Brian Backer

American actor

Brian Backer
Born	(1956-12-05) December 5, 1956 (age 67) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1980–2012

Brian Backer (born December 5, 1956) is an American former actor who has starred in film and on television. He is best known for his role in the 1982 hit comedy film Fast Times at Ridgemont High as shy teenager Mark "Rat" Ratner. He appeared in the 1985 comedy film Moving Violations as Scott Greeber and the 1987 comedy film Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol as Arnie.

Backer's primary television role was on the soap opera Santa Barbara in 1990 as A. Bartlett Congdon. He has made guest appearances on such shows as Charles in Charge, Gimme a Break! and Growing Pains.

Backer won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play,^[1] the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, and the Theatre World Award for Woody Allen's The Floating Light Bulb, in which he portrayed an Allen-like protagonist.

Early life

Backer grew up in Brooklyn. He is Jewish. ^[1]

Filmography

The Burning (1981) as Alfred
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) as Mark "Rat" Ratner
Talk to Me (1984) as Men's Store Salesman
Moving Violations (1985) as Scott Greeber
The Money Pit (1986) as Ethan
Gimme a Break! (1986) as Tyler (episode: The Purse Snatcher)
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987) as Arnie
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lesson (1989) as Eugene
Steel and Lace (1991) as Norman
A Clown in Babylon (1999) as Blake
Loser (2000) as Doctor
Marie and Bruce (2004) as Waiter
Vamps (2012) as Middle-Aged Guy/Dentist

References

^ ^a ^b Robertson, Nan (May 22, 1981). "WINNER OF THE WOODY-ALLEN-KINDRED-SOUL CONTEST". NY Times. Retrieved 7 February 2019.

External links

Brian Backer at AllMovie
Brian Backer at the Internet Broadway Database
Brian Backer at IMDb

Awards for Brian Backer
v t e Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
1975–2000	Frank Langella (1975) Judd Hirsch (1976) Bob Dishy (1977) Morgan Freeman (1978) George Rose (1979) David Rounds (1980) Brian Backer (1981) Željko Ivanek / Adolph Caesar (1982) Alan Feinstein (1983) John Malkovich (1984) Barry Miller / Charles S. Dutton (1985) Joseph Maher (1986) John Randolph (1987) BD Wong (1988) Peter Frechette (1989) Charles Durning (1990) Kevin Spacey (1991) Laurence Fishburne (1992) Joe Mantello / Stephen Spinella (1993) Jeffrey Wright (1994) Nathan Lane (1995) Martin Shaw (1996) Brian Murray (1997) Alfred Molina (1998) Kevin Anderson (1999) Roy Dotrice (2000)
2001–2022	Charles Brown (2001) Frank Langella (2002) Denis O'Hare (2003) Ned Beatty (2004) Michael Stuhlbarg (2005) Samuel Barnett (2006) Boyd Gaines (2007) Conleth Hill (2008) Pablo Schreiber (2009) Santino Fontana (2010) Brian Bedford (2011) Tom Edden (2012) Richard Kind (2013) Reed Birney (2014) K. Todd Freeman (2015) Michael Shannon (2016) Danny DeVito (2017) Nathan Lane (2018) Tom Glynn-Carney (2019) Paul Hilton (2020) No Award (2021) Ron Cephas Jones (2022)

v t e Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play
1949–1975	Arthur Kennedy (1949) Eli Wallach (1951) John Cromwell (1952) John Williams (1953) John Kerr (1954) Francis L. Sullivan (1955) Ed Begley (1956) Frank Conroy (1957) Henry Jones (1958) Charlie Ruggles (1959) Roddy McDowall (1960) Martin Gabel (1961) Walter Matthau (1962) Alan Arkin (1963) Hume Cronyn (1964) Jack Albertson (1965) Patrick Magee (1966) Ian Holm (1967) James Patterson (1968) Al Pacino (1969) Ken Howard (1970) Paul Sand (1971) Vincent Gardenia (1972) John Lithgow (1973) Ed Flanders (1974) Frank Langella (1975)
1976–2000	Edward Herrmann (1976) Jonathan Pryce (1977) Lester Rawlins (1978) Michael Gough (1979) David Rounds (1980) Brian Backer (1981) Zakes Mokae (1982) Matthew Broderick (1983) Joe Mantegna (1984) Barry Miller (1985) John Mahoney (1986) John Randolph (1987) BD Wong (1988) Boyd Gaines (1989) Charles Durning (1990) Kevin Spacey (1991) Laurence Fishburne (1992) Stephen Spinella (1993) Jeffrey Wright (1994) John Glover (1995) Ruben Santiago-Hudson (1996) Owen Teale (1997) Tom Murphy (1998) Frank Wood (1999) Roy Dotrice (2000)
2001–present	Robert Sean Leonard (2001) Frank Langella (2002) Denis O'Hare (2003) Brían F. O'Byrne (2004) Liev Schreiber (2005) Ian McDiarmid (2006) Billy Crudup (2007) Jim Norton (2008) Roger Robinson (2009) Eddie Redmayne (2010) John Benjamin Hickey (2011) Christian Borle (2012) Courtney B. Vance (2013) Mark Rylance (2014) Richard McCabe (2015) Reed Birney (2016) Michael Aronov (2017) Nathan Lane (2018) Bertie Carvel (2019) David Alan Grier (2020/21) Jesse Tyler Ferguson (2022) Brandon Uranowitz (2023)