Austin Pendleton

Austin Campbell Pendleton, born March 27, 1940, in Warren, Ohio, is an American actor, playwright, and theatre director whose career on stage and screen has spanned six decades. His father, Thorn Pendleton, operated a tool company, while his mother, Frances (née Manchester) Pendleton, worked as a professional actress whose performances first drew her son toward the theatre. Pendleton staged informal productions in the family home's basement during junior high school and later participated in theatre at Yale University, from which he graduated in 1961. While at Yale, he was a member of the Yale Dramatic Association and in 1958 collaborated with lyricist Peter Bergman on two musical plays starring Philip Proctor — Tom Jones and Booth Is Back In Town. Proctor and Bergman would later form half of the comedy group The Firesign Theatre. A childhood acquaintance from Warren, Roger Ailes, who became CEO of Fox News, took acting classes taught by Pendleton's mother. Pendleton graduated from the University School, a private all-boys school in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1957, before enrolling at Yale.

Following his graduation from Yale, Pendleton relocated to New York City and studied at HB Studio, where he has taught acting since 1969. He also teaches directing at The New School. His professional stage debut came in 1962 in the off-Broadway production of Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad, directed by Jerome Robbins. When Robbins brought Fiddler on the Roof to Broadway in 1964, he cast Pendleton in the opening-night company as Motel the tailor, marking the beginning of a Broadway career that would extend through 2022. Subsequent Broadway appearances included The Diary of Anne Frank, Doubles, An African Millionaire, Choir Boy in 2016, and The Minutes in 2022, the latter as a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Tracy Letts's play.

Pendleton received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance and an Obie Award for his work in The Last Sweet Days of Isaac in 1970. In 2007, he was honored with a Special Drama Desk Award recognizing him as a "Renaissance Man of the American Theatre." His directing work has also earned significant recognition: his staging of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes on Broadway in 1981, featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Maureen Stapleton, earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play. An additional Obie Award came in 2011 for his direction of the off-Broadway revival of Three Sisters. Other directing credits include The Runner Stumbles by Milan Stitt in 1977, Spoils of War by Michael Weller in 1988, The Size of the World by Charles Evered in 1996, Uncle Vanya starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard at the Classic Stage Company in 2009, Tennessee Williams's Vieux Carré at The Pearl Theatre Company in 2009, and a 2012 production of Detroit at the National Theatre in London. In 2022, he directed Between Riverside and Crazy on Broadway, having previously directed the same play off-Broadway in 2014.

As a playwright, Pendleton authored Uncle Bob, Booth, and Orson's Shadow, all produced off-Broadway. Uncle Bob premiered off-Broadway in 2001 at The SoHo Playhouse, starring George Morfogen — for whom the role was written — and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his New York theatre debut, directed by Courtney Moorehead and produced by Steven Sendor. Pendleton also compiled Henry VI and Richard III into a single work titled H6R3, intended to clarify the narrative and expand the women's roles, which was staged as a benefit production for The Mirror Theater Ltd at the Promenade Theater in New York. Pendleton played Richard in the production, with a cast that included Lynn Redgrave, Geraldine Page's frequent collaborator Sabra Jones as Elizabeth, Geraint Wyn Davies as Henry VI, Daniel Gerroll as Buckingham, and Lisa Pelikan as Lady Anne.

Pendleton has maintained a long association with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, beginning when he directed Ralph Pape's Say Goodnight, Gracie during the 1979–80 season, and he holds ensemble membership there. His acting credits at Steppenwolf include Uncle Vanya, Valparaiso, and Educating Rita. He also served as artistic director of the Circle Repertory Company, with Lynne Thigpen as associate artistic director, until the company closed in 1996. In August 2006, he appeared as the Chaplain in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, directed by George C. Wolfe at the Delacorte Theater, and in 2007 played Friar Lawrence in The Public Theater's production of Romeo and Juliet, also at the Delacorte. He is additionally a member of The Mirror Theater Ltd's Mirror Repertory Company, for which he directed a 1984 production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts starring Geraldine Page, Sabra Jones, and Victor Slezak.

Pendleton's screen work includes roles in Catch-22 (1970), What's Up, Doc? (1972), The Front Page (1974), The Muppet Movie (1979), Short Circuit (1986), Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), My Cousin Vinny (1992), Mr. Nanny (1993), Guarding Tess (1994), Amistad (1997), and Finding Nemo (2003). His participation in A Beautiful Mind (2001) brought him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In 2016, he was the subject of the documentary Starring Austin Pendleton, in which colleagues including Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Olympia Dukakis, and Ethan Hawke discussed his life and work. Pendleton has been married to actress Katina Commings since November 1970, and they have one child.