Date of Birth : Oct 30th 1957
Kevin Pollak began his career as a stand-up comedian in his hometown of San Francisco. Although he began his film acting career in Ron Howard’s Willow, in 1990 Barry Levinson tapped Pollak for a career-launching role in his Baltimore masterpiece, Avalon. After following that with co-starring roles opposite Denzel Washington (Ricochet) and Steve Martin (LA Story), Pollak earned himself a shot at the majors when Rob Reiner gave him the key role along side Tom Cruise and Demi Moore, as they faced off with Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men.
His diverse film characters include Walter Matthau’s son in two Grumpy Old Men movies, Robert De Niro’s faux boss in Martin Scorsese’s Casino, and the President of the United States in the political thriller Deterrence. He has received several awards for his dramatic film work, including one from The National Board of Review for his exceptional work in the worldwide sensation, The Usual Suspects.
Fans of the smaller screen may know Pollak from his two dozen appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, or as a regular guest on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. He also starred in two of his own HBO stand-up comedy specials, and co-created and co-executive produced a crime telepic, The Underworld, with Academy Award winner Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) for NBC. Last year Disney hired Pollak to write a comedy screenplay for Tim Allen based on an idea he and Allen pitched the studio.
At this year’s Sundance Film Festival Pollak’s starring role in Seven Times Lucky created quite the buzz, and currently, he’s co-starring with Bruce Willis in a film adaptation of the best-selling novel Hostage.