Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Michael Tamboris an American actor and voice actor, widely known for his roles as Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show; George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development and Maura Pfefferman on Transparent for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2015...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth8 July 1944
CitySan Francisco, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I don't like show business. I don't like the business. I love acting. I love this. I love talking to people.
I loved the gentlemanly way they treated each other. It was unlike anything I was used to. I started helping them strike the set and, at 11, began taking acting classes privately.
I came to New York late; I was already past 30
I think your resources are feeling. Your resources are depth. Your resources are learning. Your resources are touching and feeling. And for me, sobriety helps and aids all of that.
This whole thing about winning and losing is muddy waters. But I can remember, as a young actor, just walking around this city and not being able to get arrested.
My education was doing good plays and also stinkers. When you do a stinker, you learn how to act. I like having to audition. It's nice to do rehearsals. But it's with an audience that you get to love it!
My part had three lines. I said, You look wonderful, sir, three times. All my friends said, Do not take that role - and do not understudy. You'll regret it the rest of your life. I did both of those things, and I've never regretted it once.
On the other hand, we don't come to work with all of these social goals, nor are we directly trying to change the world and all of that. Our job is that we have these human characters, and it's our responsibility to play them truthfully and as human as possible. Jill has cast this impeccably. These actors nail it, even the non-Pfeffermans. It's ridiculous.
And I'd watch George C. Scott from backstage. He was one of my mentors.
I remember going to Bob Preston's dressing room because I was losing a laugh - as you do in a long run. He said, 'Give me the script. That's where you're going off the road.' That's comedy. It's never the line itself; it's in the foundation.
The Emmy should be an ensemble award, too. I kept howling at everyone else's performances.
I thought that the hardest part would be the external - would be the - oh, nails and the hair and the makeup and the dress and the heels and the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And actually, that wasn't the hardest. That was very, very, very easy for me, and I liked it.
Joe Mantello is the uber director. I wrote him a card tonight saying basically, 'Will you adopt me?'
When I got this role, my daughter Molly said, 'Dad, you've come full circle.