Bronson Pinchot

Bronson Alcott Pinchot (born May 20, 1959) is an American actor who played Balki Bartokomous in the ABC sitcom, Perfect Strangers (1986–93). In 2012, he starred in his own reality series, The Bronson Pinchot Project on the DIY Network. He also starred in feature films, such as Risky Business (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), True Romance (1993), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), It's My Party (1996), Courage Under Fire (1996) and The First Wives Club (1996), as well as on television in roles such as classic comic book villain The Prankster on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. In 2010 and 2011, AudioFile magazine recognized him as Best Voice in Fiction & Classics for his 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).^[1]

Personal life

Pinchot was born in Manhattan, the son of Rosina (née Asta), a typist, and Henry (originally Poncharavsky), a bookbinder.^[2][3] His mother was Italian American, and his father, who was of Russian descent, was born in New York and raised in Paris.^[4][5][6] He 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 was placed in Morse College. He graduated magna cum laude. Pinchot began his Yale career in fine art, but after he was cast in a college play, a casting director discovered him, which resulted in his film debut, Risky Business.

In 1999, Pinchot spent a great deal of time in Harford, Pennsylvania, restoring the circa 1839 mansion of former Pennsylvania state Senator Edward Jones.^[7]

He has since purchased six properties in the small, rural town of 1,300^[8] "in an effort to revive the town's 19th-century aesthetic."^[7]

Career

Pinchot at the 39th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 20, 1987.

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. According to Fisher Stevens, Pinchot was hired to play Stevens' character Ben Jabituya in the 1986 film Short Circuit at one point, but was fired.^[9] His first appearance as an ongoing character on a network television series was on the short-lived 1985 NBC sitcom Sara, starring Geena Davis, in which he played openly gay Dennis Kemper.^[10] Pinchot is probably best known for his role in the ABC family sitcom Perfect Strangers (1986–1993) as Balki Bartokomous from the (fictional) Greek-like island of Mypos.

In 2008, Pinchot published his novel The Learners in audio editions, 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.^[11] In 2009 and 2014, Pinchot narrated over 100 audiobooks—for which he won a number of awards.^[12] 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, Pinchot also provided a reading of several stories, as well as Highsmith's memorably creepy novel Strangers on a Train.^[13] He was chosen by Audible.com as their 2010 Narrator of the Year.^[14] On February 12, 2012, Pinchot starred in a home restoration show on DIY Network based on his hobby of restoring old homes using salvaged materials, The Bronson Pinchot Project.^[15]

Filmography

References

External links

• Bronson Pinchot at the Internet Movie Database
• Bronson Pinchot at AllMovie
• Bronson Pinchot Online