NBC exec

Hey, has anyone noticed that the guy who plays the NBC exec whose daughter GC ogled whose daughter GC ogled is an actor named Bob Balaban who turns up pretty often in minor parts. The one that comes to mind immediately is "Close Encounters." He played the scientist who lobbies for Hooper (that's a joke, son) to get on the mothership with all the government sanctioned space cadets. BB looks pretty much the same even though that was 15 years ago or so. I don't know if he's ever been in Playboy, though...

[email] (Tim Connors) writes:

Wasn't he also the computer designer/novice space cadet in 2010? Dr. Chandra or something of that ilk. Matt

whose daughter GC ogled is an actor named Bob Balaban who turns

I think he was also in Jaws as the nerdy scientist.

[email] writes:

Richard Dreyfuss was the nerdy scientist in Jaws.

I think you are mixing him up with the nerdy scientis role he played in "Altered States". He was Hurt's assistant, the guy who remained outside of the tank.

Do you ever think we may watch screens too much?

Coz

In article , [email] (Tim

Yes, he was in the famous opening scene where he is standing next to a plane during the dust storm and asking how they got there. He continues thruout the picture as the French/English interpretor for Trufou(sp?).

I wouldn't have posted this except that several other posters took notice and Balaban has been a favorite background character actor to me. I also met him when I was a teen. He is the son of a family that used to own a great chain of theatres in Chicago and elsewhere called Balaban and Katz and lived here in Chicago before going to Hollywood.

He was in many films. Here's some of them:

Midnite Cowboy: as the kid who gives Voigt a blowjob in the theatre and
                risks getting beat up by not paying him.  (No, this is
                not why I became interested in him :-))
Girlfriends:    He played the husband of Melanie Myron's roommate.
                (To see Myron here and in "Harry and Tonto" or "Carwash"
                 is to go into shock at how she changed before "30something")
The Strawberry Statement:
                An early 60's film on campus rebellion.
Altered States: This the film I actually first noticed him.  The former ones
                I saw later in video.  He played Bill Hurt's scientist
                buddy thru all the experiments.  Had a beard.  You might
                remember him going into shock, watching the glowing
                terminal as Hurt is going into a major metamorphasis.
                Afterwards, he did a great little bit at the apartment
                arguing with Charles Haid about what just had happened,
                where he keeps saying "But what we just saw was a
                *phys* *i* *cal* *phen* *nom* *min* *nahh*".
2010:           Yup, he played the Indian mentor scientist to HAL.
                Though it was hard to picture him as an East Indian,
                he seemed convincing as always of being a scientific
                type.
Prince of the City:
                He played one son of a bitch of an asst. Justice Dept.
                official.  He was instrumental in screwing (figuratively)
                the main character after Treat had been sucked dry by
                ratting on everyone they had originally asked for.
                This could have been his strongest performance but it
                was lost in such a good and numerous cast.
Absence of Malice:
                The smart alek DA who caused all the trouble in the first
                place.  Balaban, as an actor, seemed to move from playing
                smart roles to playing vicious beaurocrat roles.
Whose Life is it Anyway?:
                And then he plays the lawyer who won Dreyfus the right to
                die.  A very soft and sympathetic part.

He started directing and the only film I know was his was "Parents" which was a weird failure about a kid realizing that his family were really macabre creatures who were cannibalistic. This was in 1989.

He was in many more movies and I think I have spotted him in several TV roles but this is all I can remember. I'm sure this is more than you ever wanted to know about his career. It's really interesting to see him playing a TV exec in a SC.

If Balaban is his birth name, that is pretty interesting. Harry Balaban was a big Hollywood executive at Paramount back in the 40's and 50's. I wonder if they are related???

Thank you.

Steve Simmons

Bob Balaban's birth name is indeed Balaban. He was a member of the original cast of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown -- he played Linus. Gary Burghoff (Radar from M*A*S*H) playedCharlie Brown.

The liner notes from the record note that his parents were involved in vaudeville and the Balaban & Katz theaters.