Portrait of Rip Torn

Birthday profile

Rip Torn

Rip Torn, American actor (died 2019)

Born
February 6, 1931
Died
July 9, 2019
Zodiac sign
Aquarius
Birth year
1931

About Rip Torn

Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn Jr. was an American actor whose career spanned roughly 60 years. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing Marsh Turner in Cross Creek (1983). Torn's portrayal of Artie the producer on The Larry Sanders Show (1992–1998) received six Emmy Award nominations, winning in 1996. Torn was also known for his roles as Judas Iscariot in King of Kings (1961), Thomas J. Finley, Jr. in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Dr. Nathan Bryce in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bob Diamond in Defending Your Life (1991), Zeus in Hercules (1997), Zed in the Men in Black franchise, Jim Brody in Freddy Got Fingered (2001), Patches O'Houlihan in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), and Louis XV in Marie Antoinette (2006). In 1972, Torn won rave reviews for his portrayal of a country and western singer in the cult film Payday. In 1959, he made his feature Broadway debut when he played Tom Junior in Sweet Bird of Youth, for which he won a Theatre World Award and also received a Tony Award nomination.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Rip Torn timeline

  1. In 1959, he made his feature Broadway debut when he played Tom Junior in Sweet Bird of Youth, for which he won a Theatre World Award and also received a Tony Award nomination.
  2. Torn was also known for his roles as Judas Iscariot in King of Kings (1961), Thomas J.
  3. In 1972, Torn won rave reviews for his portrayal of a country and western singer in the cult film Payday.
  4. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing Marsh Turner in Cross Creek (1983).
  5. Torn's portrayal of Artie the producer on The Larry Sanders Show (1992–1998) received six Emmy Award nominations, winning in 1996.

The world when Rip Torn was born

Rip Torn was born in 1931. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1931

  • #1 song"Stardust" – Artie Shaw
  • Top movieFrankenstein
  • Best-selling bookThe Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentKnute Rockne dies in plane crash
  • Top headlineAl Capone convicted of tax evasion
  • Technology milestoneEmpire State Building completed
  • Defining fadJigsaw puzzles
  • Notable inventionElectric razor
  • World population2.10 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population124.0M

1931 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Rip Torn's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19312026
Gas$0.17$3.45/gal
Average home$5,500$435,000
Average income$3,000$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population124.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.