Bronson Pinchot & Mark Linn-Baker
Perfect Strangers 1986 - 1993

Broadway Buddies

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stardom
Mark Linn-Baker

Best known to TV audiences as the uptight Larry Appleton, cousin to recent immigrant Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot) on the sitcom Perfect Strangers, Linn-Baker, now 50, has since returned to his Broadway roots.  Most of Mark's post-Perfect Strangers work has been on the New York stage, where he'd previously been nominated for a Tony Award for the musical Candide in 1974***.  In recent years he's been seen onstage in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, for which he received a Drama League Honor, in ****Doonesbury -- The Musical , and as Toad in A Year With Frog and Toad.  Behind the scenes, he is co-founder and co-director of the NY Stage and Film Company.  Mark and his wife, set designer and producer Adrianne Lobel, live in New York City.

*** Editor's note: This is just more of the Mark Baker / Mark Linn-Baker confusion.  Actor Mark Baker, who voiced Raggedy Andy in the animated film Raggedy Ann and Andy, is the actor who appeared in the musical version of Candide in 1974.  According to reports, the fact that this actor named Mark Baker was already registered with the various guilds is the reason our Mark added the Linn as part of his regular name.  I don't know if this is true or not, but it seems plausible.

**** Doonesbury actually pre-dated Perfect Strangers by three years!

Balki Takes Broadway!
Bronson Pinchot

Bronson Pinchot, 45, first made a name for himself with hilarious supporting turns in early-80's comedies like Risky Business and Beverly Hills Cop.  But it is his portrayal of antic immigrant Balki Bartokomous on Perfect Strangers for which the Yale-educated actor is best remembered.  Since leaving Balki behind in 1993, Bronson has been lending his unique voice to characters on a handful of animated TV shows, including Duckman, Hey Arnold! and The Wild Thornberrys.  And like his former Perfect Strangers co-star Mark Linn-Baker, Pinchot has been doing his fair share of stage work, appearing in Broadway productions such as Putting it Together and in last year's Sly Fox with Richard Dreyfuss.