Bronson Pinchot

Personal life

Pinchot was born in Manhattan. His mother, Rosina (née Asta) was an Italian American and a typist, and his father, Henry (originally Poncharavsky) was of Russian descent and a bookbinder, who was born in New York and raised in Paris. His younger brother, Justin is also an actor. He was raised in Southern California, where he graduated from South Pasadena High School at the top of his class and was appointed valedictorian. He earned a full scholarship to Yale University, where he was placed in Morse College and graduated magna cum laude. Pinchot began his Yale career in fine art, but after he was cast in a college play, a casting director discovered him, which resulted in his film debut, Risky Business.

In 1999, Pinchot spent a great deal of time in Harford, Pennsylvania, restoring the circa 1839 mansion of former Pennsylvania state Senator Edward Jones. He purchased six properties in the small, rural town of 1,300 "in an effort to revive the town's 19th-century aesthetic." In 2015, Pinchot filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy claiming liabilities between $100,000 and $500,000. All of his properties in Harford were subsequently put up for sale. Bronson told The Citizen's Voice, "I have two skills: I can make old houses beautiful and I can make people laugh.... Other than that, I’m a waste of space. Well, I'm a dedicated son and brother but I have no head for businesses...."

Career

Pinchot appeared in several feature films, such as Risky Business, Beverly Hills Cop, The First Wives Club, True Romance, Courage Under Fire and It's My Party. Fisher Stevens asked Pinchot to play Ben Jabituya in the 1986 film Short Circuit, but Pinchot was fired. He also played Dennis Kemper in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sara and Balki Bartokomous in the long-running ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers.

After Perfect Strangers concluded filming its eight-season run in September 1992 (with the condensed final season airing during the summer of 1993), Pinchot immediately secured the starring role on a new sitcom for CBS, entitled The Trouble with Larry. The series premiered just three weeks after ABC's Perfect Strangers finale in August 1993, and one episode (which never aired) was directed by Mark Linn-Baker, Pinchot's co-star on Strangers. After three weeks of dismal ratings and poor reviews, The Trouble with Larry was canceled. Pinchot would subsequently get rehired by Perfect Strangers producers Tom Miller and Bob Boyett for roles on two more of their sitcoms: Step By Step, where he played French hairdresser Jean-Luc Rieupeyroux in early 1997, and, that fall, on Meego, where he played an alien who crash-landed on Earth and took up residence with an American family.

In 2008, Pinchot read for the audio version of The Learners, author Chip Kidd's followup to The Cheese Monkeys. He also voiced Max, the fully restored Black 1964 VW Beetle, in the 2009 Volkswagen "Das Auto" campaign. In 2009 and 2014, Pinchot narrated over 100 audiobooks, in which he won a number of awards. In 2010, Pinchot read the audio version of the novels Matterhorn and Blood Oath. For the Blackstone Audio collection Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories, he provided a reading of several stories, including Highsmith's novel Strangers on a Train. Pinchot recently narrated for Christopher Healy's children's series, The Hero's Guide. Again, Pinchot does many eastern European accents, including English, Irish, Scottish and German. He was chosen by Audible.com as their 2010 Narrator of the Year. On February 12, 2012, Pinchot starred in a home restoration show on DIY Network titled The Bronson Pinchot Project. The program is based on his hobby of restoring old homes using salvaged materials.