The Warden Speaks, Bob Gunton on Shawshank and 50 Years of Character Work

Bob Gunton has spent five decades building one of the most quietly essential careers in American acting, from originating Juan Perón in the first Broadway production of Evita to becoming the face of institutional evil as Warden Norton in The Shawshank Redemption.

He talks about how a pseudo Spanish accent almost got cut from Evita until Hal Prince intervened, what it took to make Sweeney Todd his own after watching Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury do it upstairs, and the wig audition that landed him Shawshank. He also shares his Vietnam service, the Bronze Star at Firebase Ripcord, and the dog tag that found its way back to him decades later, plus the story behind playing the ghost of Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters Afterlife.