Eric Bogosian (1953)

 personal life

Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College, Bogosian moved to New York City to pursue a career in theatre. Bogosian has been married since 1980 to theater director Jo Bonney, with whom he has two children.

 career

Bogosian's best known work is Talk Radio, in which he starred Off Broadway and in the Oliver Stone film of the same name. In 2006, the play was brought to Broadway, garnering Tony nominations for the play and for Liev Schreiber, who starred. For the original stage version, Bogosian was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; for the film, he received the Berlin International Film Festival’s Silver Bear.

Early in his career, Bogosian began working with Richard Foreman and The Wooster Group in a theoretical attempt to break down classical forms and "start from scratch." Explaining his approach to the medium, Bogosian said, "You’ve got to look at what’s really happening instead of what you think is happening. What’s really happening when you walk into the door of a theater is everything that’s happening around you, the people sitting in the audience, and what you’re picking up off the stage… You have to acknowledge that, or at least understand what the conceit is."

His play, subUrbia was produced by Lincoln Center Theater in 1994, adapted to the screen by Richard Linklater, and revived Off Broadway with an updated script in 2006. His most recent play, 1+1 was produced by New York Stage & Film in 2008.

Bogosian is well-known for the six Off Broadway solos he wrote for himself between 1980 and 2000. For these he was awarded three Obie Awards as well as the Drama Desk Award. The solos, including “Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll” and “Pounding Nails in the Floor with Forehead” are produced around the world and have become a mainstay of the American theater repertory.

He is the author of three novels and a novella. His latest, “Perforated Heart,” was published in the spring of 2009 by Simon & Schuster. His first novel, “Mall” is currently being adapted as a film.

Bogosian starred in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman at LAByrinth Theater. Currently on Broadway, he is reprising his role as Richard in Time Stands Still. Onscreen, Bogosian has been featured in films by Paul Schrader, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Robert Altman, Taylor Hackford, Atom Egoyan and Mike Judge. Other films include the action-adventure, “Under Siege II,” and the fact-based drama, “Wonderland.”

On television, he appeared as Captain Danny Ross in the long-running series, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," from 2006 to 2010. Captain Ross (Bogosian's character) is killed in the line of duty in the first part of the ninth season premiere.

In 2010 he starred in Donald Margulies' play "Time Stands Still" on Broadway at the Manhattan Theater Club and in the fall at the Cort Theater.