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Rip Torn (born Elmore Rual Torn on February 6, 1931 in Temple, Texas) is an American Academy Award-nominated television and film actor, best known for his role as Artie on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show (a role for which he received five Emmy nominations and one win), as well as his role in numerous films, such as Men in Black, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Defending Your Life, and Marie Antoinette.
As of October 2006, Torn can be seen as the Commissioner on GSN's Extreme Dodgeball. He will also appear in the upcoming animated movie Cat Tale, to be released in 2008.
Biography
Being given the name "Rip" is a family tradition of men in the Torn family. It has been a tradition for several generations. It was given to him by his father, who was also called Rip.
After attending Texas A&M, Torn majored in animal husbandry at The University of Texas at Austin. Following graduation, Torn relocated from his native Texas to give Hollywood a shot, making his debut in the film Baby Doll. Realizing that the way to success was a hard one, Torn headed to New York where he studied at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg and started becoming a prolific stage actor, appearing in the original cast of Tennessee Williams' play Sweet Bird of Youth, and reprising the role in the film and television adaptations. He later moved back into television and film. One of his earliest roles was in the film Pork Chop Hill, playing the brother-in-law of Gregory Peck's character.
He has been a distinctive character actor in numerous films since then, often showing up well in roles like the rich, sleazy New Orleans blackmailer Slade opposite Steve McQueen and Karl Malden in 1965’s The Cincinnati Kid or the gruff boss in Men in Black. In 1972 he won rave reviews for his portrayal of a country & western singer in the low-key cult film Payday. He received what many felt was a long-overdue Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1983 film Cross Creek. For his scene-stealing supporting role as talk show producer and TV veteran Artie (no last name) in The Larry Sanders Show, Torn received six consecutive Emmy award nominations as Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and won the award once, in 1996. He also won an American Comedy Award for that role. The role of Artie was supposedly inspired by longtime "Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" producer Fred de Cordova, who had previously produced The Jack Benny Program for CBS.
He was also responsible for directing a celebrated version of Michael McClure's controversial Beat play The Beard in the mid 60's.
In 1988, he made an ill-received return to directing with the unsuccessful Whoopi Goldberg comedy The Telephone.
During the 1970 film "Maidstone", Torn got into an improvised fight with the director and star of the film Norman Mailer. As the camera rolled, Torn struck Mailer in the head with a hammer, intending to "kill his character." Mailer's scalp opened up, and a vicious fight ensued. With the camera still rolling, Torn energetically strangled Mailer until the fight was broken up by Mailer's wife Barbara and Mailer's wailing children. During the melee, Mailer bit off a small chunk of Rip Torn's ear. The fight, in which the actors called each other by their real names, made it into the film, and the segment has proven very popular on the Internet in recent years.
Torn was married to actress Ann Wedgeworth from 1956 to 1961, with whom he had a daughter, Danae Torn. They divorced and he remarried the Oscar-winning actress Geraldine Page. Page and Torn remained married until her death in 1987. They had three children: Tony, John, and Angelica.
He was interviewed by Studs Terkel for Terkel's book Working, which appeared in 1972; in the interview, he talks about how he got a reputation as a "difficult" actor because of his distaste for the commercialization of Hollywood. According to a profile by Susan Dominus in the May 7, 2006, New York Times Magazine, "Torn lives with his third wife, Amy Wright, and their two children (he has four others) in Washington Square park, in a top-floor apartment."
Torn introduced his cousin, the Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek, to the entertainment business and she was able to enroll in Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and then the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.
Rip Torn has played three Republican presidents: Ulysses S. Grant in The Blue and the Gray, Richard Nixon in the mini-series Blind Ambition and Ronald Reagan in Airplane II: The Sequel, along with the first Republican presidential candidate John C. Frémont in the 1964 The Great Adventure episode The Pathfinder.
In December of 2006 Torn was arrested for drunk driving in Westchester County NY after being involved in a collision with another vehicle.
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