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Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American
Academy Award-winning actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and small
time musician. He is the longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon, with whom he
shares strong liberal political views.
 Early
life
Robbins was born in West Covina, California, to Mary (née Bledsoe), an actress, and
Gilbert Robbins, a publishing executive, nightclub owner, musician and folk singer.
Robbins has two sisters, Adele and Gabrielle, and a brother, David. Robbins moved
to Greenwich Village with his family at a young age while his father pursued a
career as a member of the folk music group The Highwaymen. Robbins started doing
theater at age twelve and joined the drama club at Stuyvesant High School. He spent
two years at SUNY Plattsburgh and then returned to California to study at the UCLA
Film School.
Career
Robbins' 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. He
also took small parts in films, such as the role of frat animal "Mother" in
Fraternity Vacation (1985). His breakthrough role was as pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh in
the 1988 baseball movie Bull Durham.
He received critical acclaim for his starring role as an amoral movie executive in
Robert Altman's 1992 film The Player. He made his directorial and screenwriting
debut with 1992's Bob Roberts, a mockumentary about a right-wing senatorial
candidate. Robbins then starred alongside Morgan Freeman in the critically
acclaimed The Shawshank Redemption, which was based on Stephen King's short
story.
Robbins has written, produced, and directed several films with strong social
content, such as the critically acclaimed capital punishment saga Dead Man Walking
(film) (1995), starring Sarandon and Sean Penn. The film earned him a Oscar
nomination for Best Director. His next directorial effort was 1999's Depression-era
musical Cradle Will Rock. Robbins has also appeared in mainstream Hollywood
thrillers, such as 1999's Arlington Road (as a terrorist) and 2001's Antitrust (as
a malicious computer tycoon). Robbins has also acted in and directed several
Actors' Gang theater productions.
Robbins won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and the SAG Award for his work in
Mystic River (2003), as a man traumatized from having been molested as a child. In
2005, he won the 39th annual Man of the Year Pudding Pot Award given by the Hasty
Pudding Theatricals of Harvard. His most recent acting roles include a temporarily
blind man who is nursed to health by a psychologically wounded young woman in "The
Secret Life of Words" and an Apartheid torturer in "Catch a Fire".
In early 2006, Robbins directed an adaptation of George Orwell's novel 1984,
written by Michael Gene Sullivan of the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime
Troupe. The show opened at Actors' Gang, at their new location at The Ivy
Substation in Culver City, California. In addition to venues around the United
States, it has played in Athens, Greece, the Melbourne International Festival in
Australia and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Robbins is considering adapting the play
into a film version.
As of June 2007, Robbins is filming The Return (2007) with co-star Rachel McAdams.
Filming is taking place all over Illinois with scenes at Mojo's Music in
Edwardsville, Illinois.
Personal
life
Robbins lives in New York City with actress Susan Sarandon, with whom he has been
involved since their meeting on the set of Bull Durham in 1988. They have two sons:
Jack Henry (born 1989) and Miles Guthrie (born 1992).
Robbins is an avowed supporter of Ralph Nader and appeared on stage in character as
Bob Roberts during the "Nader Rocks the Garden" rally at Madison Square Garden
during Nader's campaign for president in 2000. Robbins is a prominent spokesperson
for anti-globalisation, a frequent critic of U.S. President George W. Bush, and a
vocal opponent of the war in Iraq.
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. Petrovsky, who
was on the White House staff during the Reagan administration, said Robbins' public
stance against Bush and the war represented 'a danger'. Durham co-star Kevin
Costner 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'.
Tim 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 the MSG network advertising upcoming Rangers games.
Robbins is tall for an actor; he is 195 cm (approx. 6 ft 5 in) in height.
Lloyd Grove
incident
After Robbins and Sarandon attended the Academy Awards ceremony in 2003, Robbins
threatened to punch Washington Post journalist Lloyd Grove, who had interviewed
Sarandon's mother, Leonora Tomalin, a Republican. Tomalin went on record
speculating that Sarandon and Robbins had 'brainwashed' her grandson Jack Henry. In
his article, Grove quotes Robbins as saying 'if you ever write about my family
again, I will fucking find you and I will fucking hurt you'. (Source: Grove, Lloyd,
March 25, 2003), "Night of the Livid Celeb", Washington Post, page C01). Sarandon's
mother was once quoted as saying that despite her obvious political differences
with her daughter, she thinks that 'Susan is a good mother'.
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Tim
Robbins - Manifestor - Biography
