| Rip Torn  AKA Elmore Rual Torn, Jr.
Born: 6-Feb-1931
Birthplace: Temple, TX
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Arthur on The Larry Sanders Show Military service: US Army Rip Torn is an craggy-faced character actor. He is best known as Artie, the suck-up producer on The Larry Sanders Show, but Torn has been a familiar presence in American movies for almost 50 years.
He was born Elmore Rual Torn, but for obvious reasons friends nicknamed him Rip. He studied animal husbandry at Texas A&M and the University of Texas, and went into acting hoping to save enough money to buy a small ranch. Torn hitchhiked to Hollywood, where he was soon doing odd jobs to pay the rent, but he started landing small roles on TV dramas like The Alcoa Hour and Kraft Television Theater. He studied acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio, and had bit parts in a couple of well-regarded late-1950s flicks, Baby Doll and A Face in the Crowd. With a key role in the war crime trial drama Time Limit (the only film directed by Karl Malden), Torn became a respected character actor.
He played Judas in King of Kings, Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer, a shady anesthesiologist in Coma, a perfectly sleazy Richard M. Nixon in Blind Ambition, a boffo Ronald Reagan in Airplane 2, Albert Brooks's attorney in Defending Your Life, MIB Chief Zed in Men in Black, and a wrench-tossing coach in Dodgeball.
In 1994, Torn sued Dennis Hopper after Hopper went on The Tonight Show and told Jay Leno an anecdote from almost 30 years earlier. As Hopper told it, Torn had auditioned for the role of a pot-smoking lawyer in Easy Rider in 1969, and almost had the part, but when Torn and Hopper went to dinner, they argued and Torn pulled a knife on Hopper. In his lawsuit, Torn agreed on most of the details, but said that it was Hopper who'd pulled a knife on Torn. A judge heard from both sides, and from witnesses who's been at the restaurant, and decided that Hopper's testimony -- or memory -- was wrong. Torn got $475,000 from Hopper, and when Hopper appealed, another judge doubled the award.
Wife: Ann Wedgeworth (actress, m. 1956, div. 1961, one daughter)
Daughter: Danae Torn (actress)
Wife: Geraldine Page (actress, m. 1961, d. 1987)
Daughter: Angelica Torn (actress)
Son: Tony Torn (artistic director)
Son: John Torn
Girlfriend: Amy Wright
Daughter: Claire
High School: Tayler High School, Taylor, TX (1949)
University: Texas A&M University
Sigma Chi Fraternity
Freemasonry raised 2005
Driving While Intoxicated Greenwich Village, NY (13-Jan-2004)
Driving While Intoxicated North Salem, NY (4-Dec-2006)
People with Funny Names
Risk Factors: Smoking
TELEVISION
The Larry Sanders Show Arthur (1992-98)
FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
The Telephone (22-Jan-1988)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
August (22-Jan-2008)
Bee Movie (28-Oct-2007) [VOICE]
Zoom (11-Aug-2006)
Marie Antoinette (24-May-2006)
Yours, Mine and Ours (23-Nov-2005)
The Sisters (23-Apr-2005)
Forty Shades of Blue (2005)
Eulogy (15-Oct-2004)
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (18-Jun-2004)
Welcome to Mooseport (20-Feb-2004)
Rolling Kansas (24-Jan-2003)
Love Object (2003)
Men in Black II (26-Jun-2002)
Freddy Got Fingered (18-Apr-2001)
Wonder Boys (22-Feb-2000)
The Insider (5-Nov-1999)
Senseless (20-Feb-1998)
Men in Black (2-Jul-1997)
Hercules (14-Jun-1997) [VOICE]
Trial and Error (30-May-1997)
Down Periscope (1-Mar-1996)
For Better or Worse (18-Feb-1996)
How to Make an American Quilt (6-Oct-1995)
Canadian Bacon (22-Sep-1995)
Heart of a Child (9-May-1994)
Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III (27-Feb-1994)
Robocop 3 (7-Jul-1993)
Where the Rivers Flow North (1993)
Dolly Dearest (Jan-1992)
Beyond the Law (1992)
Another Pair of Aces: Three of a Kind (9-Apr-1991)
Defending Your Life (22-Mar-1991)
By Dawn's Early Light (19-May-1990)
Beautiful Dreamers (1990)
Sweet Bird of Youth (1-Oct-1989)
Cold Feet (19-May-1989)
Hit List (3-Mar-1989)
April Morning (24-Apr-1988)
Nadine (07-Aug-1987)
Extreme Prejudice (24-Apr-1987)
Beer (30-Aug-1985)
Summer Rental (9-Aug-1985)
The Execution (14-Jan-1985)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1985)
City Heat (7-Dec-1984)
Flashpoint (31-Aug-1984)
Misunderstood (30-Mar-1984)
Cross Creek (1983)
Airplane II: The Sequel (10-Dec-1982)
The Blue and the Gray (14-Nov-1982)
The Beastmaster (20-Aug-1982)
Jinxed! (1982)
First Family (25-Dec-1980)
One Trick Pony (3-Oct-1980)
Heartland (Feb-1980)
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (Aug-1979)
Coma (6-Jan-1978)
The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (Dec-1977)
Nasty Habits (10-Oct-1977)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (28-May-1976)
Crazy Joe (15-Feb-1974)
Slaughter (16-Aug-1972)
Payday (1972)
Tropic of Cancer (27-Feb-1970)
Beach Red (3-Aug-1967)
You're a Big Boy Now (9-Dec-1966)
The Cincinnati Kid (15-Oct-1965)
Critic's Choice (13-Apr-1963)
Sweet Bird of Youth (21-Mar-1962)
King of Kings (11-Oct-1961)
Pork Chop Hill (29-May-1959)
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