As an actor, writer, producer, and teacher, the brilliant Austin Pendleton has worked with everyone from Jerome Robbins to Miss Piggy. Understandably, with a resume that eclectic, he’s collected more than a few terrific tales to share over Cocktails! We discussed Austin’s long association with the seminal HB Studios, the rocky out of town trials of Fiddler on the Roof, the focus and intensity required to make great film comedies like What’s Up, Doc? and My Cousin Vinny, and, most interestingly, playing referee between the legendary Ethel Merman and a Bad News Bear.
Austin Pendleton, a Yale University graduate and ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, made his Broadway debut in 1964 as Motel in the original Broadway cast of Fiddler on the Roof. Other theatre credits include: Oh Dad, Poor Dad…, The Last Sweet Days of Isaac, The Diary of Anne Frank, Goodtime Charley, and Choirboy. He has made over 150 appearances in television and films including: What’s Up, Doc?, My Cousin Vinny, Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, Finding Nemo, The Muppet Movie, A Beautiful Mind, Catch-22, Skidoo, and 2 Days In The Valley. Pendleton wrote the plays Uncle Bob, Booth, and Orson's Shadow, all of which were staged off-Broadway. As a director, Pendleton has worked extensively both regionally and on and off-Broadway. His direction of Elizabeth Taylor and Maureen Stapleton in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes garnered him a Tony Award nomination in 1981 and his 2011 direction of the off-broadway production of Three Sisters won him an Obie Award. He currently teaches acting at HB Studio.