* San Francisco, CA 8.7.1944

Educ.:San Francisco State University; Wayne State University, Detroit MI (theater)

Tall, bald character player, who, after gaining wide experience in regional theatre, broke into TV and films playing officious, obsequious, or generally uptight and fussy types. After completing graduate studies in theater and teaching acting, Tambor spent a busy 15 years with companies including the Seattle, Milwaukee, and South Coast Repertory Theatres; the Old Globe in San Diego; the Actors Theatre in Louisville; and Harvard's Loeb Drama Center. He was in his mid-thirties when he made his film debut in the Al Pacino courtroom vehicle, …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (1979). Some of Tambor's more notable subsequent films include MR. MOM (1983), CITY SLICKERS (1991), and LIFE STINKS (1991) (as Mel Brooks's villainous rival). Unafraid to play comic caricatures, he has been very comfortable with outlandish material, be it the horror spoof of SATURDAY THE 14TH (1981) or the black comedy of AT HOME WITH THE WEBBERS (1993). 

Most people, though, know Tambor better from his TV work. Beginning as the snobbish neighbour on the sitcom spinoff from "Three's Company," "The Ropers" (1979-80), Tambor embarked on a series of generally short-lived TV series, utilizing his piercing gaze and incisive, effete manner. He was an entirely reasonable choice to succeed Dabney Coleman as the sexist boss on the TV sitcom version of the hit comedy, "9 to 5" (1982-83), and he created a number of enjoyably snide voice characterizations for children's cartoons. Two series, which didn't last but were quite interesting, were the sardonically titled "Mr. Sunshine" (1986), with Tambor as a blind English professor who gets by with his brains and acid wit, and "Max Headroom" (1987), the highly inventive and influential TV brush with post-modern virtual reality, with Tambor as the frantic head of a newsroom. His most successful series to date has been HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show" (1992-) with Tambor playing Garry Shandling's buffoonish sidekick, "Hey Now" Hank Kingsley.

Filmografie

1979   …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL     
1981   A GUN IN THE HOUSE        
1981   SATURDAY THE 14TH        
1982   TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT     
1983   THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE      
1983   MR. MOM      
1983   SADAT performer
1984   NO SMALL AFFAIR   
1985   DESERT HEARTS      
1987   THREE O'CLOCK HIGH         
1989   BRENDA STARR       
1990   LISA  
1990   A QUIET LITTLE NEIGHBORHOOD, A PERFECT LITTLE MURDER
1991   CITY SLICKERS       
1991   LIFE STINKS 
1991   PASTIME      
1992   ARTICLE 99   
1992   BRENDA STARR   
1992   THE BURDEN OF PROOF      
1992   CROSSING THE BRIDGE      
1993   AT HOME WITH THE WEBBERS      
1993   A HOUSE IN THE HILLS      
1994   HEAVYWEIGHTS      
1994   RADIOLAND MURDERS