Robbins, Tim(othy) Francis (1958– )

US actor and director. He rose to fame as an actor in Bull Durham (1988), and throughout the 1990s starred in both independent and mainstream films. Outspokenly political, his left-wing sympathies were evident in his films as a director, such as Bob Roberts (1993), Dead Man Walking (1995), and Cradle Will Rock (1999).

Robbins was born in Los Angeles, California. He began acting as a boy and in 1981 was a founder of the Los Angeles experimental theatre group the Actor's Gang Theatre. He made his screen debut in 1984. With a talent for comic characterization, he was cast in the leading role of Robert Altman's Hollywood satire The Player (1992). Other films as an actor include Top Gun (1985), Cadillac Man (1990), Short Cuts (1993), Mission to Mars (2000), Mystic River (2003), and War of the Worlds (2005).