Wallace Shawn

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Birthday:

12 November 1943, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name:

Wallace Michael Shawn

Height:

157 cm

American character actor and writer Wallace Shawn has one of those fun, mischievously homely faces just made to entertain. Though he got out of the starting gate rather slowly, he has since excelled on stage, television and film while managing to turn himself into a winner with his loser-type looks. Woody Allen's character in the movie Manhattan (1979) amusingly describes Wallace's character as "a homunculus", which is a pretty fair description of this predominantly bald, wan, pucker-mouthed, butterball-framed, slightly lisping gent. Wallace made his movie debut in Allen's heralded classic playing Diane Keaton's ex-husband.Born to privilege on November 12, 1943 in New York City, Wallace was the son of renowned editor William Shawn of "The New Yorker" fame and educated at both Harvard University, where he studied history, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Wallace initially taught English in India on a Fulbright scholarship, and then English, Latin and drama back in New York. However, a keen interest in writing and acting soon compelled him to leave his cushy position and pursue a stage career as both playwright and actor. During his distinguished career, Wallace turned out several plays. "Our Late Night", the first of his works to be performed, was awarded an off-Broadway Obie in 1975. "A Thought in Three Parts" (1976); "The Mandrake" (1977), which he translated from the original Italian and in which he made his acting debut; "Marie and Bruce" (1979); "Aunt Dan and Lemon" (1985) and "The Fever", for which he received his second Obie Award for "Best New Play" during the 1990-91 season, then followed. A popular support player in both comedy and occasional drama, his assorted kooks, creeps, eggheads and schmucks possessed both endearing and unappetizing qualities. He earned some of his best early notices partnered with theatre director/actor Andre Gregory in the unique Louis Malle-directed film My Dinner with Andre (1981). Shawn co-wrote the improvisatory, humanistic piece and his brother, Allen Shawn, was the composer. Shawn and Gregory would collaborate again for Malle in another superb, original-concept film Vanya on 42nd Street (1994). Among the quality offbeat filming involving has been Bruce Paltrow's A Little Sex (1982); James Ivory's The Bostonians (1984); Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears (1987); Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride (1987); Alan Rudolph's The Moderns (1988) and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994); Paul Bartel's Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989); and several others for Woody Allen: Radio Days (1987), Shadows and Fog (1991), The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) and Melinda and Melinda (2004). Of late, he has lent his vocal talents to a considerable number of animated pictures including A Goofy Movie (1995), Toy Story (1995) (and its sequel), The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998), The Incredibles (2004), Chicken Little (2005) and Happily N'Ever After (2006).Over the decades, Shawn has scurried about effortlessly in a number of television guest appearances including Taxi (1978), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993), Ally McBeal (1997), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) and Desperate Housewives (2004), and has drummed up a few recurring roles for himself in the process, including The Cosby Show (1984), Murphy Brown (1988), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Crossing Jordan (2001). In the series Clueless (1996), based on the highly successful of the same name Clueless (1995), Shawn revisited his role as the owlish high school teacher. Show less «

I don't happen to have a sense of humor personally, so I don't know what's funny about a character . . . This happens to be a feature of my ...Show more »

I don't happen to have a sense of humor personally, so I don't know what's funny about a character . . . This happens to be a feature of my life generally. I do things, and other people laugh at them. I rarely know what the joke is supposed to be or why they're laughing. Show less «

Interestingly, the actress who, in her own persona, may be gentle, shy and socially awkward, someone whose hand trembles when pouring a cup ...Show more »

Interestingly, the actress who, in her own persona, may be gentle, shy and socially awkward, someone whose hand trembles when pouring a cup of tea for a visiting friend, can convincingly portray an elegant, cruel aristocrat tossing off malicious epigrams in an 18th-century chocolate house. Show less «

We're in an emergency situation. The United States has become an absolutely terrifying country, and I would hope that I could participate in...Show more »

We're in an emergency situation. The United States has become an absolutely terrifying country, and I would hope that I could participate in some way in stopping the horror and the brutality. Show less «

I have more free time than a lot of individuals, so, instead of talking, I sometimes write.

Contrary to the popular misconception, the actor is not necessarily a specialist in imitating or portraying what he knows about other people...Show more »

Contrary to the popular misconception, the actor is not necessarily a specialist in imitating or portraying what he knows about other people. On the contrary, the actor may simply be a person who's more willing than others to reveal some truths about himself. Show less «

The Princess Bride (1987) is by far the most popular film I've ever done. I don't think I'll ever top it.

From being a writer of plays, it was not that surprising that somebody thought of giving me a job as an actor. After I played one part, othe...Show more »

From being a writer of plays, it was not that surprising that somebody thought of giving me a job as an actor. After I played one part, others came along. Show less «

I am recognized a lot for Clueless (1995), but I am recognized a great deal for The Princess Bride (1987). I don't know . . . maybe everybod...Show more »

I am recognized a lot for Clueless (1995), but I am recognized a great deal for The Princess Bride (1987). I don't know . . . maybe everybody who has seen that movie just goes out on the street. Show less «

I was making my living from a joke about my appearance that I didn't understand, and in a way still don't, because when I look in a mirror i...Show more »

I was making my living from a joke about my appearance that I didn't understand, and in a way still don't, because when I look in a mirror it doesn't seem funny to me. Show less «

It is hard enough to make a plan for how you are going to spend an evening with somebody else. So to make a plan for how you are going to be...Show more »

It is hard enough to make a plan for how you are going to spend an evening with somebody else. So to make a plan for how you are going to behave in 25 years seems based on a view of life that is incomprehensible to me. Show less «

"The Fever" is a one-person play. I decided I would perform it myself, and I decided I would not perform it in theaters, because the charact...Show more »

"The Fever" is a one-person play. I decided I would perform it myself, and I decided I would not perform it in theaters, because the character in the play says certain things that I meant. Show less «

I don't happen to have a sense of humor personally, so I don't know what's funny about a character . . . This happens to be a feature of my ...Show more »

I don't happen to have a sense of humor personally, so I don't know what's funny about a character . . . This happens to be a feature of my life generally. Show less «

My father was a jazz listener, and I think, at least before I was five, I was not so into that. Although there were records that emphasized ...Show more »

My father was a jazz listener, and I think, at least before I was five, I was not so into that. Although there were records that emphasized percussion that I liked, like Baby Dodds. Show less «

Acting is trying to be absolutely truthful; to get audiences to believe that you are a dean, when, actually, not only are you not the dean, ...Show more »

Acting is trying to be absolutely truthful; to get audiences to believe that you are a dean, when, actually, not only are you not the dean, but if you walked into the building they'd probably throw you out. That's very hard. Show less «

In real life, every person is the leading man or woman. We don't think of ourselves as supporting or character actors.

We are not what we seem. We are more than what we seem. The actor knows that. And because the actor knows that hidden inside himself there's...Show more »

We are not what we seem. We are more than what we seem. The actor knows that. And because the actor knows that hidden inside himself there's a wizard and a king, he also knows that when he's playing himself in his daily life, he's playing a part, he's performing, just as he's performing when he plays a part on stage. Show less «

In an amusement park, you can go on a roller coaster that carries you up and down, or you can go on another kind of ride that whirls you aro...Show more »

In an amusement park, you can go on a roller coaster that carries you up and down, or you can go on another kind of ride that whirls you around in a circle. Similarly, there are different sorts of entertaining experiences in the theater. Show less «

I see myself as a citizen of the planet. Even as a child, I always found it mindless to root for your own team. I was puzzled by the fact th...Show more »

I see myself as a citizen of the planet. Even as a child, I always found it mindless to root for your own team. I was puzzled by the fact that people said their own team was better than other teams simply because it was theirs. Show less «

I choose parts because I don't want to be embarrassed when the movie comes out. What if my friends were to see the movie? What if my niece o...Show more »

I choose parts because I don't want to be embarrassed when the movie comes out. What if my friends were to see the movie? What if my niece or nephew wandered into the theater and saw the movie? I don't want to be too ashamed of it. Show less «

I probably have a higher opinion of my writing than the average person, at least when I'm in a good mood, but I don't really think of my pla...Show more »

I probably have a higher opinion of my writing than the average person, at least when I'm in a good mood, but I don't really think of my plays as only being relevant to a particular month or year. Show less «

Even with my wife, I find sharing soup is hard.

As writers, we can't predict who might come along who might find our offerings valuable.

And my singing, I don't think I could sing Wagner or opera, but I could probably carry a tune. I was in a musical once, but it was never per...Show more »

And my singing, I don't think I could sing Wagner or opera, but I could probably carry a tune. I was in a musical once, but it was never performed. Show less «

Acting is an escape from the boring person that I am in real life.

I do things, and other people laugh at them. I rarely know what the joke is supposed to be or why they're laughing.

I spend most of my time thinking about things like laundry and buying stationery supplies.

I never grew up thinking, "One day I will play so and so" because I wasn't expecting to be an actor at all.

I'm being mocked because I don't live up to a socially determined view of what other people think a person should look like.

I'm a very lucky man. It's a beautiful thing for a writer, to see people allowing your words to enter their own unconscious and their souls.

I never planned to be an actor. It turned out I could make a living doing it.

I don't see that many plays, and for me, musicals are rarely pleasing.

I know that I am one and I've made a living as an actor and I enjoy being an actor, but when I'm not actually doing it, I forget that I do i...Show more »

I know that I am one and I've made a living as an actor and I enjoy being an actor, but when I'm not actually doing it, I forget that I do it. Show less «

I don't have a television, and I'm just not too up on television.

I have been vain since birth. I expected other people to like what I did, although my vanity has definitely diminished over the years.

I have an enormous appetite to see life as I know it presented in front of my eyes.

Before I was five I did have a lot of time on my hands. I had no job and really no career, and I spent an awful lot of time listening to rec...Show more »

Before I was five I did have a lot of time on my hands. I had no job and really no career, and I spent an awful lot of time listening to records. It was more the classical ones, really--[Sergei Prokofiev], and I think there was some [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart] in there, and more impressionistic composers like [Frederick Delius]. Show less «

After being in one movie, it didn't seem like that would be my life. I had done several jobs, briefly. I'd been a shipping clerk, I worked i...Show more »

After being in one movie, it didn't seem like that would be my life. I had done several jobs, briefly. I'd been a shipping clerk, I worked in a copy shop, I didn't think the acting was going to go on and on. Show less «

Children, I always think, are just putting on a performance of being naive and not understanding anything. I have worked with children in fi...Show more »

Children, I always think, are just putting on a performance of being naive and not understanding anything. I have worked with children in films, and they're treated as adults and they just drop the pretense of being children. Show less «

When I was a child, I did always feel that people were hiding things, and that they weren't expressing their true feelings. When adults are ...Show more »

When I was a child, I did always feel that people were hiding things, and that they weren't expressing their true feelings. When adults are too complicated, and cover their emotions with layers of well-intentioned subterfuge, the child isn't seeing reality clearly enough and gets upset. Show less «

But because we've all been readers, we know what the experience is like, and we hope that what certain writers have given to us, we will giv...Show more »

But because we've all been readers, we know what the experience is like, and we hope that what certain writers have given to us, we will give to someone. Show less «

There's nothing regular about my life at all, really. I don't keep a regular schedule and every day is different. It's all rather chaotic.

You know, I haven't written as much as most other writers. Certainly maybe those who keep a more regular schedule accomplish more.

For some reason, people find me funny. It's quite hard to define why a thought is funny. It's even harder to define why a person would be fu...Show more »

For some reason, people find me funny. It's quite hard to define why a thought is funny. It's even harder to define why a person would be funny. It's a word that I can't define at all. But whether I know quite what it is or not, I seem to be it. Show less «

I'm afraid that the passage of time is mostly lost on me. If you were to open up my head you would see that I'm still brooding about stateme...Show more »

I'm afraid that the passage of time is mostly lost on me. If you were to open up my head you would see that I'm still brooding about statements, songs and issues from the third grade. The years between 1980 and today went by very, very quickly. Show less «

If I had even the tiniest scrap of advice to give to a young actor who was figuring out how to audition, I would say don't memorize the scri...Show more »

If I had even the tiniest scrap of advice to give to a young actor who was figuring out how to audition, I would say don't memorize the script... The reality about auditions is that 98 percent of the results has to do with what you are, not with what you did in the audition. Show less «

In my early 20s, I studied history and politics, and I really thought that perhaps I would devote my life to that.

Patriotism is considered to be an emotion a person ought to feel. But why? Why is it nobler to love your own country than to love someone el...Show more »

Patriotism is considered to be an emotion a person ought to feel. But why? Why is it nobler to love your own country than to love someone else's? Show less «

In terms of number of movies, I've been in an extraordinary amount. If you count only the minutes I'm onscreen, it's not so long.

The life of an actor can be very enviable.

My plays have been strange from the beginning, and they never got unstrange.

I started writing plays in around 1967, and at a certain point I thought, "I'm writing plays, I should learn about acting and what it is". S...Show more »

I started writing plays in around 1967, and at a certain point I thought, "I'm writing plays, I should learn about acting and what it is". So I went to the HB Studio in New York, and I was there for about nine months. Show less «

For me, a play is a form of writing which isn't complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it's still a form of writing. And so most of...Show more »

For me, a play is a form of writing which isn't complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it's still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence. Show less «

I grew up. I began to think the United States had some problems that really required the help of artistic people to solve. And I gave myself...Show more »

I grew up. I began to think the United States had some problems that really required the help of artistic people to solve. And I gave myself permission to be a writer instead of a civil servant. Show less «

I sincerely believe that if [George W. Bush] and [Dick Cheney] recognized the full humanity of other people's mothers around the world, they...Show more »

I sincerely believe that if [George W. Bush] and [Dick Cheney] recognized the full humanity of other people's mothers around the world, they wouldn't commit the crimes they commit. Show less «

I led the life of an intellectual up until a certain age. I remember [Sigmund Freud;s] "Interpretation of Dreams" was a big favorite when I ...Show more »

I led the life of an intellectual up until a certain age. I remember [Sigmund Freud;s] "Interpretation of Dreams" was a big favorite when I was 11. It sounded so interesting. And it really was! Show less «

I think the whole system of education would change if I were in charge and had the ability to make changes. I don't think I would keep Princ...Show more »

I think the whole system of education would change if I were in charge and had the ability to make changes. I don't think I would keep Princeton exactly being Princeton. Show less «

I wrote my first play at the age of 10, 55 years ago, and I've always found it a fantastic relief to imagine I know what things would be lik...Show more »

I wrote my first play at the age of 10, 55 years ago, and I've always found it a fantastic relief to imagine I know what things would be like from the point of view of other individuals and to send out signals from where I actually am not. Playwrights never need to write from the place where they are. Show less «

I'm not proud to be me, I'm not excited to be me, but I find that I am me, and like most other individuals, I send out little signals; I tel...Show more »

I'm not proud to be me, I'm not excited to be me, but I find that I am me, and like most other individuals, I send out little signals; I tell everyone else how everything looks from where I am. Show less «

In my mind, the plays I was writing were extreme examples of art for art's sake. I didn't necessarily think that other people would love the...Show more »

In my mind, the plays I was writing were extreme examples of art for art's sake. I didn't necessarily think that other people would love them, though I thought they probably would. Show less «

My personal life is lived as "me", but my professional life is lived as other people. In other words, when I go to the office, I lie down, d...Show more »

My personal life is lived as "me", but my professional life is lived as other people. In other words, when I go to the office, I lie down, dream and become "someone else". That's my job. Show less «

You can go to a play that is enjoyable because it's funny, and then on the next night you can go to a play that's enjoyable because it's "di...Show more »

You can go to a play that is enjoyable because it's funny, and then on the next night you can go to a play that's enjoyable because it's "disturbing". Show less «

When I was first exposed to the films of Ingmar Bergman, I found them frank and disturbing portraits of the world we live in, but that was n...Show more »

When I was first exposed to the films of Ingmar Bergman, I found them frank and disturbing portraits of the world we live in, but that was not something that displeased me. They were beautiful. I thought people would respond to my plays the way I responded to Bergman's films. Show less «

When I was first starting to write plays, I quite literally had never heard of the idea of studying playwriting. I wouldn't have studied it ...Show more »

When I was first starting to write plays, I quite literally had never heard of the idea of studying playwriting. I wouldn't have studied it even if I had heard of it. Show less «

The actor's role in the community is quite unlike anyone else's. Businessmen, for example, don't take their clothes off or cry in front of s...Show more »

The actor's role in the community is quite unlike anyone else's. Businessmen, for example, don't take their clothes off or cry in front of strangers in the course of their work. Actors do. Show less «

[in 2008, on working with André the Giant in The Princess Bride (1987)] Well, that, I did very much enjoy. He was marvelous. But there was ...Show more »

[in 2008, on working with André the Giant in The Princess Bride (1987)] Well, that, I did very much enjoy. He was marvelous. But there was something painful about his situation, because he already had lost some of his strength. Of course it was well-known that he could not live terribly long, because no one with his condition did. So it was all a bit poignant. But he was always very, very intelligent, and he was very kind to me, because I was quite afraid of certain things we had to do, and he was very, very nice to me. He was a fascinating person, because he had come from a small village in France and wanted to travel. And he quite consciously decided that in order to travel, his best option was to try to become a wrestler and that's what he did. Show less «

[in 2008, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)] They worked quite long days on these television programs. Twelve hours is normal. And if you...Show more »

[in 2008, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)] They worked quite long days on these television programs. Twelve hours is normal. And if you are playing a creature from outer space, you have to show up three hours earlier to put on your makeup. And you stay an hour later to take it off. So you enter a zone of strangeness that you can't really put into words very easily . . . It's physically absolutely exhausting. But it was liberating to me as an actor. And I think I enjoy my own performances as that character more than most, almost more than anything I've done. I think I was quite good as . . . It liberated me to be wearing all that makeup. I was freed by it.. Show less «