Alvin Epstein

Overview

Known for
Acting
Gender
Other
Birthday
May 14, 1925 (100 years old)
Death date
Dec 10, 2018

Alvin Epstein

Known For

Engram
0h 24m
Movie 2014

Engram

An elderly woman enters a Manhattan subway station only to find herself sitting on a bench beside an elderly man of roughly the same age. As they sit and wait for their train in silence, two complete strangers on a bench, what the audience soon learns that they themselves don't know, is that they once shared the happiest day of their lives, playing together as children. Yet it's now too far back for them to remember anymore, too far back for them to recognize each other anymore. The story then shifts back and forth between the breathtaking landscape of their unconscious', as Isabel Lucas and Oliver Ackland play more youthful representations of how they see themselves inside, and search for the memory they once shared.

The Brooklyn Heist
1h 26m
Movie 2009

The Brooklyn Heist

Three teams of criminals share the same Brooklyn block, but each exists in a separate genre of film. The Amateurs are trapped in a 1970's anti-hero movie. The Sputniks live in black and white. The Moolies can't escape their rap video life.

Synecdoche, New York
2h 4m
Movie 2008

Synecdoche, New York

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Beauty and the Beast
1h 24m
Movie 1991

Beauty and the Beast

Follow the adventures of Belle, a bright young woman who finds herself in the castle of a prince who's been turned into a mysterious beast. With the help of the castle's enchanted staff, Belle soon learns the most important lesson of all -- that true beauty comes from within.

Doing Life
Movie 1986

Doing Life

Tony Danza stars in this prison drama about Jerome "Jerry" Rosenburg, a self-professed "jailhouse lawyer" who defends himself against the homicide charge that has put him on death row. This tense movie, made in Canada, has the feel of a biographical documentary.

Biography

Alvin Epstein (May 14, 1925 – December 10, 2018) was an American actor and director. He was a founding member of both the American Repertory Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre. He was particularly admired for his performances in the plays of Samuel Beckett. He also served as Artistic Director at the Guthrie Theater. Born in the Bronx, Epstein was the son of Harry Epstein, a physician, and his wife Goldie Epstein (née Rudnick). He graduated from the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan and the Queens College, City University of New York. After serving in the United States Army during World War II in Germany, he studied dance in New York with Martha Graham and mime in Paris. His early performances in New York City included appearing in mimes with Marcel Marceau. In 1956 he made his Broadway debut as the Fool in Orson Welles’ 1956 production of William Shakespear's King Lear. That same year he portrayed the slave Lucky in the Broadway premiere of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Epstein continued to appear in many productions of Beckett's plays, including Clov, the servant, in the United States premiere of Endgame in 1958. He portrayed two more characters in that play during his career: Hamm, Clov’s tyrannical blind master, in a 1984 Off-Broadway production that he also directed, at the Samuel Beckett Theater; and Hamm’s aged father, Nagg, who lives in a garbage can, performed at the Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan in 2005 and again, in 2008, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

By browsing this website, you accept our cookies policy.