David Cale

Did you know?!

1. First role

   In 1987, Cale made his screen debut in Radio Days, a film directed by Woody Allen. That was the first screen role for him.

2. First role

   Cale's solo stage debut came in 1986 at PS 122 in New York, where he performed The Redthroats as Stephen Weird, a semi-autobiographical character. The play earned a Bessie Award and later appeared in an HBO special.

3. Behind the camera

   Cale wrote Harry Clarke, the tale of a Midwesterner who becomes a British libertine, as a joint production of New York's Vineyard Theatre and Audible. Billy Crudup took on both the stage production and the audiobook.

4. Getting ready for a role

   Cale worked as a carriage driver in Central Park to research a film role, an experience that later fed into his play Palomino, about an Irish immigrant carriage driver who becomes a gigolo.

5. A change of course

   Cale's first writing took the form of song lyrics. He read them at poetry readings, and they grew into monologues. Before that, his sole theater experience was working as a stagehand.

6. Beyond film

   Several musicians have recorded songs that Cale wrote himself. Among them are The Jazz Passengers, Debbie Harry, and Syd Straw.