Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave stars in The Fever (2004), which first aired on HBO on June 13, 2007. Three of Shawn's plays have been adapted into films: The Designated Mourner (basically a film version of David Hare's stage production), Marie and Bruce and The Fever. Aunt Dan and Lemon earned Shawn his second Obie Award for excellence in playwrighting in 1986, and The Fever won Best American Play in 1991. In 1997, Shawn discussed the political nature of Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Fever and The Designated Mourner in an interview in which he talked extensively about the thematic connections among them, as well as his own views on Marxist, communist and socialist politics, their relevance to American liberalism, and how governmental and individual responsibilities for finding solutions to the dichotomy between rich and poor in the world take hold in his characters. Shawn's monologue The Fever, originally meant to be performed for small audiences in apartments, depicts a person who becomes sick while struggling to find a morally consistent way to live when faced with injustice, and harshly criticizes the United States' record in supporting oppressive anti-communist regimes. He has called Aunt Dan and Lemon a cautionary tale against fascism. Shawn's political work has invited controversy, as he often presents the audience with several contradictory points of view. Among the best-known of these are Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985) and The Designated Mourner (1997). Shawn's later plays are more overtly political, drawing parallels between his characters' psychology and the behavior of governments and social classes. Shawn received the Obie Award for best playwrighting in 1974 for Our Late Night. In a conversation with Andre Gregory, parts of which were used to create My Dinner with Andre, Shawn said these plays depicted "my interior life as a raging beast." Critical response was extremely polarized: some critics hailed Shawn as a major writer, while John Simon called Marie and Bruce "garbage" and Shawn "one of the unsightliest actors in this city." His 1977 play A Thought in Three Parts caused controversy in London when the production was investigated by a vice squad and attacked in Parliament after allegations of pornographic content. Shawn's early plays, such as Marie and Bruce (1978), portrayed emotional and sexual conflicts in an absurdist style, with language both lyrical and violent. He then taught Latin in Manhattan but since 1979 has made his living primarily as an actor. He also traveled to India as an English teacher on a Fulbright program. ![]() He studied philosophy, politics and economics, as well as Latin, at Magdalen College, Oxford, originally intending to become a diplomat. Shawn attended The Putney School, a private liberal arts high school in Putney, Vermont, and graduated with a A.B. He has two younger siblings, twins Allen, a composer and Mary Shawn, who is autistic and lives in an institution. ![]() His parents were William Shawn (1907–1992), the longtime editor of The New Yorker, and journalist Cecille Shawn ( née Lyon 1906–2005). Shawn was born in New York City, to a Jewish family. His book Essays was published in 2009 by Haymarket Books. He also co-wrote the screenplay for My Dinner with Andre with Andre Gregory, and scripted A Master Builder (2013), a film adaptation of the play by Henrik Ibsen, which he also starred in. His plays include Obie Award-winning Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985), The Designated Mourner (1996) and Grasses of a Thousand Colors (2008). He has appeared in a variety of television series, including recurring roles as Grand Nagus Zek in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Cyrus Rose in Gossip Girl (2008–2012), and Dr. James Hall in Clueless (1995) and the voice of Rex in the Toy Story franchise. ![]() His film roles have included those of Wally Shawn (a fictionalized version of himself) in the Louis Malle-directed drama My Dinner with Andre (1981), John Lahr in Prick Up Your Ears (1987), Vizzini in The Princess Bride (1987), Mr. Wallace Michael Shawn (born November 12, 1943) is an American character actor, voice artist, comedian, playwright and essayist.
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