American character actor and playwright Wallace Shawn has one of those fun, delightfully mischievously gnomish faces made for entertaining. Though he got out of the acting starting gate rather late, he quickly excelled film and TV while managing to turn himself into comedy egghead or loser types. Woody Allen's slightly threatened character in the movie Manhattan (1979) amusingly describes Wallace's benign gent as "a homunculus", which may be a pretty fair description of this predominantly bald, wan, pucker-mouthed, butterball-framed, slightly lisping gent. Shawn made his movie debut at age 36 in Allen's heralded classic in a brief but telling scene as Diane Keaton's ex-husband.
The 5'2" Jewish actor was born Wallace Michael Shawn into privilege on November 12, 1943 in New York City, as the son of Cecille (Lyon) (1906-2005), a journalist, and William Shawn (1907-1992), renowned and long-time editor of The New Yorker. His brother, Allen Shawn, went on to become a composer. Wallace was 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 churned out several plays. "Our Late Night", the first of his works to be performed, was awarded an off-Broadway Obie in 1975. This was followed by "A Thought in Three Parts" (1976);, "The Mandrake" (1977) (which he translated from the original Italian and made his acting debut), "Marie and Bruce" (1979), "Aunt Dan and Lemon" (1985) and "The Fever," for which he received his second Obie for "Best New Play" during the 1990-91 season.
A popular supporting player of comedy and the occasional drama, Shawn's assorted kooks, creeps, brainiacs and schmucks possessed both endearing and unappetizing qualities. He earned his best early notices partnered with theatre director/actor Andre Gregory in the unique Louis Malle-directed film Mein Essen mit André (1981). Shawn co-wrote the improvisatory, humanistic piece with brother Allan as the composer. Shawn and Gregory would collaborate again for Malle in another superb, original-concept film Vanya - 42. Straße (1994).
Among Shawn's offbeat films have been Bruce Paltrow's Der verführte Mann (1982); James Ivory's Die Damen aus Boston (1984); Stephen Frears' Das stürmische Leben des Joe Orton (1987); Rob Reiner's Die Braut des Prinzen (1987); Alan Rudolph's Wilde Jahre in Paris (1988) and Mrs. Parker und ihr lasterhafter Kreis (1994); and Paul Bartel's Luxus, Sex und Lotterleben (1989). He also appeared in several other Woody Allen offerings including Radio Days (1987), Schatten und Nebel (1991), Im Bann des Jade Skorpions (2001), Melinda und Melinda (2004) and the title role in Rifkin's Festival (2020).
Since the 1990s, he has lent his vocal talents to a considerable number of animated pictures including Goofy - Der Film (1995), Toy Story (1995) (and its sequels), Das Dschungelbuch - Mowglis Abenteuer (1998), Die Unglaublichen (2004), Himmel und Huhn (2005), Es war k'einmal im Märchenland (2006), Cats & Dogs - Die Rache der Kitty Kahlohr (2010) and Ein tierischer Zirkus (2017). TV voices have included Der rosarote Panther - Die neuen Folgen (1993), The Lionhearts (1998), Family Guy (1999), Kung Fu Panda - Legenden mit Fell und Fu (2011), The Stinky & Dirty Show (2015) and The Bug Diaries (2019).
Millennium films graced with Shawn's participation include Southland Tales (2006), Kit Kittredge - Ein amerikanisches Mädchen (2008), Jack and the Beanstalk (2009), The Speed of Thought (2011) and Vamps - Dating mit Biss (2012). He co-starred as Halvard Solness and wrote the screen adaptation for Ibsen's classic play A Master Builder (2013) co-starring Julie Hagerty, and went on to appear in Don Peyote (2014), Maggies Plan (2015), Robo-Dog (2015), Drawing Home (2016), Another Kind of Wedding (2017), Book Club - Das Beste kommt noch (2018) and Marriage Story (2019).
Over the decades, Shawn has scurried about effortlessly with a number of television guest appearances including "Taxi," "Homicide: Life on the Streets," "Ally McBeal," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Sex and the City," "Desperate Housewives," "The Daily Show," "The 7D," "Life in Pieces," "The Good Fight," "Mr. Robot" and "Search Party. He has also drummed up a few recurring roles for himself in the process, including Die Bill Cosby Show (1984), Murphy Brown (1988), Clueless: Die wichtigen Dinge des Lebens (1996) (based on the hit film Clueless - Was sonst! (1995), revisiting his teacher role), Murphy Brown (1988), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Crossing Jordan: Pathologin mit Profil (2001), The L Word: Wenn Frauen Frauen lieben (2004), Gossip Girl (2007), Good Wife (2009), Mozart in the Jungle (2014), and, more recently, as Dr. Sturgis in the comedy Young Sheldon (2017).
