Bronson Pinchot

Bronson Pinchot
Pinchot at the Chiller Theatre Expo in 2012
Born	Bronson Alcott Pinchot (1959-05-20) May 20, 1959 (age 57) Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1983–present

Bronson Alcott Pinchot (born May 20, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Balki Bartokomous in the ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers (1986–93).

He also starred in films, such as Risky Business (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), True Romance (1993), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), It's My Party (1996), Courage Under Fire (1996) and The First Wives Club (1996), as well as on television series, such as The Prankster in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. In 2012, he starred in his own reality series, The Bronson Pinchot Project on the DIY Network.

Pinchot has worked extensively as an audiobook narrator, with over 100 recordings as of 2014.AudioFile magazine recognized him as Best Voice in Fiction & Classics for his 2010 renderings of Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965), Karl Marlantes's Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War (2009) and David Vann's Caribou Island (2011).

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.