Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist
and musician. He is known for his roles as Nuke in Bull Durham, Jacob Singer in Jacob's
Ladder, Griffin Mill in The Player, Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, and as Dave Boyle
in Mystic River, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Early life Robbins was born in West Covina, California,
and raised in New York City. He is the son of Mary Cecelia, an actress, and Gilbert Lee
Robbins, a musician, folk singer, actor, and former manager of The Gaslight Cafe. Robbins
has two sisters, Adele and Gabrielle, and a brother, David. He was raised Catholic.
He moved to Greenwich Village with his family at a young age, while his father pursued a
career as a member of the folk music group, The Highwaymen. Robbins started doing theater
at age twelve and joined the drama club at Stuyvesant High School. He spent two years
at SUNY Plattsburgh and then returned to California to study at the UCLA Film School.
Career Robbins's acting career began at Theater for
the New City, where he spent his teenage years in their Annual Summer Street Theater and
also played the title role in a musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little
Prince. After graduation from college in 1981, Robbins founded the Actors' Gang, an experimental
theater group, in Los Angeles with actor friends from his college softball team. In 1982, he
appeared as domestic terrorist Andrew Reinhardt in three episodes of the television program
St. Elsewhere. In 1985, he guest-starred in the second episode of the television series
Moonlighting, "Gunfight at the So-So Corral". He also took small parts in films, such as
the role of frat animal "Mother" in Fraternity Vacation and "Lt. Sam 'Merlin' Wells" in the
fighter pilot film Top Gun. He played in The Love Boat, as a young version of one of the
characters in retrospection about the Second World War. His breakthrough role was as pitcher
Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh in the 1988 baseball film Bull Durham which he co-starred with
Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner. He received critical acclaim and won the Best
Actor Award at Cannes for his starring role as an amoral film executive in Robert Altman's
1992 film The Player. He made his directorial and screenwriting debut with 1992's Bob Roberts,
a mockumentary about a right-wing senatorial candidate. Robbins then starred alongside
Morgan Freeman in the critically acclaimed The Shawshank Redemption, which was based
on Stephen King's short story.
Robbins has written, produced, and directed several films with strong social content,
such as the critically acclaimed capital punishment saga Dead Man Walking, starring Sarandon and
Sean Penn. The film earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director. His next directorial effort
was 1999's Depression-era musical Cradle Will Rock. Robbins has also appeared in mainstream
Hollywood thrillers, such as 1999's Arlington Road and 2001's Antitrust, and in comical
films such as The Hudsucker Proxy, Nothing to Lose, and High Fidelity. Robbins has also
acted in and directed several Actors' Gang theater productions.
Robbins won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and the SAG Award for his work in Mystic River,
as a man traumatized from having been molested as a child. In 2005, he won the 39th annual
Man of the Year Pudding Pot Award given by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals of Harvard.
His most recent acting roles include a temporarily blind man who is nursed to health by a psychologically
wounded young woman in The Secret Life of Words and an apartheid torturer in Catch a
Fire. As of 2011, he was the tallest Academy Award-winning actor at 6 feet 4.75 inches.
In early 2006, Robbins directed an adaptation of George Orwell's novel 1984, written by
Michael Gene Sullivan of the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. The show opened
at Actors' Gang, at their new location at The Ivy Substation in Culver City, California.
In addition to venues around the United States, it has played in Athens, Greece, the Melbourne
International Festival in Australia and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Robbins is considering
adapting the play into a film version. Robbins appeared in 2008's The Lucky Ones,
with co-star Rachel McAdams. Shooting took place in Illinois, including scenes filmed
at Mojo's Music in Edwardsville, Illinois. Robbins played Senator Hammond, the disapproving
father of the film's villain Hector Hammond, in the 2011 superhero film Green Lantern.
In 2010 Robbins released the album Tim Robbins & The Rogues Gallery Band, a collection of
songs written over the course of 25 years that he ultimately took on a world tour. He
was originally offered the chance to record an album in 1992 after the success of his
film Bob Roberts, but he declined because he had "too much respect for the process",
having seen his father work so hard as a musician, and because he felt he had nothing to say
at the time. Robbins directed two episodes from the HBO
series Treme. The series follows the interconnected lives of a group of New Orleanians in the
wake of Hurricane Katrina. He helmed the episodes "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky" in
Season 2 and "Promised Land" in Season 3. Robbins became interested in the show while
staying in New Orleans during the filming of Green Lantern. "I had the unique experience
of watching ‘Treme’ with locals. It resonated for me immediately, and it resonated for them
as well, because they have seen their town get misinterpreted and represented in ridiculous
ways," he told The Times-Picayune in 2011. “Something about this show was different
for them. I appreciated that. I loved the writing and the actors. I loved the environment
it’s set in. I watched the whole first season in New Orleans, and got in touch with David
Simon and said, ‘If you guys need a director next year, I’d be happy to do an episode.'"
In 2013, he will be a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.
Robbins will direct and star in the film Man Under, alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Chloë
Grace Moretz. Personal life
In 1988 Robbins entered into a relationship with actress Susan Sarandon, whom he met on
the set of Bull Durham. They have two sons: John "Jack" Henry and Miles Guthrie. Robbins,
like Sarandon, is a lapsed Catholic, and they both share liberal political views. The end
of Robbins' relationship with Sarandon was announced in late December 2009.
Robbins supported Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign and appeared on stage in character
as Bob Roberts during the "Nader Rocks the Garden" rally at Madison Square Garden. In
December 2007, Robbins campaigned for Senator John Edwards in the 2008 U.S. presidential
election. He publicly opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In 2003 a 15th anniversary celebration of Bull Durham at the National Baseball Hall
of Fame was canceled by Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey. Petroskey, who was on the
White House staff during the Reagan administration, told Robbins that his stance helped to "undermine
the U.S. position, which could put our troops in even more danger." Durham co-star Kevin
Costner, a self-described libertarian, defended Robbins and Sarandon, saying, "I think Tim
and Susan's courage is the type of courage that makes our democracy work. Pulling back
this invite is against the whole principle about what we fight for and profess to be
about." Robbins later said that Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, and Jack Valenti were the
only major Hollywood figures that stood up for his free speech rights in this case and
noted that all three men are either Republicans or very conservative Democrats, adding that
he felt there could be common ground between individuals with different political beliefs.
Robbins is an avid baseball and ice hockey fan. He supports the New York Mets and the
New York Rangers and frequently attends games. In 1995 Robbins did a series of promos for
MSG Network advertising upcoming Rangers games, and has narrated a documentary on the 1969
Mets for SNY. Robbins is a passionate ice hockey player who participates regularly in
the New York adult recreational hockey community. Filmography
References Notes
External links Tim Robbins at the Internet Movie Database
Robbins' blog at The Huffington Post Embedded Live, the play and Embedded /Live,
the DVD TheAge.com Article: "Tim Robbins: Hall of
Fame Violates Freedom"