Photo: David Shankbone / CC BY 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
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.
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
- Occupation
- actor / film director / film producer / film actor / television actor
2. Background
- University
- Colgate University
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Bob Balaban born?
Born August 16, 1945 (age 80).
Where is Bob Balaban from?
Bob Balaban is from Chicago, Illinois, United States.
What does Bob Balaban do?
Bob Balaban works as actor, film director, film producer, film actor, television actor.
Actor — see all → · Film director — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.