East Hampton - This year marks the 25th anniversary of Guild Hall's Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards. It is an award that recognizes contributions to the culture by actors, artists and writers who have a connection with the East End, of which there are many. This year the Performing Arts Award celebrates a consummate character actor who happens to also be a director, producer and writer, Bob Balaban.

Actor/producer/director/writer Bob Balaban.

Born and raised in Chicago, Balaban came from a family with multi-generational show business, albeit humble Russian immigrant roots, "My dad was the youngest of eight brothers and they lived in a little ghetto area of Chicago and in 1909 my grandmother got the boys into the movie business by buying a little nickelodeon and getting out of the grocery business, by 1920 they had about 75 big, old movie palaces in the Chicago area. They went on to be in the movie business for the rest of everybody's lives. My dad's older brother Barney Balaban was president and chairman of the board of Paramount until the early 1970s. The theater chain was called Balaban and Katz, Katz being my uncle who was married to my aunt and he eventually went on to be the head of production at MGM during all those musical years."

Obviously, Grandma was a wise lady, "She figured it out. Evidently she explained it as, 'In the grocery business when lettuce gets stale you have to throw it out, but when the movie is old you sent it back and they sent you a new one.' Beyond that I suspect she was a far-seeing lady and knew this would be the big growth industry and it was."

I asked Balaban if his family roots were a help or hindrance in pursuit of his own career, "I never found it a hindrance, but I never found it an enormous help. It was instrumental in getting me my first Equity part in a play in Chicago. It got me an audition is what it got me. Most people had very little idea that my family was in the movie business." Balaban went on to explain that nepotism was essentially frowned upon in the family.

Film poster for "Gosford Park" for which Balaban won a Best Picture Oscar nomination as producer.

Since that early Equity audition Balaban has appeared on stage, screen and television winning a Tony nomination in 1979 for his Broadway performance in "The Inspector General" and an Oscar nomination as the producer of Robert Altman's "Gosford Park." In television Balaban is probably best known for playing Russell Dalrymple on "Seinfeld," who is the fictional president of NBC on the series that is devastated by Elaine's rejection of his romantic overtures. Of late, he is all over the television in extremely funny PSA commercials promoting participation in the 2010 U.S. Census.

Although rarely the lead, Balaban's film credits are as impressive as any working actor could want on their resume and he seems to work all the time. Balaban has had supporting roles in films such as "Absence of Malice," "Bob Roberts," "Deconstructing Harry," "Ghost World," "The Majestic," "Lady in the Water" and director Christopher Guest's "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show," "A Mighty Wind" and "For Your Consideration."

Among the literally seminal films to which Balaban has lent his substantial talents include "Midnight Cowboy," "Catch 22" (both while only in his senior year in college at New York University) and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." I asked the actor if he knew at the time of making "Midnight Cowboy," the only X-rated film to win an academy award in any category much less three for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, that the film would have such a profound impact on the genre, "I think it was quite influential and it did win the Academy Award at the time, but no I had no idea I was in anything different from what anyone else was doing at the time. I had no idea that I was in anything that was going to be anything, which is usually the case by the way. I think you never really know unless you are the director." The film also garnered Best Actor Academy Award nominations for both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight and has been ranked at 43 on the 2007 American Film Institute's list of the greatest 100 American films.

Film poster for "Bernard and Doris."

Referring to his entomology as the Oscar nominated producer of "Gosford Park" Balaban explained the vertical connections within the film industry, "One of the reasons I produced 'Gosford Park" was that I had met Robert Altman when I was 22 years old because I had met him for both 'M.A.S.H' and 'Brewster McCloud,' so it is a fairly connected network out there. Even now as a director I am often able to call actors because I have worked with them." Balaban also appeared in the film, ironically portraying a Hollywood producer.

Beyond acting, directing and producing, Balaban has written a series of children's books called "McGrowl, the Bionic Dog" which he describes as, "We sold two million copies and the series ended about five years ago. It was a story about a little boy who always wanted a dog and he gets a bionic dog and they save the world. I just sold a new series of books that I am hard at work on now called 'The Creature from the Seventh Grade.'"

I asked Balaban if he had but one aspect of his diverse talents to work which it would be, "Yes, I have a preference and that is being employed, the more things I do the greater the chances I have at that and they all help each other. Truthfully, I really like everything, but if I had to do only one thing all the time it would be directing movies. I would love to do that and that is what I am working towards." In 2007 Balaban garnered much praise for his directorial turn at the HBO film "Bernard and Doris." The film starred Susan Sarandon as philanthropist socialite Doris Duke and Ralph Fiennes as her butler and confidant Bernard Lafferty, whom she named executor of her $1.3 billion dollar estate prior to her death.

Balaban was surprised to be this year's Guild Hall honoree, "I had no idea that they were thinking of me and I think it is lovely. It means you have to write a speech and have dinner with dear friends and I love that because I have a community of friends in the Hamptons, friends and colleagues that one becomes close to living out there year-round, as I do. It is a lovely honor, it is your community and it is your peers. I am looking forward to it."

Deserving because of his own body of work, his commitment to the artistic culture of the nation in general and his specific personal commitment to the rich arts of the East End, Balaban has every right to revel in his honor as this year's Guild Hall Lifetime Achievement Award winner in the Performing Arts.

The Guild Hall awards ceremony honoring Bob Balaban will be celebrated at Cipriani 42nd Street on Monday, March 8. Also being honored this year are Richard Prince for Visual Arts; Marsha Norman for Literary Arts; and Susan and Alan Patricof for Leadership and Philanthropic Endeavors.

For more information go to 631-324-0806 or www.GuildHall.org.

"Gosford Park" with Bob Balaban as Hollywood producer Morris Weissman in the forefront.