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May 2009 Master's Degree Ceremony Keynote Speaker
John Astin
Mr. Astin is, of course, best known as Gomez Addams, television’s lovable, slightly crazed patriarch of the original Addams Family series, the myriad repeats of which have led to the frequent reference to Mr. Astin as a “pop-culture icon.” Gomez remains a favorite among his hundreds of TV characterizations, along with Buddy Ryan in Night Court and the title role in Evil Roy Slade. More recent TV appearances include Mad About You, The Nanny, The Hughleys, The Strip, and Becker. Mr. Astin's early training was in Shakespeare and other classical dramatists as he studied first with actor Maurice Greet, nephew of the famous Shakespearean actor-manager Ben Greet. Later he attended for five years theatre great Harold Clurman’s midnight class for professional actors. “Forty-five years later, I’m still learning from him,” Astin says. Clurman directed him in David Suskind’s TV production of Jean Giraudoux’s Tiger at the Gates, and he also appeared in the origi¬nal New York companies of The Threepenny Opera, Saroyan’s The Cave Dwellers, Lindsay and Crouse’s Tall Story, James Joyce's Ulysses in Nighttown, and Charles Laughton’s memorable production of Shaw’s Major Barbara. Other stage favorites include Fagin in Oliver!, Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Percy in Rattle of a Simple Man, Sir Joseph in H.M.S. Pinafore (his most recent NY appearance), Henry Saunders in Ken Ludwig's Lend Me a Tenor and a highly praised characterization of Ebenezer Scrooge in a tour of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. A few years ago he was Linus Pauling in a play on the life of the two-time Nobel Prize winner. Mr. Astin has been nominated for many awards, including the Emmy, the Ace, and the Oscar. His Academy Award nomination was for Prelude, a short film that he wrote, produced, and directed. His voice is popular on radio and in animation series. He has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Alumni Association of Johns Hopkins University (1999), the Phi Kappa Psi 2002 National Leadership Award, and both the Min-on Art Award and the Liberty Award from the Soka Gakkai International. A prize-winning still photographer, Mr. Astin was born in Baltimore, grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Washington & Jefferson College on a grant as a math major. Although he worked briefly as a mathematician, he later received a degree in Drama from Johns Hopkins. He did his graduate work in English literature at the University of Minnesota, where he was employed by the University Theatre. He and his wife Valerie recently celebrated their 20th Anniversary, and now reside in Baltimore, occasionally visiting Los Angeles, Houston and Hawaii where they enjoy time with immediate family, including five sons and five granddaughters of whom they are intensely proud.
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Mr. Astin is currently a Visiting Professor at the Johns Hopkins University where he is Director of the Program in Theatre Arts & Studies and has initiated the University Theatre on the Hopkins Homewood campus in the historic Merrick Barn. Occasionally Mr. Astin performs on stage with his students, and he is still active in film, television and the theatre. For six years he performed a one-man show on Edgar Allan Poe to critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences across the U.S., Ireland and Australia. He hopes the play will enhance and deepen interest in and respect for Poe’s brilliance and versatility. Astin said recently, “I feel that Poe, through his own tortured existence, gained deep insight into the nature of the universe, along with an intense love and appreciation for life itself. Through this play I want to share that impression with others.”