Bronson Pinchot
Bronson Alcott Pinchot (born May 20, 1959) is an American actor and voice artist. He is best known for playing Balki Bartokomous on the ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers (1986–93). He also performed in films, such as Risky Business (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), True Romance (1993), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), "The Langoliers" (1995), It's My Party (1996), Courage Under Fire (1996) and The First Wives Club (1996), as well as on television series, such as Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. In 2012, he starred in his own reality series, The Bronson Pinchot Project on the DIY Network.
Bronson Pinchot | |
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 Pinchot in 2012 | |
| Born | Bronson Alcott Pinchot May 20, 1959 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Occupation | Actor, voice actor |
| Years active | 1983–present |
Pinchot has worked extensively as an audiobook narrator, with over 100 recordings as of 2014.[1] AudioFile magazine recognized him as Best Voice in Fiction & Classics for his 2010 renderings of Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965), Karl Marlantes's Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War (2009) and David Vann's Caribou Island (2011).[2]
Personal life
Pinchot was born in New York City and bears the name of a 19th-century social reformer. His mother, Rosina (née Asta) was an Italian American and a typist, and his father, Henry (originally Poncharavsky) was of Russian descent and a bookbinder, who was born in New York and raised in Paris.[3][4][5] His younger brother Justin is also an actor. Pinchot was raised in Southern California where he graduated from South Pasadena High School at the top of his class and was appointed valedictorian. He earned a full scholarship to Yale University where he studied fine art in Morse College, graduating magna cum laude. After he was cast in a college play a casting director discovered him, which led to his film debut, Risky Business.
In the 1970s, Pinchot often organized Winkie (west) conventions of The International Wizard of Oz Club.
In 1999 Pinchot spent a great deal of time in Harford, Pennsylvania, restoring the circa 1839 mansion built by Joab Tyler, father of the historian William Seymour Tyler. The house had later been inhabited by former Pennsylvania state Senator Edward E. Jones.[6] Pinchot purchased six properties in the small rural town of 1,300 residents[7] "in an effort to revive the town's 19th-century aesthetic." In 2015 he filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, claiming liabilities between $100,000 and $500,000.[8] All of his properties in Harford were subsequently put up for sale.[9] Bronson told The Citizen's Voice, "I have two skills: I can make old houses beautiful and I can make people laugh. Other than that I'm a waste of space. Well, I'm a dedicated son and brother but I have no head for businesses." [10]
Career
Pinchot appeared in several feature films, such as Risky Business, Beverly Hills Cop, The First Wives Club, True Romance, Courage Under Fire and It's My Party. He also played Dennis Kemper in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sara.[11] Pinchot was hired to replace Fisher Stevens as Ben Jabituya in the 1986 film Short Circuit, but Pinchot eventually left the production in order to begin work on Perfect Strangers, and Stevens was subsequently rehired for the role.[12]
Starting in 1986, Pinchot played Balki Bartokomous on the long-running ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers. When the show concluded filming its eight-season run in September 1992 (with the condensed final season airing during the summer of 1993), Pinchot immediately secured the starring role on a new sitcom for CBS, entitled The Trouble with Larry. The series premiered just three weeks after ABC's Perfect Strangers finale in August 1993, and one episode (which never aired) was directed by Mark Linn-Baker, Pinchot's co-star on Strangers. After three weeks of dismal ratings and poor reviews, The Trouble with Larry was canceled. Pinchot would subsequently get rehired by Perfect Strangers producers Tom Miller and Bob Boyett for roles on two more of their sitcoms: Step By Step, where he played French hairdresser Jean-Luc Rieupeyroux in early 1997, and, that fall, on Meego, where he played an alien who crash-landed on Earth and took up residence with an American family.
In 2008, Pinchot read for the audio version of The Learners, author Chip Kidd's followup to The Cheese Monkeys. He also voiced Max, the fully restored Black 1964 VW Beetle, in the 2009 Volkswagen "Das Auto" campaign.[13] Between 2009 and 2014, Pinchot narrated over 100 audiobooks, for which he won a number of awards.[14] In 2010, Pinchot read the audio version of the novels Matterhorn and Blood Oath. For the Blackstone Audio collection Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories, he provided a reading of several stories, including Highsmith's novel Strangers on a Train. Pinchot recently narrated for Christopher Healy's children's series, The Hero's Guide. He was chosen by Audible.com as their 2010 Narrator of the Year.[15] On February 12, 2012, Pinchot starred in a home restoration show on DIY Network titled The Bronson Pinchot Project. The program is based on his hobby of restoring old homes using salvaged materials.[16]
On March 8, 2018, it was announced that Pinchot would play George Hawthorne, the villainous, puritanical principal of Baxter High, who regularly clashes with Sabrina Spellman and her friends in the Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.[17] The series premiered in October 2018.[18]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Risky Business | Barry | |
| 1984 | Beverly Hills Cop | Serge | |
| 1984 | The Flamingo Kid | Alfred Schultz | |
| 1985 | Hot Resort | Brad | |
| 1985 | After Hours | Lloyd | |
| 1989 | Second Sight | Bobby McGee | |
| 1992 | Blame It on the Bellboy | Bellboy | |
| 1993 | True Romance | Elliot Blitzer | |
| 1993 | The Jungle Creature: Hugo | Hugo (voice) | English version |
| 1994 | Beverly Hills Cop III | Serge | |
| 1995 | Napoleon | Birdo (voice) | English version |
| 1996 | It's My Party | Monty Tipton | |
| 1996 | Courage Under Fire | Bruno | |
| 1996 | The First Wives Club | Duarto Feliz | |
| 1996 | Jungledyret 2 - den store filmhelt | Hugo (voice) | English version |
| 1997 | Babes in Toyland | Rodrigo (voice) | |
| 1998 | Slappy and the Stinkers | Roy | |
| 1998 | Quest for Camelot | Griffin (voice) | |
| 1998 | Beach Movie | Ronald | a.k.a. Boardheads |
| 1999 | Out of the Cold | Max Kaplan | |
| 1999 | The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy in For Love or Mummy | Stanley | |
| 2002 | Winning Girls Through Psychic Mind Control | Devon Sharpe | |
| 2003 | Straight No Chaser | Josh Peters | Short |
| 2004 | Second Best | 'Doc' Klingenstein | |
| 2005 | Diamond Zero | Bergerac De La Houssey | AKA: IceMaker |
| 2007 | The Wager | Colin Buchanan | |
| 2007 | Mr. Art Critic | M.J. Clayton | |
| 2008 | From a Place of Darkness | Carl | |
| 2008 | The Tale of Despereaux | Town Crier (voice) | |
| 2009 | Hooking Up | Mr. Kimbal (voice) | |
| 2009 | Good Clean Fun | Dean Vernon | |
| 2010 | Pure Country 2: The Gift | Joseph | |
| 2011 | You and I | Torrino | |
| 2012 | Virgin Alexander | Bim Norse | |
| 2013 | Kung-Fu and Titties | The Beaver | |
| 2015 | The Strike | Carlo Lombardi | |
| 2017 | Double Play | Bob |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Sara | Dennis Kenper | 13 episodes |
| 1985 | Amazing Stories | Director | Episode: ""Mummy Daddy" |
| 1986 | Dave Thomas: The Incredible Time Travels of Henry Osgood | Charles Dickens | Television film |
| 1986 | Between Two Women | Photographer | Television film |
| 1986–93 | Perfect Strangers | Balki Bartokomous / Mama | 150 episodes |
| 1990 | ABC TGIF | Balki | |
| 1990 | The Great American Sex Scandal | Sanford Lagelfost / Jorge Jimenez / Arthur Lloyd / Magda | Television film |
| 1992 | Eek! the Cat | Additional voices | |
| 1993 | The Trouble with Larry | Larry Burton | 7 episodes |
| 1994/95 | Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | Kyle Griffin / The Prankster | 2 episodes |
| 1995 | The Langoliers | Craig Toomey | Miniseries; 2 episodes |
| 1995 | Dumb and Dumber | Dymbster (voice) | 2 episodes |
| 1995 | The Adventures of Hyperman | Valerie Knockisblokov (voice) | Episode: "Cosmo Not/The Brain Game" |
| 1996 | High Society | Arthur Zipkin | Episode: "Nip and Tuck" |
| 1996 | Duckman | Dr. Henri Ducharme (voice) | Episode: "A Room with a Bellevue" |
| 1996 | 3rd Rock from the Sun | Roy Albright | Episode: "Ab-dick-ted" |
| 1996 | Bruno the Kid | General Armando Castrato (voice) | 36 episodes |
| 1996 | Adventures from the Book of Virtues | The Man / The Dog (voices) | Episode: "Work" |
| 1996 | Clueless | Mr. Pomormo / Ka-feen | 2 episodes |
| 1996 1997 |
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters | Dietrich Duchump Deitrich Dunlap (voices) |
"Amulet of Enfarg/Bad Hair Day" "The Lips Have It/Escape Claws" |
| 1997 | Meego | Meego | 13 episodes |
| 1997 | High Incident | Matt Shukat | Episode: "Show Me the Money" |
| 1997 | The Angry Beavers | Truman / Brat (voices) | Episode: "House Broken/Stinky Toe" |
| 1997 | I Am Weasel | Oscar / Guard / Old Wardrobe Man (voices) | Episode: "I Are Big Star" |
| 1997 | Step by Step | Jean-Luc Rieupeyroux / Black Bart | 24 episodes |
| 1997 | Merry Christmas, George Bailey | Mr. Carter | Television film |
| 1997 2000 |
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child | Sonny the Toad / Killer Whale / Reindeer (voices) | "Thumbelina" "The Snow Queen" |
| 1998 | Hey Arnold! | Ronnie Matthews / Director / Chauffeur (voices) | 2 episodes |
| 1999 | The Wild Thornberrys | Franz Fensterkopf (voice) | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | Buzz Lightyear of Star Command | Shakey / Science (voices) | Episode: "Haunted Moon" |
| 2002 | Breaking News | Phillip | Episode: "Spin Art |
| 2003 | All Grown Up! | Pepe (voice) | Episode: "Chuckie's in Love" |
| 2005 | The Surreal Life | Himself | Season 5 Castmember |
| 2005 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Dr. Greg Ross | Episode: "Beast" |
| 2007 | Six Degrees | Thomas Johnson | Episode: "Ray's Back" |
| 2007 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Dr. Henry Carlisle | Episode: "Alternate" |
| 2008 | The Young and the Restless | Patrick Dalton | 6 episodes |
| 2010 | Hawaii Five-0 | Bastille | Episode: "Mana'o" |
| 2011 | The Problem Solverz | AI (voice) | Episode: "Videogamez" |
| 2011 | Shake It Up | Kashlack Hessenheffer | Episode: "Vatalihootsit It Up" |
| 2012–13 | The Bronson Pinchot Project | Himself (host) | 20 episodes |
| 2014 | NCIS | George Burton | Episode: "Parental Guidance Suggested" |
| 2015 | The Mysteries of Laura | Head Chef J.T. Thompson | Episode: "The Mystery of the Frozen Foodie |
| 2015 | Ray Donovan | Flip Brightman | 2 episodes |
| 2017 | The Untitled Action Bronson Show | Himself | Season 1 Episode 3 |
| 2018–2020 | Chilling Adventures of Sabrina | George Hawthorne | Recurring role, 8 episodes |
| 2019 | A Million Little Things | Berge | Episode: "Twelve Seconds" |
| 2019 | Lodge 49 | Dr. Kimbrough | 2 episodes |
| 2020 | Project Blue Book | David Dubrovsky | Season 2 Episode 6 |
| Year | Title | Voice role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Bruno the Kid: The Animated Movie | General Armando Costrato | |
| 2001 | Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure | Francois |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Association | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series | Perfect Strangers | Nominated |
| 1996 | National Board of Review | Best Cast | The First Wives Club | Won |
| 2009 | Audie Awards | Humor | The Learners by Chip Kidd | Won |
| 2011 | Audie Awards | Distinguished Achievement in Production | Chapters from My Autobiography by Mark Twain | Nominated |
| 2012 | Audie Awards | Fantasy | Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers | Nominated |
| 2012 | Audie Awards | Non-Fiction | My Korean Deli by Ben Ryder Howe | Nominated |
| 2012 | Audie Awards | Paranormal | Hard Magic by Larry Correia | Won |
| 2012 | Audie Awards | Solo Narration — Male | Hard Magic by Larry Correia | Nominated |
| 2012 | Audie Awards | Thriller/Suspense | Unknown [Out of My Head] by Didier van Cauwelaert | Nominated |
| 2013 | Audie Awards | Paranormal | Spellbound by Larry Correia | Won |
| 2013 | Audie Awards | Thriller/Suspense | Red, White, and Blood by Christopher Farnsworth | Won |
| 2014 | Audie Awards | Paranormal | Warbound by Larry Correia | Nominated |
| 2014 | Audie Awards | Solo Narration — Male | Warbound by Larry Correia | Nominated |
| 2015 | Audie Awards | Solo Narration — Male | The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy | Won |
| 2015 | Audie Awards | Children's Titles for Ages 8–12 | The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy | Nominated |
| 2015 | Audie Awards | Thriller/Suspense | Dead Six by Larry Correia and Mike Kupari | Nominated |
| 2016 | Audie Awards | History/Biography | A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin and Tom Hanks | Won |
| 2016 | Voice Arts Awards | Audiobook Narration – Fantasy, Best Narrator | The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers | Won |
References
- Jeff VanderMeer (2014). This Is the Best 5,453-Word Interview With Bronson Pinchot About Audiobooks You Will Ever Read, 22 July 2015; URL accessed 13 November 2015
- "Narrator Profile: Bronson Pinchot". audiofilemagazine.com. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
- Brewster, Ted. "Harford's Bronson Pinchot". Susquehanna County Transcript. Susquehanna, PA. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
- "Perfect Strangers".
- Endelman, Michael. "We admit it: We love Bronson Pinchot".
- Brewster, Ted. "A Harford Work in Progress". Susquehanna County Transcript. Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on November 21, 2008. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
- "Harford, Pennsylvania PA, township profile (Susquehanna County)". ePodunk. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
- Falchek, David (April 30, 2015). "Bankruptcy halts Bronson Pinchot property sale". The Times-Tribune. Harford, Pennsylvania. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
- Lepard, Clay (February 18, 2016). "Bronson Pinchot's Harford Mansion Up For Sale". WNEP.com. Harford, Pennsylvania. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
- Falchek, David (August 24, 2014). "Debts mounting, Bronson Pinchot can't be found". The Citizen's Voice. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
- The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present, Eighth Edition, Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-345-45542-8
- Rabin, Nathan (August 19, 2009). "Fisher Stevens". A.V. Club. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
- Howard, Theresa (April 18, 2008). "Ad Track: Introducing Max the Love Bug". USA Today. New York, NY. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
- VanderMeer, Jeff (July 22, 2014). "This Is the Best 5,453-Word Interview With Bronson Pinchot About Audiobooks You Will Ever Read". Vulture. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
- "Audible's Narrator of the Year". Bronson Pinchot. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
- ""The Bronson Pinchot Project" shows actor's renovation talents to DIY Network audience". channelguidemag.com.
- Petski, Denise (March 9, 2018). "Bronson Pinchot Joins Netflix's Sabrina Series As Recurring". Deadline. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
- Lutes, Alicia (October 26, 2018). "Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Season 1 Review". IGN. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
External links
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