Norbert Leo Butz Biography

Fast Facts

• Won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for his performance in "Catch Me I You Can․"
• Won Tony Awards for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for "Catch Me if You Can" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," making him one of the few actors to win multiple times in that category
• Though he was accepted as a journalism major at the University of Missouri in Columbia, behind his parents' backs, he auditioned for the BFA acting program at Webster University and chose to earn his degree at that school instead
• During graduate school, he supported himself by singing and playing guitar in bar bands and rock bands
• When he was 7 years old, his older brother took him and several of his siblings to audition for his high school play, and he was the only one who didn't get a part
• Spent several years acting at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, earning his MFA with the company, before making a name for himself in New York
• Quote: "I obviously have the worse name in show business!"
• Quote: "[on acting] "I think that when you're from a big family, you really do latch on to things to help identify yourself, to separate yourself from the clan a little bit․ It was the thing that always made sense to me․""
• Known for his Broadway performances in such musicals as "Rent" and "Cabaret․"
• His mother wanted to name him Timothy James, but while she was in recovery from his birth, his father changed the name on his birth certificate to his own name, Norbert