BILL IRWIN Biography (last updated Jan 1997)
Bill Irwin was born 11 April 1950, in Santa Monica, California, the oldest of three children born to Horace and Elizabeth Irwin. He was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Southern California. He spent a year in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as an exchange student. He is a graduate in theatre arts from Oberlin College, OH and a graduate of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College, FL. Mr. Irwin met his wife, Martha Roth, actress-turned-nurse midwife, when he went to her for treatment of a stiff neck. Their son, Santos Patrick Morales Irwin, was born in 1991.
Bill Irwin was an original member of Kraken, a theatre company directed by Herbert Blau, and was also an original member of the Pickle Family Circus of San Francisco where he worked with Larry Pisoni and Geoff Hoyle. He has appeared as a guest artist with the ODC Dance Company of San Francisco, which first produced his original work. His own pieces, often produced with Doug Skinner and Michael O'Connor, include "Not Quite / New York" , "The Courtroom" and "The Regard of Flight" (PBS, Great Performances). Skinner, Irwin and O'Connor have performed "The Regard of Flight" on and off Broadway, across the U.S. and in Syndey, Australia. "Largely New York", Irwin's original work, was developed at The Seattle Repertory Theater City Center and The Kennedy Center, ran on Broadway, and received five Tony nominations as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and New York Dance and Performance awards.
Mr. Irwin performed "Fool Moon" with David Shiner and the Red Clay Ramblers on Broadway, in Los Angeles, Vienna and Munich.
His most recent show was "Scapin" at The Roundabout Theatre in NYC from Dec 1996 to Mar 1997.
He appeared at the Public Theater in Beckett's "Texts for Nothing" directed by Joe Chaikin, and as Trinculo in "The Tempest " with Patrick Stewart, directed by George Wolfe (1995), also in "Waiting for Godot" at Lincoln Center with Steve Martin, Robin Williams, and F. Murray Abraham.
At La Jolla Playhouse, he played Galy Gay in Brecht's "A Man's a Man", Medvedenko in "The Sea Gull", and Arlecchino in "Three Cuckholds". He appeared on Broadway in "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" with Jonathan Pryce; "5-6-7-8- . . . Dance!" with Sandy Duncan; and in Philadelphia in "Strike Up the Band".
with Steve Martin, Robin Williams and F. Murray Abraham.
On TV, he has appeared on "Saturday Night Live," "The Tonight Show," "The Cosby Show," HBO's "Bette Midler, Mondo Beyondo," CBS's "Northern Exposure," PBS's "Great Performances" and, with great pride, on "Sesame Street." In Britain, he appeared on BBC's "Paul Daniels Magic Show." His film credits include the Robert Altman movie Popeye, Alan Alda's A New Life, John Sayles' Eight Men Out, Herb Ross' My Blue Heaven, and Paul Mazursky's Scenes From a Mall. Mr. Irwin also appears in Stepping Out with Liza Minnelli, in Jim Abraham's Hot Shots and in Silent Tongue, written and directed by Sam Shepard.
In 1981 and 1983, Mr. Irwin was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer's Fellowship and in 1984 was named a Guggenheim Fellow and awarded a five-year MacArthur Fellowship. He gratefully acknowledges these awards.
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