Personal life

Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor (née Pottasch) and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television. His mother acted under the name Eleanor Barry.

His uncles were dominant forces in the theatre business; they founded the Balaban and Katz Theatre circuit in Chicago, a chain which included the Chicago and Uptown Theatres. Balaban's father, Elmer, and uncle, Harry, founded the H & E Balaban Corporation in Chicago, which operated its own movie palaces including the Esquire Theatre in Chicago. They later owned a powerful group of television stations and cable television franchises. His uncle Barney Balaban was president of Paramount Pictures for nearly 30 years from 1936-64. His maternal grandmother's second husband, Sam Katz, was a vice president at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer beginning in 1936. Sam had been early partners with Bob's uncles Abe, Barney, John, and Max in forming Balaban and Katz. Sam served as President of the Publix theatre division of Paramount Pictures.

Balaban began his college career at Colgate University where he joined Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity and then transferred to New York University. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his family. He is Jewish. His paternal grandparents emigrated from Russia to Chicago, while his mother's family was from Germany, Russia, and Romania.

Career

One of his earliest appearances in film was in Midnight Cowboy (1969). Prior to that, he filled the role of "Linus" in the original off-Broadway production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1967.

Among his early roles in the 1970s were those of Orr in Catch-22 and the interpreter David Laughlin in the 1977 Steven Spielberg science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In 1979 he received a Tony Award nomination for his role in The Inspector General. During the 1980s he appeared in films such as Altered States and 2010. He directed the Randy Quaid picture Parents, and the Armin Mueller-Stahl picture The Last Good Time.

He played supporting roles in films such as Absence of Malice, Bob Roberts, Deconstructing Harry, Ghost World, The Majestic, Lady in the Water and Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration.

Balaban appeared in Miami Vice as reporter Ira Stone. In the 1990s, Balaban had a recurring role on the fourth season of Seinfeld as Russell Dalrymple, the fictional president of NBC. He also played Warren Littlefield, a real-world NBC executive, in The Late Shift, about the battle between Jay Leno and David Letterman for NBC's The Tonight Show. He continued his ties to Littlefield in 2012 with his performance of Littlefield's autobiography, Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV. In 1999, Balaban made a guest appearance in the sitcom Friends as Phoebe Buffay's father Frank in "The One With Joey's Bag". In 2010, Balaban appeared as Judge Clayton Horn, the real-life judge who presided over the obscenity trial of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Bookstore in the movie Howl.

In 2001, Balaban produced Gosford Park, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. He also appeared in the movie as Morris Weissman, a Hollywood producer. He appeared in an episode of Entourage as a doctor known for writing prescriptions for medical marijuana. He directed the film Bernard and Doris (2006), starring Susan Sarandon; and also the biopic Georgia O'Keeffe (2009), starring Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons. He has directed several episodes of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie.

Balaban is the author of a series of six children's novels featuring a bionic dog named McGrowl.

In September 2011, he was featured with Morgan Freeman and John Lithgow in the Broadway debut of the play, '8' — a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage — as Judge Vaughn Walker. The production was held at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1969	Me, Natalie	Morris
1969	Midnight Cowboy	The Young Student - New York
1970	Catch-22	Capt. Orr
1970	The Strawberry Statement	Elliot
1971	Making It	Wilkie
1974	Bank Shot	Victor Karp	credited as Robert Balaban
1975	Report to the Commissioner	Joey Egan	credited as Robert Balaban
1977	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	David Laughlin
1978	Girlfriends	Martin
1980	Altered States	Arthur Rosenberg
1981	Absence of Malice	Rosen
1981	Prince of the City	Santimassino
1981	Whose Life Is It Anyway?	Carter Hill
1984	2010	Dr. Chandra
1987	End of the Line	Warren Gerber
1989	Dead Bang	Elliot Webly
1990	Alice	Sid Moscowitz
1991	Little Man Tate	Quizmaster	Uncredited
1992	Bob Roberts	Michael Janes
1993	For Love or Money	Ed Drinkwater
1993	Amos & Andrew	Dr. R.A. 'Roy' Fink
1994	Greedy	Ed
1994	City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold	Dr. Jeffrey Sanborn	Uncredited
1996	Waiting for Guffman	Lloyd Miller
1996	Pie in the Sky	Paul Entamen
1996	Conversation with the Beast	Philip Koontz
1997	Clockwatchers	Milton Lasky
1997	Deconstructing Harry	Richard
1999	Three To Tango	Decker
1999	Cradle Will Rock	Harry Hopkins
1999	Jacob the Liar	Kowalsky
2000	Best in Show	Dr. Theodore W. Millbank, III
2001	Ghost World	Enid's Father
2001	Gosford Park	Morris Weissman	Also Writer/Producer
2001	The Majestic	Elvin Clyde
2001	The Mexican	Bernie Nayman
2002	The Tuxedo	Winton Chalmers	Uncredited
2003	A Mighty Wind	Jonathan Steinbloom
2004	Marie and Bruce	Roger
2005	Trust the Man	Tobey's Therapist	Uncredited
2005	Capote	William Shawn
2006	Lady in the Water	Harry Farber
2006	For Your Consideration	Philip Koontz
2007	No Reservations	Therapist
2007	Dedication	Arthur Planck
2007	License to Wed	Jewelry Store Clerk	Uncredited
2009	Rage	Mr. White
2010	Howl	Judge Clayton Horn
2011	A Monster in Paris	Inspector Pâté
2011	Thin Ice	Leonard Dahl
2012	Moonrise Kingdom	Narrator
2013	Girl Most Likely	Imogene's Father
2013	Fading Gigolo	Sol
2014	The Monuments Men	Pvt. Preston Savitz
2014	The Grand Budapest Hotel	M. Martin

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1965	Hank	Harvey	Episode: "Will The Real Harvey Wheatley Please Stand Up?"
1969	Room 222	Grady Garrett	Episode: "Father & Sons"
1971	The Mod Squad	Walter	Episode: "A Short Course in War"
1971	Love, American Style	Unknown	Episode: "Love and the Fuzz"
1985-1986	Miami Vice	Ira Stone	2 episodes
1987	Invisible Thread		Director, television movie
1992-1993	Seinfeld	Russell Dalrymple	5 episodes
1995	Legend	Harry Parver	2 episodes
1996	The Late Shift	Warren Littlefield	Television movie
1998	Friends	Frank Buffay Sr.	Episode: "The One With Joey's Bag"
1999	Swing Vote	Justice Eli MacCorckle	Television movie
2000	The West Wing	Ted Marcus	Episode: "20 Hours in L.A."
2006	Tom Goes to the Mayor	Walt Pickle	Episode: "The Layover"
2008	Recount	Ben Ginsberg	Television movie
2011-2012	The Good Wife	Gordon Higgs	2 episodes
2013-2015	Girls	Mr. Rice	3 episodes
2014	Alpha House	Senator Elliot Robeson	2 episodes
2015	Broad City	Arthur Wexler	2 episodes
2015	Last Week Tonight with John Oliver	Himself (as mascot of the ATF)	Episode 37
2015	Show Me a Hero	Judge Leonard Burke Sand	4 episodes

Further reading

• Balaban, David. The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz, Arcadia Publishing, 2006
• Balaban, Bob. Spielberg, Truffaut & Me: An Actor's Diary, Titan Books, 1978 (revised 2002)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]