Eric Bogosian

Connective Tissue with John C. McGinley

This week Johnny C has a special guest from his early days at NYU and the New York City theater. Eric Bogosian is one of the most prolific actors/playwrights today. You may have seen him recently on Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire.

Eric Bogosian was born in Boston and grew up in Woburn, Massachusetts. After graduating from Woburn Memorial High School in 1971, he attended the University of Chicago and graduated from Oberlin College in 1976, whereupon he moved to New York City. In New York he was hired by the Kitchen as an assistant, established a dance series there and after five years left to devote all his energies to his theater work. Between 1976 and 1982, Bogosian wrote, directed and/or starred in over sixteen productions Off-Off-Broadway. In 1982, he toured the Midwest with Fab Five Freddy and the Rock Steady Crew.

In the early 1980's Eric Bogosian became well-known in New York for his intense one-man theater pieces, winning the Obie Award three times as well as the Drama Desk Award. In 1983, after attending one of his one-man shows, Larry Cohen cast Bogosian as the homicidal director in his low-budget film Special Effects (1984). Four years later, Bogosian's Pulitzer-nominated play, (in which he also starred), "Talk Radio" caught the attention of the greater film world. Robert Altman cast Bogosian in his film of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1988) while producer Edward R. Pressman obtained the rights to the play and brought it to director Oliver Stone. Stone and Bogosian adapted the play script to film script, Bogosian again played the lead and the film of Talk Radio (1988) opened in December 1988. Bogosian received the prestigious "Silver Bear" at the 1989 Berlin Festival for his work on the film.

After the release of "Talk Radio", Bogosian worked regularly as an actor in film and television while remaining very active in the theater. 1994 was a banner year in which Bogosian co-starred with Steven Seagal in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) as the diabolical "Travis Dane", was featured in Dolores Claiborne (1995), staged another one-man show Off-Broadway and authored the play, "subUrbia" directed by Robert Falls and produced by Lincoln Center Theater, ("subUrbia" was adapted for film by director Richard Linklater). Around this time, Bogosian would also cameo appearances in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997), Atom Egoyan's Ararat (2002), Cindy Sherman's Office Killer (1997) and Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996).

In the 1990's Bogosian continued to write for film and TV, adapting his own work as well as receiving assignments from studios. He began to write for television when he was invited to co-create a show for Steven Spielberg: High Incident (1996) in 1996. As an actor, in 2003, he co-starred with Val Kilmer as the notorious Eddie Nash in James Cox's Wonderland (2003). In 2006 he was invited onboard Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) as Captain Danny Ross (where he appeared in over sixty episodes).

In 2010, Bogosian starred on Broadway in Donald Margulies' "Time Stands Still" with Laura Linney, Brian d'Arcy James, Alicia Silverstone and Christina Ricci.

In 2013, Bogosian created a website featuring his numerous monologues performed by notable actors. Visit 100monologues.com to view the complete catalog of over 75 monologues.

More recently, Bogosian landed a series of featured television roles on Netflix's The Get Down (2016), Showtime's Billions (2016) and as Senator Gil Eavis on HBO's Succession (2018).

Bogosian has been featured in Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie's Uncut Gems (2019) (starring Adam Sandler).

In addition to his numerous plays, Bogosian is the author of three novels "Mall", "Wasted Beauty" and "Perforated Heart." His non-fiction history, Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide was published by Little, Brown in 2015.

He lives in New York City with his wife, director Jo Bonney with whom he has two children; Travis Bogosian and Harry Bogosian

Produced by John C McGinleye and Angie Quidim

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