Wallace Shawn Biography

Fast Facts

• Son of William Shawn, the legendary editor of The New Yorker
• As a child, staged musical puppet shows with his brother, Allen, for their parents and friends
• Before breaking into acting, taught drama and Latin at the Trevor Day School in New York City
• Our Late Night, the first play he wrote that was produced, was initially booed by off-Broadway audiences but went on to win the Obie award in 1975; he also won Obies for 1986's Aunt Dan and Lemon and 1990's The Fever
• First appeared on stage was in the 1977 production of his translation of Niccolo Machiavelli's The Mandrake
• Big-screen debut was in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Manhattan (1979); his best-known film role, in Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride, followed in 1987
• Has appeared on numerous TV series, including The Cosby Show, Murphy Brown, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Gossip Girl