{"id":207249,"date":"2019-03-07T16:02:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T16:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/?p=207249"},"modified":"2024-12-02T12:07:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T17:07:34","slug":"tobin-bell-70-ma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/2019\/03\/07\/tobin-bell-70-ma\/","title":{"rendered":"Tobin Bell \u201970 MA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nTobin Bell \u201970 MA is best known for his role as the psycho killer John Kramer, aka \u201cJigsaw,\u201d in the Saw<\/em> horror film series. But long before he was torturing people on the big screen, he was earning his master\u2019s degree in Environmental Studies at Montclair State.\n

Bell, then known as Joseph Tobin, received a fellowship to study at Montclair State and spent time traveling the state as part of his coursework. \u201cI felt great about whom I worked with and what I was studying,\u201d says Bell. \u201cIt was quite an adventure.\u201d After graduation, he worked at the New York Botanical Gardens, the Wave Hill Center and the educational program, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc.
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\"Tobin<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/p><\/div>\n

While focusing on Environmental Studies in the northeast may seem like a far stretch from Hollywood, Bell, the son of an actress, doesn\u2019t see it that way. \u201cI had always been acting, even since before school, but I was hard-pressed to make a living at it,\u201d he says. And since he was keenly interested in environmental issues, he saw the fellowship to Montclair State as an opportunity to learn more.<\/p>\n

However, he says, he always felt that there was \u201csomething left unfinished in the theater.\u201d He was drawn back to acting and before long, he was appearing in various Off-Broadway shows. Even with this success, he still yearned to work in film.<\/p>\n

In 1988, Bell was cast in his first feature film, “Mississippi Burning,” changing the trajectory of his career. He has also appeared in “Goodfella”s with Joe Pesci and played Ted Kaczynski in the TV movie “Unabomber: The True Story.” He has guest-starred in numerous television shows including “The X-Files,” “The Sopranos,” “24” and “Alias”. When it comes to playing villains, he may be cast against type, but it has worked for him. According to IMDB, he received an MTV Movie Award nomination for \u201cBest Villain\u201d and a nomination for \u201cBest Butcher\u201d in the Fuse\/Fangoria Chainsaw Awards.<\/p>\n

Away from the big screen, he continues to remain active in environmental causes.<\/p>\n

Bell enjoys making the Saw<\/em> movies and notes that he values the creative input he\u2019s allowed to have in them. \u201cThe films are a collaborative effort, and they want to hear my thoughts and make them work. I like to keep them as smart as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Bell works on three or four projects at a time and hints that there might be another Saw<\/em> movie in the future. \u201cAs long as there is a viable audience, I think we\u2019ll keep making them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

– Stacy Albanese \u201908<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long before this actor was torturing people on the big screen as the psycho killer John Kramer, aka \u201cJigsaw,\u201d in the Saw horror film series, he was earning his master\u2019s degree in Environmental Studies at Montclair State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-77_alumni-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209595,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207249\/revisions\/209595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}