Mark Linn-Baker

Mark Linn-Baker (born June 17, 1954) is an American actor and director famous for his role as Larry Appleton on the television sitcom Perfect Strangers. --- Linn-Baker was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His mother, Joan, was a dancer, and his father, William Nelson Baker, co-founded the Open Stage Theater in Hartford. He graduated from Wethersfield High School in Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1972. Graduating from Yale University with an MFA in Drama in 1979, Linn-Baker found most of his early roles on stage. He developed and performed in a two-man comedy show, The Laundry Hour, with Lewis Black, in the early 1980s. Linn-Baker's first movie role was a small part in Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan. Unfortunately for the young actor, most of his scenes were later cut from the film. Three years later, he would land a far more memorable film role partly inspired by Woody Allen himself playing Benjy Stone in the 1982 comedy film My Favorite Year alongside Peter O'Toole. In a manner similar to his future role in Perfect Strangers, Linn-Baker played the straight man to O'Toole's outrageous character, Alan Swann. Having attained success on stage and the big screen, Linn-Baker began to turn his sights toward television. In 1986, Linn-Baker was paired with Bronson Pinchot on the ABC series Perfect Strangers. He played the role of Larry Appleton, a young man living on his own for the first time in Chicago. Larry's world was disrupted when a distant cousin from the (fictional) Mediterranean island of Mypos, Balki Bartokomous (Pinchot), showed up on his doorstep. Storylines revolved around Larry's attempts to show Balki the ways of American culture, although the neurotic Larry frequently proved to be just as naive as Balki. The show made Linn-Baker a star and ran for parts of eight seasons, ending in August 1993.