Irwin, Bill

Irwin, Bill (b. 1950), actor and mime. Broadway's favorite (and practically only) mime during the late 20th century, Irwin has embraced many areas of entertainment in his unusual career, having also been a dancer, a clown, a street performer, an actor, a choreographer, and a teacher. He was born in Santa Monica, California, and educated at Oberlin College, the University of California at Los Angeles, the California Institute of the Arts, and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's Clown College. Irwin taught dance and mime before going to New York in 1980 and first presenting his innovative wordless performance pieces, most memorably The Regard of Flight and The Clown Bagatelles (1982 and 1987), Largely New York (1989), and Fool Moon (1995). He eventually performed some of them on Broadway to great acclaim and played roles in traditional plays as well, most notably as the slave Lucky in a star‐studded production of Waiting for Godot in 1988.