My Take
Bob Balaban is one of those actors who makes every project he touches feel a little smarter and a little stranger in the best possible way. Born in Chicago in 1945, he built a career out of being the most quietly intelligent person in the room — whether that's playing the nerdy French translator in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the slyly deadpan network exec in Christopher Guest's mockumentaries like Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, or the wry producer character in Gosford Park, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. He's a filmmaker and children's book author on top of everything else, which somehow fits perfectly. You never see him coming, and then he delivers something so precisely calibrated that you rewind just to watch it again. A genuine character actor's character actor.
Overview
Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor and filmmaker. Aside from his acting career, Balaban has directed three feature films, in addition to numerous television episodes and films, and was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Gosford Park (2001), in which he also appeared. He is also an author of children's novels.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Bob Balaban
- Name (Japanese)
- ボブ・バラバン
- Reading
- ぼぶ・ばらばん
- Born
- August 16, 1945 (age 80)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Leo / Rooster
- Origin
- Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / film director / film producer / film actor / television actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Colgate University
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.