This page uses content from the Rip Torn biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Rip Torn (born Elmore Rual Torn on February 6, 1931 in Temple, Texas) is an American film actor. He may be best known for playing Chief Zed in the feature film Men in Black, but has also starred in TV series such as HBO's The Larry Sanders Show. He has more recently appeared in the Ben Stiller movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story as Patches O'Houlihan. As of October 2006 he could be seen as the Commissioner on GSN's Extreme Dodgeball. In 2006 he appeared as King Louis XV in Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette. He will also appear in the upcoming animated movie Cat Tale, to be released in 2008.

Biography

After attending Texas A&M, Torn majored in animal husbandry at The University of Texas at Austin. Following graduation, Torn relocated from his native Texas to give Hollywood a shot, making his debut in the film Baby Doll. Realizing that the way to success was a hard one, Torn headed to New York where he studied at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg and started becoming a prolific stage actor, appearing in the original cast of Tennessee Williams' play Sweet Bird of Youth, and reprising the role in the film and television adaptations. He later moved back into television and film. One of his earliest roles was in the film Pork Chop Hill, playing the brother-in-law of Gregory Peck's character.

He has been a distinctive character actor in numerous films since then, often showing up well in roles like the rich, sleazy New Orleans blackmailer Slade opposite Steve McQueen and Karl Malden in 1965’s The Cincinnati Kid or the gruff boss in Men in Black. In 1972 he won rave reviews for his portrayal of a country & western singer in the low-key cult film Payday. He received what many felt was a long-overdue Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1983 film Cross Creek. For his scene-stealing supporting role as talk show producer and TV veteran Artie (no last name) in The Larry Sanders Show, Torn received six consecutive Emmy award nominations as Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and won the award once, in 1996. He also won an American Comedy Award for that role. The role of Artie was supposedly inspired by longtime Tonight Show with Johnny Carson producer Fred DeCordova, who had previously produced The Jack Benny Program for CBS.

In 1988, he made an ill-received venture into directing with the unsuccessful Whoopi Goldberg comedy The Telephone.

Torn was married to actress Ann Wedgeworth from 1956 to 1961, with whom he had a daughter, Danae Torn. They divorced and he remarried the Oscar-winning actress Geraldine Page. Page and Torn remained married until her death in 1987. They had three children: Tony, John, and Angelica.

He was interviewed by Studs Terkel for Terkel's book Working, which appeared in 1972; in the interview, he talks about how he got a reputation as a "difficult" actor because of his distaste for the commercialization of Hollywood. According to a profile by Susan Dominus in the May 7, 2006, New York Times Magazine, "Torn lives with his third wife, Amy Wright, and their two children (he has four others) in Washington Square park, in a top-floor apartment."

Torn introduced his cousin, the Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek, to the entertainment business and she was able to enroll in Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and then the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.

References/External Links

• Production: Anna Christie Working in the Theatre Seminar video at American Theatre Wing, January 1993

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