Wallace Shawn Biography

Fast Facts

• Received the 2005 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a Master American Dramatist
• Graduated from Harvard College with a degree in history and studied economics and philosophy at Oxford University
• Born to father William Shawn, who served as the editor of The New Yorker for 36 years and has a younger brother who is a composer with whom he collaborated on the opera "The Music Teacher․"
• Wanted to become a diplomat and once traveled to India as an English teacher
• Began his career as a playwright and actor in the late 1970s
• Made his screen acting debut in the film "Manhattan" in 1979
• Quote: "I think it's rather fun that compared to Dostoyevsky or many other writers, I appear in cartoons․ I sort of enjoy the fact that I have made a living in an innocent way․"
• Frequently collaborates with fellow writer and actor Deborah Eisenberg
• Known for his 1980s roles as Wally Shawn in "My Dinner with Andre" and Vizzini in "The Princess Bride․"
• Provided the voice of Rex the dinosaur in the "Toy Story" franchise
• Completed his first play, "Four Meals in May," in 1967 while he was still a student at Oxford