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Wallace Shawn (born November 12, 1943) is an
United States|American actor and writer.  He made
his film debut playing Diane Keaton's ex-husband
in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979 movie)|Manhattan
in 1979, in which Allen's character, a short,
balding, bespectacled ectomorph, dismisses the
short, balding, bespectacled Shawn as "a
homunculus." 

His most famous role was as one of the two
characters in Louis Malle's film My Dinner with
Andre, opposite Andre Gregory.  The two actors
also wrote the script, which contrasted Shawn's
modest down-to-earth humanism against Gregory's
extravagant New-Age fantasies, leaving the viewer
of the film in an ironic suspension between the
two viewpoints. Although the film was based on
actual events in the actors' lives, Shawn and
Gregory denied (in an interview by film critic
Roger Ebert) that they were playing themselves,
and stated that if they remade the film they would
swap the two characters to prove their point. 

Other notable appearances include his role as the
Masked Avenger in Allen's Radio Days (1987)
("Beware, evildoers! Wherever you are!"), as the
evil Vizzini in The Princess Bride (1987)
("Inconceivable!"), and as Uncle Vanya in Andre
Gregory's idiosyncratic Anton Chekhov|Chekhov
production filmed by Louis Malle, Vanya on 42nd
Street (1994), a reading of the play set in a
crumbling theatre.

Shawn is a widely-used character actor on
television, where he has appeared in many genres
and series. He has had recurring roles as the
Ferengi Grand Nagus Zek on Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine, a comic ex-reporter on Murphy Brown, the
Huxtables' neighbor on Bill Cosby|The Bill Cosby
Show, a psychiatrist on Crossing Jordan, and on
many other shows. He is also an accomplished voice
actor, appearing especially in animation
(including Toy Story and Toy Story 2 where he
played "Rex the Green Dinosaur") and commercials.

Shawn's career spans all aspects of "low" and
"high" culture, and his plays, unlike some of his
television appearances, are considered very
serious (even if they often have comic aspects).
His early work, such as Marie and Bruce (1978),
portrayed emotional and sexual conflicts in an
absurdist style. His later plays became more
overtly political, drawing parallels between the
psychology of his characters and the behavior of
governments and social classes. Among the
best-known of these are Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985)
and The Designated Mourner (1997), in both of
which he appeared off-Broadway; the latter was
made into a film by director David Hare. Film
adaptations have also been made of Marie and Bruce
and The Fever, but as of 2005 these had only been
screened in festivals.

Shawn's political work has invited controversy, as
he often presents the audience with several
contradictory points of view: in Aunt Dan and
Lemon, which Shawn described as a cautionary tale
against fascism, the character Lemon explained her
neo-Nazi beliefs with such conviction that some
critics called the play effectively pro-fascist.
The monologue The Fever was dismissed by some
critics as "liberal guilt"; it describes a person
who becomes sick while struggling to find a
morally consistent way to live when faced with
injustice.   

Before becoming a writer and actor, Shawn studied
history, economics, and philosophy at Harvard
University|Harvard and Oxford University|Oxford,
where he originally thought he might become a
diplomat. He is the son of William Shawn, longtime
editor of The New Yorker, and journalist Cecille
Lyon Shawn.  His brother Allen Shawn|Allen is a
composer.

In late 2004 Shawn published the one-issue-only
progressive political magazine
http://www.sevenstories.com/Book/index.cfm?GCOI=58
322100960730 Final Edition which features
interviews with and articles by Jonathan Schell,
Noam Chomsky, Mark Strand, and Deborah Eisenberg. 

== Selected plays, movies & television roles
==
* The Incredibles (2004; voice of Gilbert Huph
(Bob Parr's Boss))
* Crossing Jordan (TV series, since 2002;
recurring role as Dr. Howard Stiles)
* Curse of the Jade Scorpion (dir. Woody Allen,
2001; George Bond)
* Toy Story 2 (1999; voice of Rex)
* The Designated Mourner (play, 1997, written by
Shawn; also starred in productions, 1997 and 2001)
* Clueless (movie & TV Series, 1996–7; Mr.
Hall)
* Toy Story (1995; voice of Rex)
* Vanya on 42nd Street (dir. Louis Malle, 1994;
Uncle Vanya)
* Radio Days (dir. Woody Allen, 1987; Masked
Avenger)
* The Princess Bride (1987; Vizzini)
* The Fever (play, 1990, written and performed by
Shawn)
* Aunt Dan and Lemon (play, 1986, written by
Shawn; also starred in productions)
* My Dinner with Andre (dir. Louis Malle, 1981;
Wally; co-wrote screenplay with Andre Gregory)
* Manhattan (1979 movie)|Manhattan (dir. Woody
Allen, 1979; "Jeremiah")

==References==
* King, W.D. (1997). Writing Wrongs: The Work of
Wallace Shawn. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press. ISBN 1566395178

==External links==
*
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Makeup/6353/wsh
awn.html Wallace Shawn - photo and filmography
* imdb name|id=0001728|name=Wallace Shawn
* http://voices.fuzzy.com/actor.idc?actor_id=3643
Voice work of Wallace Shawn - cartoon roles
* http://www.graphesthesia.com/ws/ A Wallace Shawn
Reference - bio and descriptions of plays
* http://www.lannan.org/lf/rc/event/wallace-shawn/
Wallace Shawn's reading of The Fever.