Cousin of director Burt Balaban and nephew of Barney Balaban.
Played the head of NBC in both "Seinfeld" (1990) and The Late Shift (1996) (TV).
Son of Elmer Balaban (1909-2001) who was last surviving of seven Balaban brothers who dominated the theater business in Chicago and much of the Midwest. The Balaban boys, sons of immigrant Jewish grocery-store owners in Chicago, built city's first "supercolassal" theaters, the 700-seat Circle and the 2,000-seat Central Park. Older brother Barney became chairman of Paramount Pictures in Hollywood and wanted to pass the torch to Elmer, but he declined. Elmer has been credited with devising an early version of pay TV, based on a set-top box that would show first-run movies at home by accepting quarters.
Bob Balaban published a diary of his experiences working on the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
His first cousin, Judith Balaban Quine, is author of "The Bridemaids", a book about her friend, Grace Kelly.
Was nominated for Broadway's 1979 Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for "The Inspector General."
Uncles Barney and A. J. Balaban owned ornate movie theaters with Sam Katz, the Balaban & Katz theater chain. Renamed Publix Theaters in 1925, it was acquired by Paramount Pictures. The theater chain became so important to Paramount's fortunes that the company name was changed to Paramount-Publix in 1930. Paramount-Publix went bankrupt in 1933, and was reorganized as Paramount Pictures, Inc. Sam Katz forced co-founder Adolph Zukor to resign, but after Barney Balaban became Paramount president in 1936, he appointed Zukor chairman of the board. Balaban was president of Paramount through the tumultuous years following the 1949 Supreme Court-mandated divestiture of movie production companies from their theater chains. President of Paramount for 28 years, Barney coined "Balaban's Law," which held that a film had to gross three times its negative cost to break even. After the failure of Samuel Bronston's "Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964), which cost $20 million (approximately $115 million in 2003 dollars), Balaban was eased out of Paramount in 1964.
Uncle Barney Balaban, president of Paramount Pictures from 1936 to 1964,was one of the movie magnates who attended the Waldorf Conference in 1946, in which the blacklist against communists was implemented. A deeply religious man, when asked by his daughter about his complicity with the blacklist, Balaban told her, "I don't think it's okay. There's something about it that's okay, but there's something about it that's terrible, and I don't quite understand it all yet."
Bob Balaban Detailed Biography
Bob Balaban (born August 16, 1945 in Chicago) is an American actor and director. He has starred in many films including Clockwatchers, Pie in the Sky, Best in Show, Altered States, and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. He also co-starred in Gosford Park, which he helped to conceive along with the director Robert Altman. An early movie appearance was in Midnight Cowboy.
Balaban's most regarded film-directing credit is Parents starring Randy Quaid; a satire of the values and prejudices of Eisenhower-era America. He is also well-remembered for playing the role of interpreter David Laughlin in the 1977 Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Balaban later wrote a book about his experience shooting this film, called Spielberg, Truffaut & Me: An Actor's Diary.
In the 1990s, Balaban starred as the president of NBC on Seinfeld. He also starred as Phoebe's father in the television show Friends.
Since 2002, Balaban has been authoring a series of children's books: the McGrowl series. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his family.
Balaban is an alumnus of Colgate University.
