Richard Portnow Biography

Fast Facts

• The actors' trade newspaper "Back Stage West" named him one of its "Actors We Love․"
• His early off-off-Broadway work earned him the Best Newcomer of the Year award from Show Business Magazine
• Earned his B․A․ in speech and theater at Brooklyn College
• After being discouraged from acting by the faculty at his college, he worked as a bartender, an antique dealer, a boxer, a fifth-grade teacher, a body builder, a truck driver, a bouncer and a cook
• Quote: "It's interesting watching a film that was made 25 years ago; you look like a kid․"
• His stage credits include Broadway productions of "The House of Blue Leaves" and "A Month of Sundays․"
• Joined the by-invitation-only group of entertainment industry professionals known as Fête
• When watching "Good Morning, Vietnam" years after it was filmed, he couldn't remember doing the little dance that his character performs in one of the scenes
• Appeared in a television commercial for Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants
• Collects Americana from the 1940s and 1950s, especially oil paintings created for pulp magazine covers