BILL IRWIN Biography
William Mills "Bill" Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor,
clown, and comedian. He is best known for his vaudeville-style stage
performances and has been noted for his contribution to the
renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has also made a
number of appearances on film and television, and he won a Tony Award
for his role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway. Children
know him as Mr. Noodle on Sesame Street's Elmo's World.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Bill is the
oldest of three children born to Elizabeth ( Mills), a teacher,
and Horace G. "Ace" Irwin, an aerospace engineer. He was
raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Southern California. He spent a year
in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as an exchange student. He is a
graduate in theatre arts from Oberlin College, OH, and a graduate of
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College, FL. Mr. Irwin
met his wife, Martha Roth, actress-turned-nurse midwife, when he went
to her for treatment of a stiff neck. Their son, Santos Patrick
Morales Irwin, was born in 1991.
Bill was an original member of Kraken, a theatre company directed by
Herbert Blau, and was also an original member of the Pickle Family
Circus of San Francisco where he worked with Larry Pisoni and Geoff
Hoyle. He has appeared as a guest artist with the ODC Dance Company
of San Francisco, which first produced his original work. His own
pieces, often produced with Doug Skinner and Michael O'Connor, include
"Not Quite / New York" , "The Courtroom" and "The Regard of Flight"
(PBS, Great Performances). Skinner, Irwin and O'Connor have performed
"The Regard of Flight" on and off Broadway, across the U.S. and in
Sydney, Australia. "Largely New York", Irwin's original work, was
developed at The Seattle Repertory Theater City Center and The Kennedy
Center, ran on Broadway, and received five Tony nominations as well as
Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and New York Dance and Performance
awards.
Bill has created several highly regarded stage shows that incorporate
elements of clowning, often in collaboration with composer Doug
Skinner. These works included The Regard of Flight (1982), Largely New
York (1989), The Harlequin Studies (2003), and
Mr. Fox: A Rumination (2004). Mr. Fox is a production that Irwin has
worked on for years, a biography of 19th century clown George
Washington Lafayette Fox that also has autobiographical elements.
Bill created "Fool Moon" with fellow clown David Shiner and the Red Clay
Ramblers, and performed it on Broadway, in Los Angeles, Washington,
DC, Seattle, Vienna, and Munich. In
2013, he reunited with Shiner to create and
perform in the Off-Broadway "clowning revue-with-music" Old Hats. Old
Hats won the 2013 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue, and a
revival was staged in 2016.
He adapted
Molie¨re's play Les Fourberies de Scapin as a comedy called Scapin,
and has played the title role in several productions. He appeared in
the play at the Off-Broadway Roundabout Theatre Company Laura Pels
Theatre in Dec 1996 through March 1997, after performing in the play at
the Seattle Rep. His adaptation allowed him to interpolate his
signature clowning routines into the course of the action.
In 1996, Irwin performed with The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps at the
1996 Summer Olympics, in a "band on the run" sequence where he played
Dr. Hubert Peterson of the fictitious Federation of United Marching
Associations of America.
Although Bill is best known for his theatrical clown work, he has also
been featured in a number of dramatic plays. Irwin appeared with Steve
Martin and Robin Williams in the Lincoln Center Off-Broadway
production of Waiting for Godot in 1988, in the role of Lucky. Lucky's
only lines consist of a famous 500-word-long monologue, an ironic
element for Irwin since much of his clown-based stage work was
silent. He directed the 1998 Roundabout Theatre Company production of
A Flea in Her Ear. He appeared in 2002 with Sally Field in the
replacement cast of The Goat or Who is Sylvia?. He played Vladimir
(Didi) in the 2009 Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot, and
Mr. McAfee in the Broadway revival of Bye Bye Birdie. In 2011, he
appeared in King Lear at the Public Theatre. In 2014, he played the
shipboat captain in Showboat, with the San Francisco Opera.
His 2007 theater piece "The Happiness Lecture" was
commissioned by and staged for the Philadelphia Theater Company. He
appeared at the Public Theater in Beckett's "Texts for Nothing"
directed by Joe Chaikin, and as Trinculo in "The Tempest " with
Patrick Stewart, directed by George Wolfe (1995). At La Jolla
Playhouse, he played Galy Gay in Brecht's "A Man's a Man", Medvedenko
in "The Sea Gull", and Arlecchino in "Three Cuckholds". He appeared on
Broadway in "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" with Jonathan Pryce;
"5-6-7-8- . . . Dance!" with Sandy Duncan; and in Philadelphia in
"Strike Up the Band". with Steve Martin, Robin Williams and F. Murray
Abraham.
Bill starred on Broadway and London's West End in the revival of
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", for which he won the 2005 Tony Award
for Best Actor in a Play. The production had a national tour in
2007.
Bill's first featured film role was in 1980, appearing as Ham Gravy
in Robert Altman's Popeye starring Robin Williams. He has appeared in
over 20 films, mainly in supporting roles. Irwin's principal film
roles included My Blue Heaven, a 1990 comedy with Steve Martin and
Rick Moranis, and Eddie Collins in Eight Men Out, which tells the
true story of the "Black Sox" gambling scandal of 1919. Irwin
tap-danced in a leading role in 1991's Stepping Out with Liza
Minnelli, appeared as a mime in the Paul Mazursky film Scenes from a
Mall alongside Woody Allen and Bette Midler, and played Charlie
Sheen's father in Hot Shots! His authentic vaudevillian skills landed
him a role in the Sam Shepard film Silent Tongue in 1994, and he
appeared in film adaptations of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The
Laramie Project and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He played an ex-brain
surgeon, house salesman in the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of
Pete & Pete. In 2006, Irwin played the solitary Mr. Leeds in M. Night
Shyamalan's Lady in the Water and had a small role in 2007's Across
the Universe. He received critical acclaim for his role as Paul,
father to Anne Hathaway's character Kym, in the 2008 drama Rachel
Getting Married. Irwin voices the robot TARS in the film
Interstellar, and puppeteers the robot in most scenes (those where it
is not a computer-generated image).
Bill can be seen as Cary Loudermilk in the FX drama "Legion". Other
notable television roles have been Enrico Ballati, "The Flying Man",
on the television series Northern Exposure, Mr. Noodle in the Elmo's
World segment of the PBS children's show Sesame Street and the "Dick &
Jane" serial killer Nate Haskell on CSI: Crime Scene
Investigation. Bill was featured in the 1988 music video of "Don't
Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin (along with McFerrin and Robin
Williams). Bill was also featured in HBO's 1997 production Subway
Stories. He has also appeared on The Cosby Show, Saturday Night Live,
3rd Rock from the Sun, Law & Order and Lights Out. In 2011, he
guest starred in the pilot episode of the CBS television drama A
Gifted Man. He starred in the 2013 medical drama TNT television
series, Monday Mornings, as Buck Tierney. In 2014, he guest starred in
the episode "The One Percent Solution" of CBS' Elementary.
Bill was featured in the Public Television series Great Performances,
in the episode titled "Bill Irwin, Clown Prince", initially broadcast
in December 2004.
Irwin was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer's
Fellowship in 1981 and 1983. In 1984, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow
and was the first performance artist to be awarded a 5-year MacArthur
Fellowship. For Largely New York, he won a New York Drama Critics
Circle Special Citation in 1988, and an Outer Critics Circle Award and
Drama Desk Award in 1989. This show also received five nominations for
Tony Awards. In 1992, he won an OBIE Award for his performance in
Texts for Nothing. Together with David Shiner he won a special Tony
Award for Live Theatrical Presentation in 1999 for their show Fool
Moon. In 1993, this show already had won a Drama Desk Award for
"Unique Theatrical Experience" and an Outer Critics Circle "Special
Achievement" Award. In 2000, the Jazz Tap Ensemble, Los Angeles
received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
(NEA) "for a commission of a new work by Bill Irwin." In 2004, the
Signature Theatre Company, New York, received a $40,000 NEA grant for
"the world premiere production of 'Mr. Fox: A Rumination' by Bill
Irwin." In 2005, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for
his appearance as George in the revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?. Irwin received a 2008 CFCA Award nomination for
"Best Supporting Actor" for his role in Rachel Getting Married. In
2010, The New Victory Theater presented Irwin with the first ever New
Victory Arts Award. He was honored for "bringing the arts to kids and
kids to the arts." Nathan Lane and Jonathan Demme spoke at the
ceremony. Irwin is also on the board of The New 42nd Street, Inc.
(last updated 2018)
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