In the mid-1950s, the Pivens moved to New York, where they studied with Uta Hagen. Piven played the leads in several New York Shakespeare Festival productions. He was also part of the Obie Award-winning cast of A House Remembered.
They returned to Chicago in 1967 to rejoin Sills, Sheldon Patinkin, Bernie Sahlins and Joyce Sloane in forming Second City Repertory and then Story Theatre. In 1972 they started the Piven Theatre Workshop, partly to supplement their incomes, and partly to have something for their children to do after school. As Piven liked to point out, many of those children went on to fame and fortune.
Some of Piven's favorite roles include: The Man in 605, for which he received the Joseph Jefferson Award for best actor, the Piven Theatre Workshop/Famous Door production of The Shoemakers, directed by Shira, Victory Garden's production of The Value of Names with Shelley Berman, This Old Man Came Rolling Home and The Sunshine Boys at the National Jewish Theatre, Bob Falls’ Hamlet (starring Byrne's then-student Aidan Quinn) and the Workshop's futuristic production of Macbeth.
Piven also starred as the river boat captain in the Uncle Ben's rice commercials in the 1970s, and many television appearances. He died of lung cancer.
His son is actor Jeremy Piven.
References
^ Piven Theatre
^ Byrne Piven dies
External links
Byrne Piven at the Internet Movie Database
Byrne Piven at TV.com
Byrne Piven at Find A Grave
This article about an American theatre actor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This article about a United States film actor born in the 1920s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This article about an American television actor born in the 1920s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byrne_Piven"
Categories: 1929 births | 2002 deaths | American stage actors | American film actors | American television actors | American Jews | Jewish actors | People from the Scranton--Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area | American theatre actor stubs | American film actor, 1920s birth stubs | American television actor, 1920s birth stubs
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