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Tim Robbins
Cameron Dye & Tim Robbins in
superb script, then drew excellent performances from both his partner (as Prejean) and Sean Penn as the killer Poncelet. Susan Sarandon won
As Nick Beam in Nothing to Lose
A cameo for Robbins in The Truth About Charlie
Tim Robbins as Dave Boyle in
Tim Robbins in War of the Worlds
Tim Robbins as Nic Vos in Catch a Fire
Robbins played the title role alongside JohnCleese
Robbins as William Geld in Code 46
In the comedy Noise (2007) Robbins plays David Owen, a man taking vigilante action against the high level of noise in Manhattan, whilst in another comedy, The Lucky Ones (2008), he plays one of three soldiers returning from the Iraq war only to find that their lives have moved on.
Ryan Phillippe & Tim Robbins in Antitrust
I was thrilled to meet Tim Robbins on 3rd October 2010 when he performed at the Nottingham Glee Club as part of his European tour with The Rogues Gallery Band. He signed a photograph for me in the afternoon, I went to his brilliant show in the evening, and managed to get this photograph with him just before he left.
Timothy Francis Robbins was born in 1958 in West Covina, California. His mother, Mary Bledsoe, was an actress and his father, Gilbert Robbins, was a folk musician, and nightclub owner. RobbinsRob
Tim Robbins aged six
Young Tim Robbins with his guitar
Robbins, who has an older brother David, and two older sisters Adele and Gabrielle, moved with his family to Greenwich Village, New York when his father joined the folk music group The Highwaymen based
there.
there.
In 1968, Tim appeared in a ten mi
minute short film against the war in Vietnam (he used a still from this film on the cover of his 2010 cd).
year, he joined his sisters in the avant garde theatre troupe, Theatre for the New City. He loved it, and immersed himself in stage work, both in school and out. By the age of 14 he would be directing his own shows at his school, Stuyvesant High. Scho
The same
Stuyvesant High School, New York
In 1978, he returned to Los An
Angeles to stay with his brother David. After spending a year delivering pizzas and working as a waiter, Tim Robbins enrolled at the UCLA Film School. He graduated from there in 1981 and, along with actor friends from the University, founded a highly experimental theatre group called The Actors' Gang, which challenged audiences with its anarchic productions! Robbins is still associated with this as its artistic director some thirty years later.
Fraternity Vacation
With money short, Robbins took on some TV work, along with several small film roles - Larry Tucker in Fraternity Vacation (1985) and Sam Wells in Top Gun (1986).
Much better roles followed like Harry in Five Corners (1987) and the baseball pitcher LaLoosh in BullD
Tim Robbins as Harry in Five Corners
Tim Robbins & Kevin Costner in Bull Durham
In contrast to Top Gun, the George Lucas film Howard the Duck (1986), with Robbins playing a nerdy scientist, was a box-office disaster. Regarded as the worst film of the year, it lost $20million and received several 'Razzies' (Golde
(Golden Raspberry Awards) with Robbins nominated for 'Worst Supporting Actor'!
Razzie Award
Tim Robbins in Howard the Duck
Bull Durham (1988), which Tim Robbins still considers to be his favourite film. This was his breakthrough role, with the film also starring Susan Sarandon (his partner for 21 years) & Kevin Costner.
Tim Robbins in Erik the Viking
Tim Robbins & Mary Steenburgen
Tim Robbins in the title role of Bob Roberts
in Miss Firecracker
Tim Robbins
in Jacob's Ladder
Tim Robbins as Griffin Mill in The Player
directed.
Tim Robbins' next starring role showed that he had a real gift for physical comedy, as the 'dim' executive Norville Barnes in the Coen brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), co-starring Paul Newman.
Robbins & Paul Newman in The Hudsucker Proxy
Tim Robbins was now a big box office draw, but his very outspoken criticism of the Gulf War also made things difficult for him. Despite this, his role in The Shawshank Redemption (1994) made him a universally popular star amongst the film going public.
Based on Stephen King's short story, Robbins plays Andy Dufresne, a white-collar worker jailed for life for murd
murder. Inside, he strikes up a friendship with another inmate, the top procurer 'Red' Redding (Morgan Freeman) and gradually finds favour with the authorities by working tax dodges for them.
Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne in
The Shawshank Redemption
Tim Robbins & Morgan Freeman in
The Shawshank Redemption
Tim Robbins & Clancy Brown
Tim Robbins & Bob Gunton
Tim Robbins & Morgan Freeman
The film was not a success at the box office, but after its video
video release, The Shawshank Redemption became a mega hit - many believing it to be the best film ever made! It gained seven Oscar and two Golden Globe nominations in 1995.
In the same year as he made The Shawshank Redemption, Robbins appeared in a completely contrasting role. Ed Walters is a car mechanic with a natural knack for special puzzles, and he falls for Albert Einstein's neice in the romantic comedy I.Q.(1994) co-starring Meg Ryan and Walter Matthau.
Poster for The Shawshank Redemption
Dead Man Walking (1995) proved to be another triumph for Robbins who wrote the screenplay based on the real life story of Sister Helen Prejean, aa
a nun who forged an understanding with an unrepentant Death Row inmate whilst struggling to hold onto her Christian beliefs. The story had been brought to Robbins by Susan Sarandon who asked him to provide the screenplay but he hesitated for so long that she threatened to take it elsewhere. He finally wrote a superbs
won an Oscar, with Robbins also being nominated for Best Director. Four years later, Sarandon appeared in another film that Robbins wrote and directed - the Depression-era musical Cradle Will Rock (1999).
working on Dead Man Walking
Susan Sarandon, Helen Prejean & Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins' acting roles around this time included Oliver Lang in the thriller Arlington Road (1999)
Tim Robbins as Lang in
Arlington Road
Tim Robbins directing Cradle Will Rock
(1999); Gary Winston in the thriller Antitrust (2001); Wo
Woody Blake in the sci-fi drama Mission to Mars (2000) and Ian 'Ray' Raymond in the comedy High Fidelity (2000).
Over the past decade, Robbins' steady stream off
A cameo role in High Fidelity
Mystic River
Tim Robbins as Dave Boyle in Mystic River
Mystic River
Tim Robbins with his Oscar for
of films has included the superbly acted Mystic River (2003) directed by Clint Eastwood. In it, Robbins plays Dave Boyle, a handyman accused of murdering a mugger. It won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Robbins, for 'Best Supporting Actor'.
Robbins then went on to star with Samantha Morton in the romantic thriller Code 46 (2003) followed, two years later, by Steven Spielberg's blockbuster War of the Worlds (2005). The thriller Catch a Fire (2006) is a real-life story set in apartheid-era South Africa, with Robbins cast as police Colonel Nic Vos.
Zathura: A Space Adventure
Tim Robbins & Jonah Bobo in
Tim Robbins as David Owen in Noise
Robbins as Cheaver in The Lucky Ones
Robbins has had a break from film making since appearing in the sci-fi fantasy City of Ember (2008), although in his next one The Green Lantern (due for release in 2011) he only has a small rol
Tim Robbins has always had a musical side, inherited from his musical
role.
Tim Robbins and the Rogues Gallery
Band
musical parents and, even when away filming, always took his guitar with him. Nights spent in hotel
Hal Willner
hotels were invariably used to write songs, often inspired by people he met, or stories they told him. He wrote his first song Dream in 1985 when he was "broke, in love and hungry," and many more have followed. In 2009 he sought the opinion of a friend, the music producer
Tim Robbins performs with The Rogues Gallery Band
producer Hal Willner, to see if he thought them good enough for an album. Willner thought so, found a superb backing group The Rogues Gallery Band, and the nine-track album was rel
released in September 2010. The album cover image is taken from a short anti-Vietnam war film in which Robbins (aged 10) had a part. He is in the centre wearing a hat and glasses.
Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins
Away from acting, Tim Robbins is an ice hockey fanatic, especially where New York Rangers ('The Blueshirts') are concerned, and claims to own every highlight video released of their 1994 Championship season.
Tim Robbins has never ma
married, although his long term relationship with actress Susan Sarandon lasted from 1988 until 2009. They have two sons - Jack (b.1989) and Miles (b.1992). Eva is Tim Robbins' step daughter.
Tim Robbins' brother David is a film composer and his sister Adele is an actress. Both worked with Tim Robbins in his films Bob Roberts and Dead Men Walking, with David also providing scores for many of Tim's theatre productions.
Tim Robbins is 6' 5" in height, and is the tallest man to win an Oscar!
On October 10th 2008 Tim Robbins was honoured with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hollywood Walk of Fame star
The Robbins family (l-r) Miles, Susan, Eva, Jack & Tim
Tim Robbins has signed this photo to me. It shows him as
Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption
Tim Robbins signing my photograph
John Cleese in the comedy Erik the Viking (1989); gave one
one of his very best performances as Vietnam war veteran Jacob Singer in Jacob's Ladder (1991) and then won a Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Fe
Festival for his role as the studio executive Griffin Mill in The Player (1992). In 1992, he also starred as the corrupt right-wing folksinger Bob Roberts in his own comedy Bob Roberts (1992), which he also
in Glasgow - 2nd October 2010