Judd Hirsch

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Judd Hirsch
Born March 15, 1935 (1935-03-15) (age 73)
Bronx, New York, USA
Occupation Actor, writer
Years active 1971-present
Spouse(s) Bonnie Chalkin

Judd Hirsch (born March 15, 1935) is an American Academy Award-nominated, Emmy-winning actor, known for playing the character Alex Reiger on the acclaimed television comedy series Taxi.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

Hirsch was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Sally (née Kitzis) and Joseph Sidney Hirsch, an electrician.[1] Hirsch was raised in a Jewish family and his father was an immigrant from Russia. Hirsch attended De Witt Clinton High School [2] Hirsch was married to his first wife from 1957 to 1958. He married Bonnie Chalkin in 1992. Hirsch has two children, Alexander and Montana Eve.[1]

[edit] Career

For his performance in Taxi, in 1981 and again in 1983[3], Judd Hirsch won the Emmy Award for Lead Actor In a Comedy Series. Hirsch went on to play the title character on the modestly successful sitcom Dear John and in 1989 won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series in a Comedy or Musical for this role.[4] He later teamed with Bob Newhart in the short-lived comedy George and Leo. He had also previously starred for one season in the series Delvecchio, playing a police detective (1976-1977).

In motion pictures, Hirsch received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 1980s Ordinary People. Other films in the 1980s include the 1983 drama Without a Trace, the 1984 dramedies Teachers and The Goodbye People, and the 1988 drama Running on Empty directed by Sidney Lumet and co-starring River Phoenix. In 1996 Hirsch portrayed the father of Jeff Goldblum's character in Independence Day, and in 2001 he appeared in the acclaimed A Beautiful Mind.

Hirsch is co-starring on the CBS Television drama NUMB3RS as Alan Eppes, father of FBI agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and Professor Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz). Hirsch and Krumholtz also played father and son in Conversations with My Father, a Herb Gardner play for which Hirsch won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.[5] Krumholtz credits Hirsch with jump-starting his career after Hirsch chose him during the audition process for Conversations. Other noteworthy stage performances include The Hot l Baltimore, Talley's Folley, and his starring role in I'm Not Rappaport, in which Hirsch also won a Tony Award in 1986.

Hirsch once voiced himself on an episode of Family Guy. He is seen building a nuclear bomb within a bowling ball dispenser. His two lines consisted of three words. He starred on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a pediatrician accused of murder.

Most recently, Hirsch was a guest star on the pilot episode of the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as the producer of an SNL-esque sketch show who goes into an on-air rant reminiscent of the 1976 film Network. On the cable TV channel TV Land, an archived coffee commercial (the channel dubs them "retromercials") from the 1960s is sometimes shown with Hirsch playing the husband, as well as a Listerine commercial from the 1970s where he played a radio DJ. In 1979, he portrayed Count Dracula on American Broadcasting Company's TV holiday film The Halloween That Almost Wasn't.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Judd Hirsch Biography. filmreference (2008). Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
  2. ^ Ari L. Goldman. "THEATER; Judd Hirsch Finds the Echoes in 'Conversations'", The New York Times, 22 March 1992. Retrieved on 2008-04-10. 
  3. ^ Emmy Awards Official Website
  4. ^ Golden Globe Official Website, 1989 awards.
  5. ^ Tony Awards Official Website

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
Frank Langella
for Seascape		 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
1975-1976
for Knock Knock		 Succeeded by
Bob Dishy
for Sly Fox
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series

Jack Albertson (1976) · Carroll O'Connor (1977) · Carroll O'Connor (1978) · Carroll O'Connor (1979) · Richard Mulligan (1980) · Judd Hirsch (1981) · Alan Alda (1982) · Judd Hirsch (1983) · John Ritter (1984) · Robert Guillaume (1985) · Michael J. Fox (1986) · Michael J. Fox (1987) · Michael J. Fox (1988) · Richard Mulligan (1989) · Ted Danson (1990) · Burt Reynolds (1991) · Craig T. Nelson (1992) · Ted Danson (1993) · Kelsey Grammer (1994) · Kelsey Grammer (1995) · John Lithgow (1996) · John Lithgow (1997) · Kelsey Grammer (1998) · John Lithgow (1999) · Michael J. Fox (2000)
v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

John Wood (1976) · Al Pacino (1977) · Barnard Hughes (1978) · Tom Conti (1979) · John Rubinstein (1980) · Ian McKellen (1981) · Roger Rees (1982) · Harvey Fierstein (1983) · Jeremy Irons (1984) · Derek Jacobi (1985) · Judd Hirsch (1986) · James Earl Jones (1987) · Ron Silver (1988) · Philip Bosco (1989) · Robert Morse (1990) · Nigel Hawthorne (1991) · Judd Hirsch (1992) · Ron Leibman (1993) · Stephen Spinella (1994) · Ralph Fiennes (1995) · George Grizzard (1996) · Christopher Plummer (1997) · Anthony LaPaglia (1998) · Brian Dennehy (1999) · Stephen Dillane (2000)