Eric Bogosian
Encyclopedia
Eric Bogosian is an American
actor
, playwright
, monologist
, and novelist of Armenian descent.
, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College
, Bogosian moved to New York City
to pursue a career in theatre. Bogosian has been married since 1980 to theater director Jo Bonney, with whom he has two children.
, in which he starred Off Broadway and in the Oliver Stone film
of the same name. In 2006, the play was brought to Broadway
, garnering Tony
nominations for the play and for Liev Schreiber
, who starred. For the original stage version, Bogosian was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
; for the film, he received the Berlin International Film Festival
’s Silver Bear.
Early in his career, Bogosian began working with Richard Foreman
and The Wooster Group
in a theoretical attempt to break down classical forms and "start from scratch." Explaining his approach to the medium, Bogosian said, "You’ve got to look at what’s really happening instead of what you think is happening. What’s really happening when you walk into the door of a theater is everything that’s happening around you, the people sitting in the audience, and what you’re picking up off the stage… You have to acknowledge that, or at least understand what the conceit is."
His play, subUrbia
was produced by Lincoln Center Theater in 1994, adapted to the screen by Richard Linklater
, and revived Off Broadway with an updated script in 2006. His most recent play, 1+1 was produced by New York Stage & Film in 2008.
Bogosian is well-known for the six Off Broadway solos he wrote for himself between 1980 and 2000. For these he was awarded three Obie Award
s as well as the Drama Desk Award
. The solos, including “Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll” and “Pounding Nails in the Floor with Forehead” are produced around the world and have become a mainstay of the American theater repertory.
He is the author of three novels and a novella. His latest, “Perforated Heart,” was published in the spring of 2009 by Simon & Schuster. His first novel, “Mall” is currently being adapted as a film.
Bogosian starred in Stephen Adly Guirgis
’s “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman
at LAByrinth Theater. Currently on Broadway, he is reprising his role as Richard in Time Stands Still
. Onscreen, Bogosian has been featured in films by Paul Schrader
, Woody Allen
, Oliver Stone
, Robert Altman
, Taylor Hackford
, Atom Egoyan
and Mike Judge
. Other films include the action-adventure, “Under Siege II,” and the fact-based drama, “Wonderland.”
On television, he appeared as Captain Danny Ross in the long-running series, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent
," from 2006 to 2010. Captain Ross (Bogosian's character) is killed in the line of duty in the first part of the ninth season premiere.
In 2010 he starred (with Laura Linney, Brian Darcy James, Alicia Silverstone and Christina Ricci) in Donald Margulies' play "Time Stands Still" on Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club and in the fall at the Cort Theater.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, monologist
Monologist
-Monologist:A monologist is a solo artist who recites or gives dramatic readings from a monologue, soliloquy, poetry or work of literature for the entertainment of an audience...
, and novelist of Armenian descent.
Personal life
Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, MassachusettsWoburn, Massachusetts
Woburn is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 38,120 at the 2010 census. Woburn is located north of Boston, Massachusetts, and just south of the intersection of I-93 and I-95.- History :...
, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, Bogosian moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to pursue a career in theatre. Bogosian has been married since 1980 to theater director Jo Bonney, with whom he has two children.
Career
Bogosian's best known work is Talk RadioTalk Radio (play)
Talk Radio is a 1987 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play written by Eric Bogosian, based on a concept by Bogosian and Tad Savinar. It centers around Barry Champlain, a Cleveland-area shock jock, on the eve of his radio show's national syndication....
, in which he starred Off Broadway and in the Oliver Stone film
Talk Radio (film)
Talk Radio is a 1988 American drama film, starring Eric Bogosian, Ellen Greene and Leslie Hope. Directed by Oliver Stone, the film was based on the play by Eric Bogosian and Tad Savinar. Portions of the film and play were based on the assassination of radio host Alan Berg in 1984...
of the same name. In 2006, the play was brought to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, garnering Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations for the play and for Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber
Isaac Liev Schreiber , commonly known as Liev Schreiber, is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s, having initially appeared in several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywood films, including the Scream trilogy of...
, who starred. For the original stage version, Bogosian was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
; for the film, he received the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
’s Silver Bear.
Early in his career, Bogosian began working with Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman is an American playwright and avant-garde theater pioneer. He is the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.-Life :...
and The Wooster Group
The Wooster Group
The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged during 1975-1980 from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group and took its name in 1980...
in a theoretical attempt to break down classical forms and "start from scratch." Explaining his approach to the medium, Bogosian said, "You’ve got to look at what’s really happening instead of what you think is happening. What’s really happening when you walk into the door of a theater is everything that’s happening around you, the people sitting in the audience, and what you’re picking up off the stage… You have to acknowledge that, or at least understand what the conceit is."
His play, subUrbia
SubUrbia
subUrbia is a play by Eric Bogosian chronicling the nighttime activities of a group of aimless 20-somethings still living in their suburban Boston hometown and their reunion with a former high school classmate who has become a successful musician...
was produced by Lincoln Center Theater in 1994, adapted to the screen by Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater
-Early life:Linklater was born in Houston, Texas. He studied at Sam Houston State University and left midway through his stint in college to work on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While working on the rig he read a lot of literature, but on land he developed a love of film through...
, and revived Off Broadway with an updated script in 2006. His most recent play, 1+1 was produced by New York Stage & Film in 2008.
Bogosian is well-known for the six Off Broadway solos he wrote for himself between 1980 and 2000. For these he was awarded three Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
s as well as the Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
. The solos, including “Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll” and “Pounding Nails in the Floor with Forehead” are produced around the world and have become a mainstay of the American theater repertory.
He is the author of three novels and a novella. His latest, “Perforated Heart,” was published in the spring of 2009 by Simon & Schuster. His first novel, “Mall” is currently being adapted as a film.
Bogosian starred in Stephen Adly Guirgis
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Stephen Adly Guirgis is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He is a member and co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States....
’s “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
at LAByrinth Theater. Currently on Broadway, he is reprising his role as Richard in Time Stands Still
Time Stands Still (play)
Time Stands Still is a play written by the Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies and directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan about changing relationships and developing social issues...
. Onscreen, Bogosian has been featured in films by Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
, Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
, Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
, Taylor Hackford
Taylor Hackford
Taylor Edwin Hackford is an American film director, and the current president of the Directors Guild of America.-Early life:Hackford was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Mary , a waitress, and Joseph Hackford...
, Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
and Mike Judge
Mike Judge
Michael Craig Judge is an American animator, film director, writer and voice actor, best known as the creator and star of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-head , King of the Hill , and The Goode Family .He also wrote, directed and in some instances produced the films Beavis and...
. Other films include the action-adventure, “Under Siege II,” and the fact-based drama, “Wonderland.”
On television, he appeared as Captain Danny Ross in the long-running series, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
," from 2006 to 2010. Captain Ross (Bogosian's character) is killed in the line of duty in the first part of the ninth season premiere.
In 2010 he starred (with Laura Linney, Brian Darcy James, Alicia Silverstone and Christina Ricci) in Donald Margulies' play "Time Stands Still" on Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club and in the fall at the Cort Theater.
Screen acting credits
- Born In FlamesBorn in FlamesBorn in Flames is a 1983 documentary-style feminist science fiction film by Lizzie Borden that explores racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism in an alternative United States Socialist Democracy.-Plot:...
(1983) (His first screen appearance) - Talk RadioTalk Radio (film)Talk Radio is a 1988 American drama film, starring Eric Bogosian, Ellen Greene and Leslie Hope. Directed by Oliver Stone, the film was based on the play by Eric Bogosian and Tad Savinar. Portions of the film and play were based on the assassination of radio host Alan Berg in 1984...
(1988) - Suffering Bastards (1989)
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll (1990)
- Last Flight Out (1990)
- The Larry Sanders ShowThe Larry Sanders ShowThe Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...
(1993) Season 2, Episode 10 - Witch HuntWitch Hunt (1994 film)Witch Hunt is a horror/detective HBO movie starring Dennis Hopper. It was directed by Paul Schrader and written by Joseph Dougherty.-Plot:...
HBO (1994) - Under Siege 2: Dark TerritoryUnder Siege 2: Dark TerritoryUnder Siege 2: Dark Territory is a 1995 American action film set on board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles. Directed by Geoff Murphy, it stars Steven Seagal as the ex-Navy SEAL, Casey Ryback and is the sequel to the 1992 film Under Siege also starring Seagal....
(1995) - Arabian KnightThe Thief and the CobblerThe Thief and the Cobbler is an animated feature film, famous for its animation and its long, troubled history. The film was conceived by Canadian animator Richard Williams, who worked 28 years on the project. Beginning production in 1964, Williams intended The Thief and the Cobbler to be his...
(1995) (voice) (Miramax version) - Dolores ClaiborneDolores Claiborne (film)Dolores Claiborne is a 1995 film based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, starring Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It was directed by Taylor Hackford.-Plot:...
(1995) - Beavis and Butt-Head Do AmericaBeavis and Butt-head Do AmericaBeavis and Butt-head Do America is a 1996 animated feature film, based on the TV series, Beavis and Butt-Head. It was produced by Paramount Pictures in association with Geffen Pictures and MTV Films, and co-written and directed by creator Mike Judge. The film grossed $20.11 million in its opening...
(1996) (voice) - Deconstructing HarryDeconstructing HarryDeconstructing Harry is a black comedy film by Woody Allen released in 1997. This film tells the story of a successful writer called Harry Block, played by Allen himself, who draws inspiration from people he knows in real-life, and from events that happened to him, sometimes causing these people to...
(1997) - A Bright Shining Lie (1998) (TV Film)
- GossipGossip (2000 American film)Gossip is a 2000 teen drama film directed by Davis Guggenheim and featuring an ensemble cast including James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, and Kate Hudson.-Plot:...
(2000) - In The Weeds (2000)
- Wake Up and Smell the CoffeeWake Up and Smell the Coffee (film)Wake Up and Smell the Coffee is a screen adaptation of Eric Bogosian's one man show of the same name. It first aired in 2001....
(2001) - Igby Goes DownIgby Goes DownIgby Goes Down is a 2002 comedy-drama film that follows the life of Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sardonic New York City teenager who attempts to break free of his familial ties and wealthy, overbearing mother...
(2001) - AraratArarat (film)Ararat is a 2002 film directed, written, and co-produced by Atom Egoyan based loosely on the Siege of Van during the Armenian Genocide, an event that is disputed by the government of Turkey. In addition to exploring the human impact of that specific historical event, the film also examines the...
(2002) - ScrubsScrubs (TV series)Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
: Season Two (2003) - WonderlandWonderland (film)Wonderland is a 2003 American crime and drama film co-written and directed by James Cox, and based on the real-life Wonderland Murders that occurred in 1981. The film stars Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Dylan McDermott, Josh Lucas, Christina Applegate, and Tim Blake Nelson...
(2003) - King of the CornerKing of the CornerKing of the Corner is a 2004 film featured at the Newport Film Festival. It stars Peter Riegert and Isabella Rossellini, and includes Eric Bogosian, Dominic Chianese, Beverly D'Angelo and Rita Moreno. It was released in 2004. Peter Riegert also co-wrote and directed the film.It is a story of a...
(2004) - Heights (2004)
- Blade: TrinityBlade: TrinityBlade: Trinity is a 2004 American superhero vampire action film, written and directed by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the screenplays to the first two Blade films...
(2004) - Love MonkeyLove MonkeyLove Monkey is a television series created by Michael Rauch and based on a book of the same name, by Kyle Smith. It starred Tom Cavanagh as a 30-something, single, record executive who navigated the tumultuous and highly amusing waters of work and dating in New York City.Its first episode aired on...
TV series (2006) - Law & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
TV series (2006–2010)
Writing credits
- Men in Dark Times
- Scenes from the New World
- Sheer Heaven (1980)
- Men Inside (1981)
- The New World (1981)
- FunHouse (1983)
- Drinking in America (1986) (Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person ShowDrama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person ShowThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...
) - Talk RadioTalk Radio (play)Talk Radio is a 1987 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play written by Eric Bogosian, based on a concept by Bogosian and Tad Savinar. It centers around Barry Champlain, a Cleveland-area shock jock, on the eve of his radio show's national syndication....
(1987) (also film versionTalk Radio (film)Talk Radio is a 1988 American drama film, starring Eric Bogosian, Ellen Greene and Leslie Hope. Directed by Oliver Stone, the film was based on the play by Eric Bogosian and Tad Savinar. Portions of the film and play were based on the assassination of radio host Alan Berg in 1984...
1988) - Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll (1990)
- Notes from the Underground (1993)
- Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead (1994)
- subUrbiaSubUrbiasubUrbia is a play by Eric Bogosian chronicling the nighttime activities of a group of aimless 20-somethings still living in their suburban Boston hometown and their reunion with a former high school classmate who has become a successful musician...
(1994) (also film versionSubUrbia (film)subUrbia is a 1996 comedy-drama film written by Eric Bogosian, based on his play of the same name, and directed by Richard Linklater. It follows the relationships between a few young adults as they spend their time standing on "the corner" outside a local convenience store.Bogosian based the story...
1996) - Griller (1998)
- Mall (2000)
- Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2000)
- Humpty Dumpty (2004)
- Non-profit Benefit
- Red Angel
- Wasted Beauty (2005)
- Perforated Heart (novel) (2009)
- " Love's Fire" 'General of Hot Desire' one act play