- Byrne Piven
Byrne Piven (
September 24 ,1929 ,Scranton, Pennsylvania –February 18 ,2002 ,Evanston, Illinois ), was an influential American stage actor, director, and co-founder of thePlaywrights Theatre Club , a forerunner ofThe Second City .Piven came to
Chicago in 1954 and met Joyce Hiller at theUniversity of Chicago . They were married a short time later. In the 1950s, the Pivens were two of the founding members of the Playwrights Theatre Club, along with Paul Sills and David Shepard. Playwrights featured such budding stars asMike Nichols ,Elaine May ,Ed Asner and Barbara Harris.infobox actor
birthdate=birth date|1929|9|24
birthplace=Scranton, Pennsylvania
deathdate=death date and age|2002|2|18|1929|9|24
deathplace=Evanston, Illinois
occupation=Stage,film ,television actor , director
spouse=Joyce Hiller
children=Jeremy Piven In the mid-1950s, the Pivens moved to New York, where they studied with
Uta Hagen . Piven played the leads in severalNew York Shakespeare Festival productions. He was also part of theObie Award -winning cast of "A House Remembered".They returned to Chicago in 1967 to rejoin Sills,
Sheldon Patinkin , Bernie Sahlins and Joyce Sloane in forming Second City Repertory and then Story Theatre. In 1972 they started the Piven Theatre Workshop, [ [http://www.piventheatre.org Piven Theatre] ] partly to supplement their incomes, and partly to have something for their children to do after school. As Piven liked to point out, many of those children went on to fame and fortune.Some of Piven's favorite roles include: "The Man in 605", for which he received the
Joseph Jefferson Award for best actor, the Piven Theatre Workshop/Famous Door production of "The Shoemakers", directed by Shira, Victory Garden's production of "The Value of Names" withShelley Berman , "This Old Man Came Rolling Home" and "The Sunshine Boys " at theNational Jewish Theatre , Bob Falls’ "Hamlet" (starring Byrne's then-studentAidan Quinn ) and the Workshop's futuristic production of "Macbeth".Piven also starred as the river boat captain in the
Uncle Ben's rice commercials in the 1970s, and many television appearances. He died of lung cancer. [ [http://windycitymike.com/2002/02/20/an-unexpected-death/ Byrne Piven dies] ]His son is actor
Jeremy Piven .References
External links
*imdb|0686097
*tvtome person|36828
*findagrave|6522598
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