Playing the lead, he was delighted by the audience's response to the show. Dinklage attended Delbarton School, a Catholic preparatory school for boys, where he developed his acting. In 1984, Dinklage was inspired by a production of the play "True West", written by American playwright Sam Shepard, to pursue a career in acting. Dinklage then attended Bennington College, where he studied for a drama degree and also appeared in numerous productions before graduating in 1991. After that he moved to New York City with his friend Ian Bell to build a theater company. Failing to pay the rent, they moved out of their apartment. (He lived in New York for twenty years in Williamsburg and the West Village.) Dinklage then worked at a data processing company for six years before pursuing a career as a full-time actor. Dinklage initially struggled to find work as an actor, partially because he refused to take the roles typically offered to actors with his condition, such as "elves or leprechauns." He made his credited film debut in the low-budget independent comedy-drama "Living in Oblivion" (1995) where he performed alongside Steve Buscemi. The film tells the story of a director, crew, and cast filming a low-budget independent film in the middle of New York City. Dinklage's role was that of a frustrated actor with dwarfism who complains about his clichéd roles. The film has been well received by critics. The following year he appeared as a building manager in the crime drama "Bullet" starring rapper Tupac Shakur. Even after his well-received performance in "Living in Oblivion", Dinklage still could not find someone willing to be his agent. After a recommendation from Buscemi to the director Alexandre Rockwell, Dinklage was cast in the comedy "13 Moons" (2002). When later interviewed for a theater website, he was asked what his ideal role was, and he replied "the romantic lead" who gets the girl. Dinklage found his breakthrough playing Finbar McBride, who is a quiet, withdrawn, unmarried man in the 2003 Tom McCarthy-directed film "The Station Agent". According to co-star Bobby Cannavale, the film took three years to make and was not at first written with Dinklage in mind, Cannavale said McCarthy "set out to tell a story about a guy who was a train enthusiast who had chosen to isolate himself from the world," but when McCarthy actually started "putting pen to paper" for the screenplay he decided to write the role for him.