Tim Robbins

From Freepedia

Tim Robbins (born October 16, 1958 Timothy Francis Robbins) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, and small time musician. He is the longtime companion of actress Susan Sarandon, with whom he shares strong progressive political views.

Robbins was born in West Covina, California, but moved to Greenwich Village with his family at a young age while his father, Gil Robbins, pursued a career as a member of the folk music group The Highwaymen. He joined Theater for a New City at age twelve, and participated in the drama club at Stuyvesant High School, then spent two years at Plattsburgh State University, then returned to California to attend drama school at UCLA.

On graduation in 1981, Robbins founded the Actors' Gang in Los Angeles, an experimental theater group, 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 part was pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh in the 1988 baseball movie Bull Durham. On the set of that movie he began a relationship with fellow actor Sarandon that continues to the present day.

He received critical acclaim for his starring role as an amoral movie executive in the 1992 film The Player. His directorial and screenwriting debut was 1992's Bob Roberts, a mockumentary about a populist right-wing senatorial candidate. Robbins then starred alongside Morgan Freeman in the critically acclaimed The Shawshank Redemption based on Stephen King's short story.

Since that time he has written, produced, and directed several films with strong but subtle political content, such as the critically-acclaimed capital punishment saga Dead Man Walking in 1995, based on the book by Helen Prejean, which earned him a directorial Oscar nomination, and 1999's Depression-era musical Cradle Will Rock. Robbins also continues to act in mainstream Hollywood thrillers, adding shades to his usual affable characters like Arlington Road (1999) as a chilling next door neighbor with evil intentions, and Antitrust (2001) as a Bill Gates-ish computer tycoon, and to act in and direct Actors' Gang theater productions.

Robbins lives in New York City with Sarandon and their three children. He is a prominent spokesperson for anti-globalization, and vocally opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2003 a 15th-anniversary celebration of Bull Durham at the National Baseball Hall of Fame was cancelled due to controversy over his and Sarandon's public anti-war stance. Costner defended Robbins and Sarandan 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. To read more see the theage.com article below.

He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and the SAG Award for his work in Mystic River (2003). His most recent appearances include a menacing paramedic to Top Gun co-star Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005) and will also appear in Jon Favreau's Zathura.

Ironically enough, only minutes after Robbins and Susan Sarandon flashed the peace symbol at the Academy Awards ceremony, Robbins threatened to punch out The Washington Post journalist Lloyd Grove. Robbins, who has spent the past five years claiming that his free speech rights were being violated, objected to the fact that journalist Grove, while on assignment for The Washington Post, had interviewed Ms. Sarandon's mother Lenora Tomalin, a conservative Republican. Tomalin happily went on record speculating that her daughter Sarandon and Robbins had politically "brainwashed" her grandson Jack Henry. In his article Grove quotes Robbins as saying "If you ever write about my family again, I will [bleeping] find you and I will [bleeping] hurt you." Source: Grove, Lloyd (Mar.25, 2003)."Night of the Livid Celeb". Washington Post., Page C01

Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

Selected filmography

• Fraternity Vacation (1985)
• Top Gun (1986)
• Five Corners (1988)
• Bull Durham (1988)
• Tapeheads (1988)
• Erik the Viking (1989)
• Jacob's Ladder (1990)
• The Player (1992)
• Bob Roberts writer, director (1992)
• The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• I.Q. (1994)
• Dead Man Walking writer, director (1995)
• Nothing to Lose (1997)
• Arlington Road (1999)
• Cradle Will Rock writer, director (1999)
• Mission to Mars (2000)
• High Fidelity (2000)
• Antitrust (2001)
• Human Nature (2001)
• Code 46 (2003)
• Mystic River (2003)
• War of the Worlds (2005)
• The Secret Life of Words (2005)

External links

• Tim Robbins at the Internet Movie Database
• Embedded Live, the play and Embedded /Live, the DVD
• Interview from On The Media, February 20, 2004
• Interview from Media Matters, June 5, 2005
• Texture on 3D chat client "Active Worlds"
• TheAge.com Article: "Tim Robbins: Hall of Fame Violates Freedom"