Best Known As: Oscar-winning star of Mystic River and Bull Durham
Tim Robbins won an Oscar as best supporting actor for his role in the 2003 Clint Eastwood drama Mystic River. Robbins grew up in Greenwich Village in New York, where he got involved with the theater at the age of 12. After high school he moved to Los Angeles and studied drama and acting, co-founding a theater group called The Actors' Gang. He began working in television and movies in the early '80s and had roles in The Sure Thing (1985, starring John Cusack) and Top Gun (1986, starring Tom Cruise) before making it big as the goofy pitcher Nuke LaLoosh in the jovial baseball flick Bull Durham (1988). Dramatic roles in Jacob's Ladder (1990) and The Player (1992) showed his skill as an actor, and his mock-documentary Bob Roberts (1992) showed he was no slouch as a writer and director. He has made two other films as writer/director, Dead Man Walking (1995, starring Sean Penn) and Cradle Will Rock (1999), and several films in lead and supporting roles, including The Shawshank Redemption (1994, with Morgan Freeman), Arlington Road (1999), High Fidelity (2000) and the Steven Spielberg version of War of the Worlds (2005, starring Tom Cruise).
He and actress Susan Sarandon have lived together since 1988... Robbins is famously outspoken on political issues and was criticized by fellow liberal celebrities in 2000 for voting for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore.
"I grew up in New York, and I have that in me, that be-honest-at-all-costs, don't b.s. me attitude. I say, If you've got something to say about me, say it to my face. And then we'll either talk about it or fight about it."
Career Highlights: Dead Man Walking, The Shawshank Redemption, Bull Durham
First Major Screen Credit: No Small Affair (1984)
Biography
Tim Robbins ranks among contemporary cinema's most acclaimed and provocative voices; a multifaceted talent, he has proved so adept at wearing the various hats of actor, writer, and director that no less a figure than the legendary filmmaker Robert Altman declared him the second coming of Orson Welles. Born October 16, 1958, in West Covina, CA, he was the son of folk singer Gil Robbins; raised in Greenwich Village, he made his performing debut alongside his father on a duet of the protest song "Ink Is Black, Page Is White." At the age of 12, Robbins joined the Theater for the New City, remaining a member for the next seven years; he also joined his high school drama club, an experience which afforded him his first opportunities to direct for the stage. After briefly attending the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, he relocated to Los Angeles to study at U.C.L.A.; there he also joined the Male Death Cult, an intramural softball team comprised of his fellow drama students. After graduating, the teammates reunited to form the Actor's Gang, an avant-garde theater troupe noted for productions of works by the likes of Bertolt Brecht and Alfred Jarry.
After guest starring on television series including Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere, in 1984 Robbins made his film debut with a bit part in the feature Toy Soldiers. His first starring role came in 1985's teen sex romp Fraternity Vacation. Small roles in hits including Top Gun and The Sure Thing followed before a breakout performance as a doltish fastballer in Ron Shelton's hit 1988 baseball comedy Bull Durham. An onscreen romance with co-star Susan Sarandon soon expanded into their offscreen lives as well, and the twosome became one of Hollywood's most prominent couples. A series of starring roles in films including 1989's misbegotten Erik the Viking and 1990s Jacob's Ladder followed, before Altman's 1992 showbiz satire The Player won Robbins Best Actor honors at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, he wrote, directed, starred, and performed the music in Bob Roberts, a mock-documentary brutally parodying right-wing politics.
Upon appearing in Altman's 1993 ensemble piece Short Cuts, Robbins enjoyed starring roles in four major 1994 releases: The Hudsucker Proxy, I.Q., Ready to Wear (Prêt-à-Porter), and the Oscar-nominated The Shawshank Redemption. However, his most acclaimed project to date was 1995's Dead Man Walking, a gut-wrenching examination of the death penalty, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director; Sean Penn, portraying a death row inmate, garnered a Best Actor nomination while Sarandon won Best Actress honors. After a three-year hiatus from acting, Robbins returned to the screen in 1997 with the comedy Nothing to Lose; he soon announced plans to mount a film adaptation of Cradle Will Rock, the Marc Blitzstein play first staged by Orson Welles six decades earlier. The film, which examined the relationship between art and politics in 1930s America, premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. That same year, audiences could view Robbins as a clean-cut suburban terrorist opposite Jeff Bridges in Arlington Road, as well as see the fruits of his directorial work in Cradle Will Rock.
Robbins opened the year 2000 with a brief but nonetheless fun role as the maddeningly calm Ian in High Fidelity. The early 2000s presented a series of misfires for Robbins -- AntiTrust (2001), Mission to Mars (2000), and Human Nature (2001), writer Charlie Kaufman's eagerly awaited follow-up to Being John Malkovich, fared rather badly in theaters -- though his versatility and respect within the industry remained solid. The polarizing presidential elections of 2002 certainly thrust Robbins into the political spotlight, if not major big screen successes. After multiple appearances on Politically Incorrect and various awards shows gave Robbins a platform for some of his views concerning the right-wing agenda, the legitimacy of the Bush administration, and the controversial pre-emptive action in Iraq, the planned screening of Bull Durham (and a subsequent appearance from Robbins and Susan Sarandon) for the 15th anniversary of the Baseball Hall of Fame was surprisingly cancelled in what Robbins claimed was a retaliatory measure.
By the end of 2003, the controversy was a distant memory with Robbins hitting it big with audiences and critics alike in the film adaptation of Mystic River. The performance, which saw Robbins as a tragic adult who couldn't overcome a devastating childhood, eventually won the actor his second Golden Globe along with his first ever Oscar.
Robbins followed up his Oscar win by switching gears substantially. In 2004, audiences could find him as a charicature of a cutthroat PBS news'man in an extended cameo in Anchorman and starring opposite Samantha Morton in the futuristic sci-fi thriller Code 46. In 2004 obbins wrote and staged a satire about the Iraq war titled Embedded. He returned to the big-screen as the father in the science-fiction family fantasy Zathura. In the same year he turned in a memorable supporting performance as a deranged survivor of an alien attack in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. One year later he played a white police officer in Philip Noyce's anti-Apartheid drama Catch a Fire. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Robbins's acting career began at Theater for the New City, where he spent his teenage years in their Annual Summer Street Theater and also played the title role in a musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. After graduation from college in 1981, Robbins founded the Actors' Gang, an experimental theater group, in Los Angeles with actor friends from his college softball team (including John Cusack). He also took small parts in films, such as the role of frat animal "Mother" in Fraternity Vacation (1985) and "Lt. Sam 'Merlin' Wells" in the iconic fighter pilot film Top Gun (1986). He played in The Love Boat, as a young version of one of the characters in retrospection about Second World War. His breakthrough role was as pitcher Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh in the 1988 baseball movie Bull Durham.
Robbins has just finished writing and directing a new pilot for Showtime called Possible Side Effects, about a family that runs a pharmaceutical company.[9] It will premiere later this year.
Personal life
Robbins lives in New York City. Since 1988, Robbins has been in a relationship with actress Susan Sarandon whom he met on the set of Bull Durham. They have two sons: Jack Henry (born May 15, 1989) and Miles Guthrie (born May 4, 1992). Robbins, like Sarandon, is a lapsed Catholic,[10] and they both share liberal political views. At the height of 6' 5" (196 cm), Robbins is one of the tallest actors in Hollywood.[11]
In 2003, a 15th anniversary celebration of Bull Durham at the National Baseball Hall of Fame was cancelled by Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey. Petroskey, who was on the White House staff during the Reagan administration, told Robbins that his stance helped to "undermine the US position, which could put our troops in even more danger".[13]Durham co-star Kevin Costner, a self-described Libertarian, defended Robbins and Sarandon, saying "I think Tim and Susan's courage is the type of courage that makes our democracy work. Pulling back this invite is against the whole principle about what we fight for and profess to be about".[13] Robbins later said that Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, and Jack Valenti were the only major Hollywood figures that stood up for his free speech rights in this case and noted that all three men are either Republicans or very conservative Democrats, adding that he felt there could be common ground between individuals with different political beliefs.
Robbins is an avid baseball and hockey fan. He supports the New York Mets and the New York Rangers and frequently attends games. In 1995, Robbins did a series of promos for MSG Network advertising upcoming Rangers games, and has also narrated a documentary on the 1969 Mets for SNY. Robbins is also a passionate ice hockey player who participates regularly in the New York adult recreational hockey community.
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