(From the
Playbill for
Putting it Together:)
Bronson Pinchot was born in New York City, raised - against his will - in South Pasadena, California and educated at Yale University. While at Yale, he appeared in As You Like It, The Lesson, Measure for Measure, Waiting for Godot and many other thorns in the sides of his painting instructors, who finally informed him that hs couldn't possibly be the servant of two Muses; so what would it be? Painting or the Theatre? Layered oils or mortal coils? Masonite-and-acrylic, or Bus-and-truck? Bronson made no reply, but later that day had his head shaved in a 15th century tonsure, to a) symbolize his farewell to the fumey paintbrush and mocking canvas, and b) to add a soupçon of pathos to his Dauphin in Saint Joan, shich was short on oomph.
While still a student, he was spirited down to New York to audition for casting director Mary Colquhoun, who very kindly put him in first play, Paul Rudnick's Poor Little Lambs. This led to his first film, Risky Business, which led, by a series of quick cross-fades, (for you are doubtless reading this in the half light during a slow stretch in the proceedings) to the film Beverly Hills Cop, to the television series "Perfect Strangers," to a seemingly insatiable desire for ancient Greek sculpture, and finally to a silent scream for custard-based pastries on a round-the-clock basis.
At the conclusion of the series, Bronson (or, as he briefly preferred to be called, The Artist Formerly Known as Balki) entered the Dark Phase so often self-imposed by artistes of the 'happy-go-lucky protean manchild' stripe. To his end he appeared as a series of weasels, pathological liars and rheumy-eyed child murderers in projects such as Quentin Tarantino's True Romance, Stephen King's The Langoliers, Sasha Buravsky's Out of the Cold, and others - but why relive it? Especially since we both know you've gotten the gist and long to immerse yourself in the italicized accomplishments of the technical personnel.