Shawn was born into a prominent Jewish family in New York City, where he continues to reside. He is the son of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker, and journalist Cecille Shawn (née Lyon); his brother, Allen, is a composer. Shawn attended The Putney School, a private liberal arts high school in Putney, Vermont, and graduated with a B.A. in history from Harvard University. He studied economics and philosophy at Oxford, originally intending to become a diplomat; he also traveled to India as an English teacher, on a Fulbright program. Since 1979, he has made a living primarily as an actor.
Shawn’s longtime companion is writer Deborah Eisenberg. His estranged child, Connor Doll, lives in Lebanon, Indiana with his ex-girlfriend Mary.
Shawn’s involvement with theater began in 1970 when he met Andre Gregory, who has since directed several of his plays. As a stage actor, he has appeared mostly in his own plays and other projects with Gregory. Shawn is known for… read more
Shawn was born into a prominent Jewish family in New York City, where he continues to reside. He is the son of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker, and journalist Cecille Shawn (née Lyon); his brother, Allen, is a composer. Shawn attended The Putney School, a private liberal arts high school in Putney, Vermont, and graduated with a B.A. in history from Harvard University. He studied economics and philosophy at Oxford, originally intending to become a diplomat; he also traveled to India as an English teacher, on a Fulbright program. Since 1979, he has made a living primarily as an actor.
Shawn’s longtime companion is writer Deborah Eisenberg. His estranged child, Connor Doll, lives in Lebanon, Indiana with his ex-girlfriend Mary.
Shawn’s involvement with theater began in 1970 when he met Andre Gregory, who has since directed several of his plays. As a stage actor, he has appeared mostly in his own plays and other projects with Gregory. Shawn is known for his two famous lines “Inconceivable!” and “If ya please.”
Shawn made his film debut in 1979, playing Diane Keaton’s ex-husband in Woody Allen’s Manhattan and appearing in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz as an insurance agent. His best-known film roles include Nancy Allen’s lovable but doomed landlord Earl in Strange Invaders (1983), the evil Vizzini in the fairy tale comedy The Princess Bride (1987), and debate teacher Mr. Hall in Clueless (1995). His rare non-comic film roles include two collaborations with Andre Gregory and Louis Malle: the semi-autobiographical dialogue My Dinner with Andre, and a combined production-and-backstage-drama of Uncle Vanya titled Vanya on 42nd Street.
Shawn quite often appears on television, where he has appeared in many genres and series. He has had recurring roles as the Ferengi Grand Nagus Zek on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a comic ex-reporter on Murphy Brown, the Huxtables’ neighbor on The Cosby Show, a psychiatrist on Crossing Jordan and The Game (US TV series), Marilu Henner’s love interest on Taxi, and a reprisal of his role as Mr. Hall in the television series “Clueless”, based on the film. He is also a voice actor for animated films and animated TV series, including the role of Rex, the insecure toy dinosaur in Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Monsters, Inc. (cameo appearance as Rex the Green Dinosaur), Gilbert Huph in The Incredibles, and two episodes of Family Guy (as Stewie’s half-brother Bertram). Shawn also cameoed as the voice of Principal Fetchit in Chicken Little and voiced the character of Munk in Happily N’Ever After. Another recent role was the megalomaniacal industrialist Baron von Westphalen in Southland Tales. Shawn has also appeared on Gossip Girl as Blair Waldorf’s stepfather and her mother, Eleanor’s, love interest, and in the 2003 movie The Haunted Mansion, alongside Eddie Murphy, playing a ghost servant. On February 4, 2010, he appeared as Jon Stewart’s therapist Alan Rubin on the Daily Show.
Shawn’s early plays, such as Marie and Bruce (1978), portrayed emotional and sexual conflicts in an absurdist style, with language that was both lyrical and violent. In a conversation with Andre Gregory, parts of which were used to create My Dinner with Andre, Shawn referred to these plays as depicting “my interior life as a raging beast.” Critical response was extremely polarized: some critics hailed Shawn as a major writer, while John Simon called Marie and Bruce “garbage” and described Shawn as “one of the worst and unsightliest actors in this city.” His play A Thought in Three Parts caused a minor uproar in London in 1977 when the production was investigated by a vice squad and attacked in Parliament due to allegedly pornographic content.
His later plays became more overtly political, drawing parallels between the psychology of his characters and the behavior of governments and social classes. Among the best-known of these are Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985) and The Designated Mourner (1997). Shawn’s political work has invited controversy, as he often presents the audience with several contradictory points of view: in Aunt Dan and Lemon, which Shawn described as a cautionary tale against fascism, the character Lemon explained her neo-Nazi beliefs with such conviction that some critics[who?] called the play effectively pro-fascist. The monologue The Fever, originally created by Shawn to be performed for small audiences in apartments, was dismissed by some critics[who?] as “liberal guilt.” It describes a person who becomes sick while struggling to find a morally consistent way to live when faced with injustice, and harshly criticizes the record of the U.S. in supporting oppressive anti-communist regimes. The Fever will be performed by Saltpeter Productions in London, England on 30 December 2010.
Three of Shawn’s plays have been adapted into films: The Designated Mourner (basically a film of David Hare’s stage production), Marie and Bruce, and The Fever. Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave stars in The Fever (2004), which first aired on HBO on June 13, 2007.
Shawn has also written political commentary for The Nation, and in 2004 he published the one-issue-only progressive political magazine Final Edition, which features interviews with and articles by Jonathan Schell, Noam Chomsky, Mark Strand, and Deborah Eisenberg.
Shawn is credited as translator of Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, which opened at Studio 54 in Manhattan on March 25, 2006. He appears briefly in voiceover during “Song about the Futility of Human Endeavor.”
Shawn published his first non-fiction work, Essays, on September 1, 2009. It is a collection of essays that expresses his perceptions of politics and other subjects that reflect an aspect of his life.
