Jeffrey Tambor has earned deep respect for being one of the most versatile and accomplished character actors in film and television. Tambor’s unforgettable roles in such popular programs as The Larry Sanders Show and Arrested Development reveal his unique comedic gifts, while his roles in films such as And Justice for All and Meet Joe Black display the depth of his dramatic sensibilities.
Tambor attended San Francisco State University where he received a BA degree in Drama in 1965. He then went to Wayne State University earning an MFA in 1969. He was studying for his PhD when he left in 1970 for a role in Richard II with Richard Chamberlain at the Seattle Repertory Theater.
The actor made his Broadway debut in the comedy Sly Fox (1976), appearing opposite George C. Scott, and directed by Arthur Penn. He appeared in the New York Shakespeare production of Measure for Measure that same year.
Tambor has remained active in theater, directing Lanford Wilson's Burn This at the Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles, and acting and directing at many regional theatre companies, including the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago and the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard, and in plays by playwrights as diverse as Shakespeare, Molière and Chekhov to more contemporary writers.
Tambor had one of television’s most memorable roles as Hank Kingsley, the self-centered sidekick to talk show host Larry Sanders on HBO’s critically acclaimed The Larry Sanders Show. He starred in the long running Fox network Emmy Award-winning sitcom, Arrested Development, for which Netflix picked up 15 original episodes where Jeffrey reprised his roles as twin brothers George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth. He most recently shot an Amazon pilot entitled The Onion.
Tambor provided voices for the animated films Tangled, Monsters vs. Aliens, the Disney animated film Cinder Biter, as well as Clockwork Girl. Additionally, he was the voice of King Neptune in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” In 2005, he returned to Broadway as George Aaronow in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.
Tambor has also appeared in Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Flypaper, Paul, and Win, Win. He has appeared in the two Hellboy films, as well as The Hangover and The Hangover III, The Invention of Lying, There’s Something About Mary, City Slickers, Miss Congeniality, Dreamchasers, Mr. Mom, Brenda Starr, Radioland Murders, Doctor Dolittle, and Pollock. For the feature adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), he played the Mayor of Whoville. Tambor can be seen in the recently aired HBO film Phil Spector, opposite Al Pacino and Helen Mirren and For the Love Of Money, with Edward Furlong.
Tambor lives in New York with his wife Kasia and their four children. He has been accorded numerous honors for his professional work, including six Emmy nominations and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as being nominated for a Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Comedy Series.
Currently, Tambor is starring as transsexual Maura Pfefferman in the acclaimed Netflix series Transparent.
