Peter Coyote (born
Rachmil Pinchus Ben Mosha Cohon;
October 10,
1941)
[Official Website, Biography] is an
American actor,
author,
director,
screenwriter and
narrator of
films,
theatre,
television and
audio books. His voice work includes narrating the opening ceremony of the
2002 Winter Olympics. He has also served as on-camera co-host of the 2000
Oscar telecasts.
Coyote was one of the founders of
the Diggers, an
anarchist group active in
Haight-Ashbury during the mid-1960s. Coyote was also an actor, writer and director with the
San Francisco Mime Troupe; his prominence in the San Francisco counter-culture scene led to his being interviewed for the highly acclaimed book, "Voices from the Love Generation." He acted in and directed the first cross-country tour of the Minstrel Show, and his play "Olive Pits" (co-authored with Mime Troupe member Peter Berg) won the Troupe an
Obie Award from the
New York City-based
Village Voice. Coyote became a member, and later chairman, of the
California Arts Council from 1975 to 1983. In the late 1970s, he shifted from acting on stage to acting in films. In the 1990s and 2000s, he acted in several television shows. He speaks fluent
Spanish and
French.