theatre director and instructor.

Biography

Born in Warren, Ohio, Pendleton is a graduate of Yale University, where he was a member of Scroll and Key Society. As a stage actor, he has appeared in The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (for which he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance and an Obie Award ), The Diary of Anne Frank, Grand Hotel, Goodtime Charley, The Little Foxes, Fiddler on the Roof, and Up from Paradise.

Pendleton penned the plays Uncle Bob, Booth, and Orson's Shadow, all of which were staged off-Broadway. His direction of Elizabeth Taylor and Maureen Stapleton in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes garnered him a Tony Award nomination. Additional directing credits include Spoils of War by Michael Weller, The Runner Stumbles by Milan Stitt, and The Size of the World by Charles Evered.

Pendleton served as Artistic Director for Circle Repertory Company with associate artistic director Lynne Thigpen.

Pendleton is an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. He began his artistic relationship there by directing Ralph Pape's Say Goodnight, Gracie for the 1979-80 season. In addition to directing at Steppenwolf, Mr. Pendleton has appeared as an actor in such Steppenwolf productions as Uncle Vanya, Valparaiso and Educating Rita. In the seventh and final season of Homicide: Life on the Street he portrayed the Dr.George Griscom, a medical examiner with a quirky outlook on his profession and a dark sense of humor.

Recent work

He has had several television roles as well including a recurring role on HBO's Oz as the mentally unstable murderer William Giles. He did voice-over work as Gurgle in Finding Nemo.

In August 2006, Pendleton appeared as the Chaplain in Bertholt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline in the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater production directed by George C. Wolfe at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, New York City (photo, above, right).

In 2007, he appeared as Friar Lawrence in the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

In 2009 Pendleton directed Uncle Vanya at the Classic Stage Company.

In the spring of 2009, Pendleton will be starring in an off-Broadway production of Love Drunk written by Romulus Linney and directed by Kelly Morgan.

In the Summer or 2009, he appeared in Wyoming Seminary's Performing Arts Institute production of Gypsy as Herbie opposite Devon McFadden as Moma Rose and Allison Considine as Gypsy Rose Lee.

Pendleton is currently directing Vieux Carré at The Pearl Theatre Company off-Broadway.

Pendleton currently teaches acting at the HB Studio and directing at The New School for Drama, both in Greenwich Village.

Filmography

• 2 Days in the Valley
• Finding Nemo (Gurgle)
• A Beautiful Mind
• What's Up, Doc?
• Simon
• Skidoo
• Searching for Bobby Fischer
• Catch-22
• Greed
• Guarding Tess
• The Front Page
• Short Circuit
• Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
• Mr. Nanny
• My Cousin Vinny
• The Muppet Movie
• The Mirror Has Two Faces
• Trial and Error
• Christmas with the Kranks
• June Moon
• Raising Flagg
• Sgt. Bilko
• True Identity

External links

• Austin Pendleton at the Internet Broadway Database
• Austin Pendleton at the Internet Movie Database