Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

Born in West Covina, California, but raised in New York City, Tim Robbins is the son of former The Highwaymen singer Gil Robbins and actress Mary Robbins (née Bledsoe). Robbins studied drama at UCLA, where he graduated with honors in 1981. That same year, he formed the Actors' Gang theater group, an experimental ensemble that expressed radical political observations through the European avant-garde form of theater. He started film work in television movies in 1983, but hit the big time in 1988 with his portrayal of dimwitted fastball pitcher "Nuke" Laloosh in Bull Durham (1988). Tall with baby-faced looks, he has the ability to play naive and obtuse (Cadillac Man (1990) and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)) or slick and shrewd (The Player (1992) and Bob Roberts (1992)).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ray Hamel

Trade Mark (5)

Soft mellow voice



Towering height and slender frame



Films often reflect his liberal political views



Understated but emotional performances



Slow mannered delivery



Trivia (37)

Has played in the Heroes of Hockey game at the National Hockey League's All-Star Game.



Ranked #60 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]





Lived with Susan Sarandon from 1988 to 2009. They have two sons.



As co-presenters of the Academy Awards in 1993, he and his former partner, Susan Sarandon , seized a chance to bring public attention to the plight of a few hundred Haitians with AIDS who had been interned in Guantánamo Bay.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#94). [1995]



Was kicked off his high school hockey team for fighting.





A longtime Green Party member (along with partner Susan Sarandon ), he was repeatedly criticized by other Hollywood stars for voting for Ralph Nader in the controversial 2000 election. He wrote a small essay about why he made the choice in the August 6, 2001 edition of "The Nation", a monthly progressive magazine. [August 2001]



After the September 11 attacks, he tried to fly out of New York City to be with Susan Sarandon and their children in Hollywood. Upon finding out that all flights were grounded, he and a friend drove from New York City to Los Angeles in a 56-hour trip that began on the morning of September 12, 2001.

LA Weekly cover story detailed his struggle taking creative control of the Actors' Gang, the theater company he founded in 1981. Many longtime members of the group left the company during the controversy. [August 2001]



Considers himself the worlds biggest New York Rangers fan. He claims to own every highlight video released of their 1994 Stanley Cup Championship season. He is also a big New York Mets fan.



Attended anti-war rally in London on February 15, 2003.





Called for Hollywood boycott of Elizabeth Hurley and Proctor & Gamble products in 2000 after she crossed a picket line to make a commercial for a P&G product. At a pro-union rally in New York he said, "We're bringing her [Hurley] to trial after this is over. She won't get away with it!" Apparently she did "get away with it" whatever "it" was, since nothing came to pass in the intervening seven years.



Was considered for the role of Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four (2005) and Eddie Darko in Donnie Darko (2001).



At 6'5", he is the tallest actor ever to have won an Oscar. The tallest actor ever nominated was James Cromwell at 6'7".

Graduated with honors from UCLA with a degree in Drama (1981).





Apparently "discovered" Jack Black , having given him his first film role in Bob Roberts (1992). The two remain good friends today and he has appeared in 3 films with him.



Was in attendance at Chris Penn 's funeral.

Serves as the artistic director and member of the board of directors of the Actors' Gang theater company.





Admits that he only did Howard the Duck (1986) for the money.

Played in the Boston Bruins Legends Classic Hockey Game (January 2010).



By age 12, he was already a member of the Theater for the New City, an avant-garde acting troupe.





Despite his reputation as a ultra-liberal activist (which has frequently led him to be the target of Republican criticism), Robbins has donated significant amounts of money to Republican, as well as Democratic, candidates for public office. This includes $500.00 he gave to the ultimately successful 2006 U.S. congressional campaign of Michele Bachmann , R-MN, who is a prominent and vocal far-right opponent of nearly every Democratic and liberal proposal and policy.



Became a father for the 1st time at age 30 when his [now ex] partner Susan Sarandon gave birth to their son Jack Henry Robbins on May 15, 1989.



Became a father for the 2nd time at age 33 when his [now ex] partner Susan Sarandon gave birth to their son Miles Robbins on May 4, 1992.



He is in Mar del Plata (Argentina) in a cinema festival with Susan Sarandon . [March 2006]

He has English, along with some French/French-Canadian, Norwegian, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Scottish, German, and distant Dutch, ancestry.



He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on October 10, 2008.





He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Top Gun (1986) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

Personal Quotes (23)

[on his screenwriting] I always write from an actor's perspective, which is writing dialogue that fits comfortably into one's mouth, as opposed to dialogue that is strained and defective.



A movie script is a malleable entity when you're shooting and should be able to become different things and should be able to be rewritten at the last minute.



I'm fairly competent as a director and actor, but I am Mr. Neurotic as a writer. I just don't have enough confidence in my abilities to take criticism well. I take it personally. Start with 'It's a masterpiece,' and then tell me what you think could be changed.





We have right now a media that is willfully ignoring the high crimes and misdemeanors of the president of the United States. [ Bill Clinton ] lied about a blowjob and got impeached by the media and Congress. [ George W. Bush ] got us into the Iraq war based on lies that he knew were lies . . . His war has recruited more Al-Qaeda members than Osama bin Laden could ever have dreamed for . . . yet no one in the media is calling for impeachment. Unfortunately, the book and the play is more relevant now than it ever has been. It talks about continuous warfare as a means to control the Western economy, and as a way to control rebel elements within society through the use of fear, constant fear. In my country we seem to be sanctioning renditioning of innocent people without trial . . . put them in jail without telling anyone . . . and torture them out of suspicion of what we think they might do. This is exactly what [ George Orwell ] was talking about when he spoke of thought crimes.

I'm six foot four and a half and I have a temper.





Hollywood is full of closet Republicans, and also you're sometimes not sure who your friends are. When the whole Bull Durham (1988) controversy happened there were three people who came very vociferously to our support, all either very conservative Democrats or Republicans - Clint Eastwood Kevin Costner and Jack Valenti . And how many liberals? I didn't see any. So I am not one that makes a judgment on someone because they are Republican. I know enough Republicans that are decent people, they love their families, we might have differences of opinion but we can find common ground.

Haven't criminal acts occurred in government? Shouldn't there be accountability for inept policy decisions? Shouldn't someone be fired? And you know something? I didn't hear any of that, because I am still thinking about that starlet getting out of the car without the panties.



For me, the artist always comes first. It's what you do, it informs every area of your life, every decision you make in your life, just as being a butcher or a librarian might do. I think we find our activism from specific experiences in our lives. With me it was growing up in Greenwich Village in the '60s with a bunch of bohemian iconoclasts. So the activism is important, but you can't make great art unless it's motivated by the art.





Clint [ Clint Eastwood ] - he's a revelation, a gem. A gentleman. A man who's very loyal to people he works with. He makes you realize that you don't need a lot of noise and bells and whistles to make a movie. You need simplicity of focus and professionalism.

I am an obsessive vinyl collector, although I'm not good at filing. But I am a Luddite when it comes to music. I have an iPod, but things sound so much better on vinyl and cassette. Cassettes are a very underrated medium. My old ones still sound terrific, way better than any MP3. Pity it's so hard to buy a tape deck these days!





All baddies are complex characters with redeeming qualities. When I played an Afrikaner police officer in Catch a Fire (2006), I had to throw my beliefs aside and look into the humanity of people who've done terrible things. It's when you meet these people and break bread with them that you start to empathise. When you hear their stories, you can understand why they did what they did. That doesn't justify it but, in any situation, anyone is capable of rationalising bad behaviour. So much so that you start to believe that it's good behaviour.



When we started it we were all punk rockers, big Clash [ The Clash ] fans. We didn't want to do the theatre that was being done at our university theatre department. We had a different idea of what theatre could be. We wanted the energy we felt when we went to punk shows, that drive, that sweat . . . Why shouldn't actors commit like that, too?



[on Lou Reed ] I love Lou. I've met him a few times. Man, "Street Hassle". I can listen to that album any time.



I actually have a couple of inches on Morgan [ Morgan Freeman ], and I won't say where. Ha, ha! It's true, there aren't many actors as tall as me. So it's great when you do meet one who is. It's great to look someone in the eye, rather than getting a little neck ache. Do I find it difficult to play supporting roles, being so tall? I never think about it that way. Perhaps the tallest person should have the most lines in a script. Maybe that's how it should work. I like that idea.



I would love to see the Hank Williams story at some point. It's a great tale and the music is fantastic. I'd also like to see the Bob Marley story, and I'd love to see a film about Louis Prima and Keely Smith . But, biography-wise, I might be more inclined to make a film about someone who wasn't that well known. There's all kinds of interesting musicians who never had their stories told; there's a ton of obscure musicians from the '60s, or the punk era, who would be ideal.



I don't want to be working for the sake of working. I don't want to spend my time doing something I don't love. But, at the same time, everything leads to something. Howard the Duck (1986) seemed like a great idea at the time. It was George Lucas , who'd just done the Star Wars trilogy. It was a lot of money. I wound up getting paid twice for it! It fuelled my theatre company for a couple of years and provided me with great creative freedom. If they'd cast the duck correctly, we might have had something there. Blame it on the duck!



[on Miss Firecracker (1989)] That was my first mononucleic performance. I was in such a bad mood and sleeping all the time. I couldn't understand what was happening because I'm usually so energetic and committed to what I'm doing. The last day of shooting I found out I had mononucleosis.



[on Mystic River (2003)] Eastwood [ Clint Eastwood ] shows you a model of how to do this as a living and not torture yourself. He doesn't waste time; he does one take, maybe two if you're lucky. There are no bells and whistles, hissy fits or anxiety attacks. You come to work no earlier than 9 a.m. and you leave, usually, after lunch. You've created a really good movie and have a life. I thought "Mystic River" was really great. But we didn't have to torture ourselves for it.

[on turning 50] I'm at a stage in my life where I have a certain confidence. Of course, there's always got to be a fear, a self-regulation. You never can believe you're hot. I think that's the death of you, when you start believing you're a great actor. I've run into those people. Anyone's capable of a shitty performance on a given day. It's more important for me to be in work that'll be around 10 years from now. I have enough money; I'm not greedy in that way. I think longevity is the key.



[on his father Gil Robbins] The most important thing I got from him about music is that it is something that is a legitimate way to make a living, and it's something that must have a discipline behind it. As a kid, many times I would come home from school and dad would be working on his compositions, writing an oratorio. I remember his musical notes were quite beautiful. So I considered it something not to be taken lightly. It's something you do because you have something to say and feel you have a story to tell.



Your job as an actor is to lay bare the emotions. You want to achieve an honesty and a truth in the way you portray a character. It's the same with music and with the dynamic of the performer and how you relate to an audience. Regardless of what kind of stage you're going onto, whether it's movies or theatre or music, you're taking people on a journey. But the thing about music is that it's your story: no one else has written the script.



There are scripts that you don't want to touch at all, that are so brilliant that you just have to figure a way into the character, and that's your job. There's other stuff that you have to fill out on your own and flesh out on your own. I try not to get involved with rewriting. I don't think it's necessary for an actor to do that. I think it's necessary for an actor to say, 'This doesn't ring true. Is there something else we can do here?'

