Biography for
Bill Irwin (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

11 April 1950, Santa Monica, California, USA

Height

5' 11½" (1.82 m)

Mini Biography

Bill is the oldest of three children born to Horace and Elizabeth Irwin. He spent a year in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as an exchange student. He is a graduate in theatre arts from Oberlin College, OH, a graduate of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College, FL, and received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1984.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Elizabeth Lear

Mini Biography

Bill Irwin was born on April 11, 1950, in Santa Monica, California, United States. He studied acting and graduated in theatre arts from Oberlin College, Ohio, and from Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College, Forida. Bill Irwin began his film career in 1980 and earned film credits in more than twenty movies. His best known film role was Lou Lou Who in Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He is also a producer, director, writer, and choreographer.

In 2001 Irwin collaborated with the renown Russian mime Vyacheslav Polunin, who organized the New Carnival within the framework of the World Theatre Olympics, in the Hermitage Gardens in Moscow. There Bill Irwin performed in the duo with David Shiner among some of the best acting comedians of the 20th century, such as Vyacheslav Polunin, Django Edwards, Jérôme Deschamps, Franz-Joseph Bogner, Leo Bassi, Gennadi Khazanov, Leonid Yarmolnik, and Bolek Polívka and over a hundred of other comedians and mimes from all over the world.

He appeared on Broadway in 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' and at La Jolla Playhouse in "The Seagull" by Anton Chekhov, among his other stage works. Bill Irwin won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, for his performance in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'. He was also nominated for four Tony Awards as an actor, author, director, and choreographer. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer's Fellowship in 1981 and 1983. In 1984 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow and was awarded a Five-year MacArthur Fellowship.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov

Spouse

Kimi Okada	(19 April 1977 - 1982) (divorced)
Martha Roth	(? - present) 1 child

Trivia

Selected for the International Clown Hall Of Fame, and was inducted August 7, 1999.

In 1989, was nominated for four Tony Awards for "Largely New York": as author of a Best Play nominee, Best Actor (Play), Best Director (Play) and, with collaborator Kimi Okada, Best Choreographer. In 1999, his show "Fool Moon" won a Special Tony Award for Live Theatrical Presentation.

Won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, for his performance as George in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'.

Where Are They Now

(April 2005) Knocking them dead on Broadway, playing a crackerjack George to Kathleen Turner's Martha in the revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

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