Judd Hirsch (born March 15, 1935) is an American actor known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy show “Taxi”, John Lacey on the NBC show “Dear John”, and Alan Eppes on the CBS show “Numb3rs”. He’s also recognized for his roles in movies like “Independence Day” (1996), “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), and “Ordinary People” (1980), that he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, losing to his costar, Timothy Hutton.
Hirsch’s first major television appearance was in the miniseries The Law (1974). He attained accurate stardom because of his lead character of Alex Rieger in the most popular situation comedy Taxi, which ran from 1978 to 1983. For his performance in the show, in 1981 and again in 1983, Judd Hirsch won the Emmy Award for Lead Actor In a Comedy Show. He later teamed with Bob Newhart in the short lived comedy George and Leo. He’d also formerly starred for just one season in the show Delvecchio, playing a police detective (1976–1977). In picture Hirsch received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor because of his part in the drama film Ordinary People (1980). Other movies in the 1980s contain the 1983 drama Without a Trace, the 1984 dramedies, Teachers and The Goodbye People, as well as the 1988 play, Running on Empty, directed by Sidney Lumet and co starring River Phoenix. In 1996 Hirsch impersonated the father of Jeff Goldblum’s character in the hit Independence Day, as well as in 2001 he appeared in the acclaimed A Beautiful Mind.
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, People's Choice Award for Favor...
Movies
A Beautiful Mind, Ordinary People, Tower Heist, Running on Empty, Without a Trace, This Must Be the Place, King of the Gypsies, Sharknado 2: The Second One, Running with the Hitman, Rocky Marciano, The Halloween That Almost Wasn't, Out of the Cold, Sooner or Later, Teachers, Polish Bar, Brother's Sh...
TV Shows
Forever, Numbers, Regular Joe, George and Leo, Dear John, Taxi, Rhoda, Delvecchio, Detective in the House
Star Sign
Pisces
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Quote
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I don't think anyone can really make up their mind and say, Now I'm going to be a director.
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People come along and impose their own stuff on plays, and it shows.
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Some stage directions you just simply have to throw away.
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If I'm not moved by what happens at the end of this play, then I've completely failed, and so has the play, and so has our production. And if that's the case then there really isn't any reason to want to do it.
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If you're playing the character, you could say to yourself in 16 different ways, What if that didn't bother me? What if I knew exactly what he was talking about? What if I didn't get excited?
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Fact
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In Running on Empty (1988) and Numb3rs: Protest (2006), he played a character named Alan who had a history of protesting the Vietnam War.
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He was awarded the 1979 Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Performance for "5th of July" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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He was awarded the 1979 Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Performance for "Talley's Folly" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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He was awarded the 1993 Drama-Logue Award for Performance for the play, "Conversations with My Father" in presented by the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson at the James A. Doolittle (University of California) Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
5
Was a member of an improv trio with Peter Boyle and Trent Gough in the late 1960s that performed at Hillys On The Bowery (run by Hilly Kristal of CBGBs fame) which was located on 9th Street between 5th & 6th Avenues in Greenwich Village.
In November 2013, Hirsch angered neighbors in his rural Catskill Mountain town in New York with his plans to build a 177-foot-tall wind turbine on his 96-acre property, at a cost of $132,000.
10
Currently starring in Yasmina Reza's play, "Art", at Shadowland Theatre in Ellenville, New York. [June 2008]
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Stars as Willy Loman in "Death Of A Salesman" in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada [1997]
Co-host, with Angela Lambert, of an infomercial for the "Ionic Pro Turbo" air purifier. [2008]
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He did not start acting professionally until he was 36 years old.
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His father was of German Jewish and Dutch Jewish descent. His mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant.
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He starred in four shows for Paramount Television - Taxi, Dear John, George & Leo, and Numb3rs. He was one of the few actors to have had multiple starring roles in Paramount shows.
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He studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City.
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Son of Sally (née Kitzis) and Joseph Sidney Hirsch, an electrician.
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Won two Tony Awards as Best Actor (Play): in 1986 for "I'm Not Rappaport" and in 1992 for "Conversations With My Father," both written by Herb Gardner. He was also nominated in the same category in 1980 for Lanford Wilson's "Talley's Folly."
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Daughter named Montana and son named London, both with Bonni Chalkin.