Biographie
Robert Trout Prescott was born on May 17, 1957, in Detroit, Michigan. His father, John Sherwin Prescott Jr. (deceased), held management positions at several major city newspapers in Detroit, Baltimore, Miami, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. His mother, Robin Balch Prescott, is a speech and audiology specialist who pioneered work in the field of cued speech.
Prescott frequently changed schools throughout his K-12 education. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, earning a degree in English, before relocating to New York City to study acting at the Bill Esper Studio with Joanne Baron and continued training at the Joanne Baron Studio.
After completing the two-year program, he landed a role in the 1984 film Joy of Sex, directed by Martha Coolidge—an underrated classic from the early 1980s era of low-budget teen comedies—which brought him to Los Angeles for the first time. Over the next decade, he acted in films such as Bachelor Party (1984) and Real Genius (1985), appeared in numerous television pilots and guest roles, and co-founded two theatre groups: the JamCenter and the Whitefire Theatre.
Feeling disheartened and dissatisfied with life in Los Angeles, Prescott decided to return to New York City and step away from the entertainment industry, saying, "I needed to do something else, or more like, I had to do something else." He taught and coached basketball at Martin Luther King High School in Manhattan, worked as a bartender in the Lower East Side, and took on construction work at Ground Zero in the months following 9/11.
He gradually resumed his acting career by appearing in television episodes filmed in New York City, including The Sopranos (1999), Damages (2007), Blue Bloods (2010), Trinity (1998), Deadline (2000), Third Watch (1999), New York Undercover (1994), C.P.W. (1995), and Law & Order (1990). He performed in New York City and regional theatre productions and appeared in numerous commercials.
His film roles in New York City productions include Gun Hill Road (2011), The Bourne Legacy (2012), Cold Comes the Night (2013), Burn After Reading (2008), and Michael Clayton (2007), in which he notably attempted, unsuccessfully, to detonate an explosion involving George Clooney.
