Stephen Tobolowsky
Biography
Stephen Tobolowsky, an American character actor and writer, was born in Dallas, graduated from Southern Methodist University, and later studied at the University of Illinois. He has worked in more than 200 films as well as many television projects. His best known film parts include Sammy Jankis, the amnesiac in Memento (2000), and Ned Ryerson, the insurance agent in Groundhog Day (1993). On television he has played Sandy Ryerson in Glee, Bob Bishop in Heroes, and Action Jack Barker in Silicon Valley. He has acted and directed in the theater, and he earned a Tony nomination for his featured performance in the 2002 revival of Morning's at Seven. He directed the film Two Idiots in Hollywood from his own play, wrote True Stories with David Byrne and Beth Henley, has written three books, and makes an audio podcast, The Tobolowsky Files.
75years old
Turns 76 on May 30in 200 days
- Born Dallas
- Star sign: GeminiThe sign runs May 21 to June 20
Movie Career
- Films
- 77
- Career span
- 41 years1984 to 2025
Genres
Share
Did you know?!
Behind the camera
Tobolowsky co-wrote True Stories with David Byrne and Beth Henley. During the writing, he mentioned to Byrne his supposed psychic abilities, and that gave Byrne the idea for the film's song "Radio Head."
A change of course
Tobolowsky played in a Dallas band called A Cast of Thousands, which put two songs on a local compilation album, and both tracks featured guitar by Steve Vaughan, later known as Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Stephen Tobolowsky movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Stephen Frears directed two of these films, Marc Rocco two and Maclain Nelson two. Kathy Bates appears in four of them, more than any other actor. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Kathy Bates's page
Wallace Shawn's page
Lacey Chabert's page
Brian Doyle-Murray's page
Peter Jacobson's page
Rosalind Chao's page
All films by Stephen Frears
Marc RoccoDirector, 2 films, 1992 to 1995
All films by Marc Rocco
All films by Maclain Nelson
Also three films together1 more actor
- Ann HearnStrange Nature (2018), My Father the Hero (1994) and Mirror Mirror (1990)
When several people share the same number of films, the ones with the most films on Netflix are in the chart.
Box office
What Stephen Tobolowsky's films earned in cinemas worldwide.
Combined worldwide box office
$2.9 billion
48 of the 77 films have a worldwide figure.
Of the 77 films: 48 worldwide figure; 9 us gross only; 12 never in cinemas; 8 figure not found.
- 48Worldwide figure
- 9US gross only
- 12Never in cinemas
- 8Figure not found
Top grosser
Highest grossing
The eight biggest films earned 66% of the total. The bars are drawn to scale.
- 1$353M12.4% of the total
- 2$349M12.2% of the total
- 3$273M9.6% of the total
- 4$254M8.9% of the total
- 5$201M7.0% of the total
- 6$161M5.6% of the total
- 7$153M5.4% of the total
- 8$139M4.9% of the total
$969 millionfrom the other 40 films with a worldwide figure, 34% of the total