Wallace Shawn

Wallace Shawn — actor (princess bride) with roots in the Russian Empire

Wallace Shawn is an American actor and playwright best known for his roles in The Princess Bride (Vizzini), Clueless, Toy Story (Rex), and My Dinner with Andre — the film he co-wrote and starred in. He is also one of American theatre's most provocative playwrights.

Tracing the roots — Russia (Jewish)

His grandfather had Russian-Jewish ancestry — part of the Eastern European Jewish diaspora in America. Growing up in the intellectual Jewish world of New York (his father was New Yorker editor William Shawn), Wallace absorbed the immigrant tradition's intellectual seriousness and applied it to both acting and playwriting.

Historical context

Russian Empire · c. 1721–1917

Russia (Jewish). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.

Map: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

A career defined by ambition