Quiet Revelry
The Bill Irwin Home Page
THE NEW YORK TIMES says: "Whether doing classic mime ("Fool Moon") or
children's
television ("Sesame Street"), this uncanny comic actor has always
exuded the sense that he is listening to music that no one else can
hear."
Who is Bill Irwin? People tend to think of him as an actor, a dancer, a performance artist, a vaudeville clown. But he's also a producer, director, writer, and choreographer. Sometimes it's sort of hard to describe exactly what Bill does, but people who have seen him agree he does it well.
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Bill Irwin was awarded the Tony as Best Performance by a
Leading Actor in a Play for his work in 'Edward Albee's Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?'.
This was his first Tony Award as an actor. Bill was previously
nominated for his work as an actor, choreographer and director for
LARGELY/NEW YORK in 1989. He and David Shiner together received a
special Tony Award for a Live Theatrical Presentation in 1999 for FOOL
MOON.
Here is his acceptance speech.
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Latest Updates:
- November 2007: Bill Irwin reads at Selected Shorts Nov. 14
Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story
Wed, November 14th, 2007 at 7:30pm: John Lithgow & Friends:
Tellers of Tales and Poets Aplenty!
At Symphony Space (95th and Broadway, NYC)
Tony Award winners John Lithgow and Bill Irwin read story poems from
Lithgow's new poetry anthology, The Poets' Corner: The One-and-Only
Poetry Book for the Whole Family. Lithgow also reads the classic story
"The Monkey's Paw," which he enjoyed listening to as a child.
For tickets: Visit symphonyspace.org or call 212-864-5400
- September 2007: Bill is filming DANCING WITH SHIVA in CT. The movie is
directed by Jonathan Demme, and also stars Anne Hathaway and Debra
Winger.
- August 2007: RAVING is available for viewing on You Tube. (part
1, with links to parts 2-5)
- August 2007: The Philadelphia Theater Company has commissioned a new
play from Bill. It's called "The Happiness Lectures", and
will run, May 16-June 15, 2008. According to PTC's website, Bill's
new play "muses on dreams, puppets, technology, and contemporary life
as we know it".
- April 2007: Bill stars in Julia Stile's directorial debut, RAVING, with Zooey Deschanel. It will
premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on May 2, 2007.
- March 2007:
Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner's US tour of WHO'S
AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
January 9 -28, 2007: Washington, DC
February 6-March 18, 2007 : Los Angeles, CA
March 27-April 8, 2007: Chicago, IL
April 12-May 12, 2007: San Francisco, CA
May 20, 2007: Tucson, AZ
May 26, 2007: San Diego, CA
- August 2006: Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner will be presenting the
Tony-nominated revival production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, from Jan 9 -
28, 2007.
- In July 2006, look for Bill in M. Night Shyamalan's new movie, THE LADY IN
THE WATER.
- January 2006: Bill Irwin is in London to star in the West End
production of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, reprising his Tony
Award-winning role as George. All of the originial Broadway cast are
in this production. The show is scheduled to run from January 20th to
May 13th, 2006.
- Bill wins a Tony on June 5, 2005!
- May 2005: Bill was nominated for a Tony award for lead
actor in a play for Woolf
- April 2005: Bill was nominated for a Drama Desk award for lead
actor in a play for Woolf. He did not win.
- Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened on
Broadway in March 2005 to very good reviews.
- Bill began performances of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? in Boston in February 2005 to good reviews.
- Nov 2004: PBS will air GREAT
PERFORMANCES "Bill Irwin, Clown Prince" in December. Don't miss
this!
- A terrific interview from October 2003 from Theatre
Communication Group
- Interviews and reviews of Trumbo
- July 20, 2004: Bill will star in a new play, Trumbo, for the Philadelphia Theatre
Company October 8 - November 14, 2004
- June 18, 2004: In March 2005, Bill will star opposite Kathleen
Turner in the Broadway revival
of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Sep 22, 2003: The first review is in! Read the New
York Times review of 'THE HARLEQUIN STUDIES'. (You need a
free nytimes.com account to read the article. If you don't have one,
you can read the plain text version of the review here.
- Mar 2003: Bill will write and perform three new plays for the 2003-4
season of The Signature
Theatre Company.
- Feb 2003: Bill will be appearing at the
Portsmouth (NH) Percussive Dance Festival in June 2003. See their web site at http://jazzandtap.com/ppdf.html for more information.
- Sep 2002: Bill has a minor role in the movie
Igby Goes Down
- Sep 2002: Bill appeared with Sally Field in THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? in NYC.
- Feb 2002: Bill appeared with Sigourney Weaver in The Guys in NYC
- Jan 2002: Bill can be seen in The Laramie
Project on HBO - check listings for screening times, as it
comes around a couple of times a month.
- Nov 2001: Bill has a major role in the movie Dr Seuss' How the
Grinch Stole Christmas, playing Lou Lou Who, the father of Cindy
Lou Who.
- In NYC: Bill Irwin's one-man show of Samuel Beckett's TEXTS FOR NOTHING ran
from September 28th-November 5th, 2000 at the Classic Stage Company.
Read more about the pre-production stages in the New York
Times.
Here's the review from the New York Times
You might remember Bill from:
- His role as Mister Noodle on the "Elmo's World" segment of
SESAME STREET.
- His wonderful solo dance in the movie My Blue Heaven , starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin.
- Northern Exposure , where he played "The Flying Man" who wooed Marilyn.
- The Regard of Flight , which aired as part of PBS's GREAT PERFORMANCES series.
Please read the Frequently Asked Questions.
There's an announcement-only mailing list for Bill sightings.
Here's an official biography.
I've got some esoteric links related to Bill Irwin.
I think Bill Irwin is under-appreciated, and this page is my contribution towards remedying that. Here I hope to collect as much as possible to make this site interesting to Bill Irwin fans as well as people who know nothing about him.
Want to share your appreciation of Bill Irwin or make suggestions for this page? Mail me!