An endearing character player of film and TV also noted for his work as a serious and provocative playwright, Wallace Shawn made his acting debut on stage in his own translation of Machiavelli’s THE MANDRAKE in 1977. He made a brief but indelible first impression on screen two years later, playing Diane Keaton’s ex-husband in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” (1979). Short, pale and bald, with a lisping, scratchy voice, Shawn looks more like a friendly gnome than a successful actor. Nonetheless, he immediately began amassing credits, appearing in two other films in 1979 and two the following year. Shawn went on to become a movie fixture of sorts, acting in as many as five films a year by the mid-1980s. He tended to appear in brief but memorable bits such as playing the radio superhero Masked Avenger in Allen’s 1987 “Radio Days”.
Wallace Shawn © Jared Rodriguez
