David Birney
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- For the American Civil War general, see David B. Birney.
David Birney (born 23 April 1939) is an American actor. He was born in Washington, D.C. and is an award-winning actor/director whose career has embraced a substantial list of performances in both contemporary and classical roles in theatre, film and television. He has three children, a daughter Kate, and twins, Peter and Mollie.
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[edit] Early Life and Education
He was born on April 23 (William Shakespeare's birthday and St. George's Day) in Washington, D.C., the first child of Edwin B. and Jeanne (McGee) Birney. Of Irish, Scots, German and Cherokee descent. The oldest of four boys, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio when his father, a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was transferred from Washington.
He attended Brooklyn, Ohio schools, graduating from West High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Named to the National Honor Society; he lettered in basketball, football and track.
He holds a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College with "High Distinction" in English Literature, English Honors. A scholarship student at Dartmouth, Mr. Birney was a member of Casque and Gauntlet, a senior honor society, Green Key, the Sophomore Orientation Committee, Sigma Nu, and served on the Directorate of the Players. He was awarded a Dartmouth Fellowship for graduate study.
At UCLA, Mr. Birney earned an M. A. in Theatre Arts, acting and directing, studying with Ralph Freud and William Melnitz. He held a Teaching Assistant Fellowship. He has been honored with a Ph.D. (hon.) in Humanities from Southern Utah State University.
During the Viet Nam War, Mr. Birney was drafted into the U. S. Army, receiving basic combat training in Fort Ord, CA. He was transferred to the Second U.S. Army Command at Fort Meade, MD, assigned to the 2nd US Army Showmobile, an entertainment unit. As both a director and a performer, he completed several tours with the performing group touring the Eastern, Southern and Midwestern United States. He received an Honorable Discharge with a Certificate of Achievement and the rank of Specialist 4th Class.
While in the Army, Mr. Birney won an All Army Entertainment contest and received the Barter Theatre Award, an Equity contract with the Company for an entire season. He spent the next season with the Barter Theatre, the State Theatre of Virginia, starring or appearing in fifteen shows, directing two others. In the following two years he went on to perform with a range of companies and productions, off Broadway and in several regional repertory theatres. His New York debut was with Joe Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival as Antipholus of Syracuse in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.
[edit] His career
He has continued to work steadily in the theatre performing leading roles with some of the most important theatres in the country. Mr. Birney's extensive stage credits include starring roles on Broadway in Amadeus, Benefactors, and Man and Superman, and major roles at the American Shakespeare Festival, New York's Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, Washington, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre, Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival and numerous regional theatres around the country.
Representative roles include: Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, Richard III, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Shylock in Merchant of Venice, Orsino in Twelfth Night, Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jack Tanner in Man and Superman, Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World, Young Man in Summertree, Cusins in Major Barbara, Jerry in The Zoo Story, Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest, Arthur in Camelot, Higgins in My Fair Lady, Matt Friedman in Talley's Folly, David in Social Security Andrew in Love Letters, Jamie in Moon for the Misbegotten, Victor in The Price.
At the same time, Mr. Birney appeared frequently on television, building a substantial career in movies, series and miniseries for television. He has starred in such series as Live Shot, St. Elsewhere, The Adams Chronicles, Glitter, Serpico and Bridget Loves Bernie. His work in miniseries is extensive and varied. Credits include starring roles in: Testimony of Two Men, The Bible, Valley of the Dolls, Night of the Fox, Master of the Game and Seal Morning. He has also appeared in leading roles in many television films, among them Love and Betrayal, Long Journey Home, The Five of Me, Ohms, The Deadly Game, High Midnight and The Champions.
Mr. Birney has edited and adapted for the stage a two-character play based on some of Mark Twain’s shorter works and letters. The piece, Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve, was presented on the prestigious PBS series, American Playhouse. Developing the play subsequently for the stage, he has directed and starred in productions for notable regional theatres such as the Hartford Stage Company (opening the Mark Twain Festival in Hartford), the Barter Theatre, the Capitol Repertory Theatre, City Stage, and on tour in major performing arts centers across the country.
He has served on the Large Theatre Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts and is a current board member of the Foundation for Bio-Medical Research.
He was a panelist for several seasons on the Theatre and Dance Panel of the Jacob Javits Fellowship Foundation. For Dartmouth College he has served as a member of the Board of Overseers for the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts. Recently he chaired The Class of ’61 Legacy, helping to create a substantial endowment to fund performances in the “American Tradition of Performing Arts” at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth.
For five years Mr. Birney co-chaired the American Diabetes Association, speaking and fund raising for the Association. He is an advisor for the Children’s Rights Council and has been a frequent spokesman for children’s literacy, health and welfare issues.
His contribution to classical theatre has been recognized with Washington's Shakespeare Theatre's Millennium Award.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Feature films
- Caravan to Vaccares (1974)
- Trial by Combat (1976)
- Au revoir à lundi (1979)
- Oh, God Book II (1980)
- Prettykill (1987)
- Nightfall (1988)
- Touch and Die (1991)
- The Comedy of Errors (2000)
[edit] Television movies
- Murder or Mystery (1974)
- Only with Married Men (1974)
- Someone's Watching Me! (1978)
- High Midnight (1979)
- OHMS (1980)
- Mom, the Wolfman and Me (1980)
- I Think I'm Having a Baby (1981)
- The Five of Me (1981)
- Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls (1981)
- Power's Play (1986)
- The Long Journey Home (1987)
- The Diaries of Adam and Eve (1988)
- 15 and Getting Straight (1989)
- Love and Betrayal (1989)
- Night of the Fox (1990)
- Always Remember I Love You (1990)
- Keeping Secrets (1991)
- The Naked Truth (1992)
[edit] Mini-series
- The Adams Chronicles (1976)
- Testimony of Two Men (1977)
- Greatest Heroes of the Bible (1978)
- Master of the Game (1984)
- Secrets (1992)
[edit] External links
- David Birney at the Internet Movie Database
- David Birney at Allmovie
- David Birney article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
- Official website
