Tim Robbins ’82

---

 

Tim Robbins made his acting debut in 1972 at the Theatre for the New York City in New York City. After graduating from UCLA, Robbins made his professional debut on television’s St. Elswehere. In 1982, Robbins cofounded the Actors’ Gang, the highly acclaimed and respected Los Angeles theatre ensemble dedicated to the production of wild, original and provocative theatre. The Actors’ Gang has received over 100 wards including Dramalogue, L.A. Weekly and Ovation Awards, and the prestigious Margaret Hartford Award for continued excellence. Robbins was honored with the L.A. Weekly award for his direction of the Gang’s debut production, a midnight performance of Ubu Roi, and earned a nomination for best director from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for the group’s production of Brecht’s The Good Women of Szechuan. Most recently The Gang has produced Mephisto, The Seagull, The Guys, The Exonerated, ALAGAZAM and Orlando, and has developed educational outreach programs in the arts with local schools.

In 1992, Robbins received critical acclaim for his portrayal of the amoral studio chief in Robert Altman’s The Player, a performance that earned him the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a musical of comedy. That same year his performance in Bob Roberts also earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best actor.

Other notable acting performances include The Shawshank Redemption for which Robbins received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for best actor, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, giving Robbins his second Golden Globe Award, Tony Bill’s Five Corners, the Coen Brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy, Adrian Lyne’s Jacob’s Ladder and Ron Shelton’s Bull Durham and Michel Gondry’s Human Nature. He recently filmed Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, co-starring with Sean Penn, and Michael Winterbottom’s Code 46, both due to be released later in 2003.

Last year Robbins performed in The Guys, a play about a fire captain who lost eight of his men on Sept. 11. Robbins performed with Swoozie Kurtz at the Flea Theatre in New York and at Lincoln Center with Susan Sarandon. The play was then performed at the Actor’s Gang Theatre in Los Angeles with Helen Hunt and at the Edinburgh Festival and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin with Susan Sarandon.

As a filmmaker, Robbins wrote, directed and produced Cradle Will Rock, which debuted to a standing ovation at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. The film, which chronicles the real-life drama behind the Orson Welles production of Mark Blitzstein’s 1930s musical, won the National Board of Review Award for Special Achievement in Filmmaking and won Best Film and Best Director at the Barcelona Film Festival.

He also wrote, directed and produced the highly acclaimed film, Dead Man Walking, adapted from the book by Sister Helen Prejean. Robbins received the Best Screenplay Award from the Austin Film Festival for his script and an Academy Award nomination for Best Director along with four awards at the Berlin Film Festival, the Humanities award and the Christopher Award. The film also earned a nomination for Best Actor for Sean Penn as well as the Academy Award for Best Actress for Susan Sarandon.

Robbins made his directing and screenwriting debut with the award-winning political satire, Bob Roberts, a mockumentary abut the dubious right-wing candidate’s race for the Senate. Robbins also starred in and co-wrote the songs for this film, which was nominated for a Golden Globe award and received the Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor Award at the Boston Film Festival, as well as Best Film in the Tokyo International Festival.

In addition, Robbins also executive-produced The Typewriter, The Rifle and the Movie Camera, a documentary about filmmaker Sam Fuller, which won the 1996 Cable ACE Award for Best Documentary.

In 1982, Robbins cofounded the Actors’ Gang, the highly acclaimed and respected Los Angeles theatre ensemble dedicated to the production of wild, original and provocative theatre. The Actors’ Gang has received over 100 wards including Dramalogue, L.A. Weekly and Ovation Awards, and the prestigious Margaret Hartford Award for continued excellence. Robbins was honored with the L.A. Weekly award for his direction of the Gang’s debut production, a midnight performance of Ubu Roi, and earned a nomination for best director from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for the group’s production of Brecht’s The Good Women of Szechuan. Most recently The Gang has produced Mephisto, The Seagull, The Guys, The Exonerated, ALAGAZAM and Orlando, and has developed educational outreach programs in the arts with local schools.