Ron Rifkin

Personal life Saul M. Rifkin was born in New York City in 1938 to Miriam and Herman Rifkin, who was born in Russia. He is the oldest of three children. He was raised as an Orthodox Jew and remains Jewish, though he left Orthodoxy at age 32.

His wife, Iva March Rifkin, owned a fashion design business. She died in 2023.

Career In 2001, Rifkin's association with Touchstone Television began when he played intelligence agent Arvin Sloane in Alias, opposite Jennifer Garner. From 2006 to 2011, he played second-in-command businessman Saul Holden on Brothers & Sisters, opposite Sally Field as his sister Nora Walker. He also played Ann Romano-Royer (Bonnie Franklin)'s boyfriend Nick on One Day at a Time. He was a series regular during the sixth season. In the season 7 premiere, "Alex Moves In", it was revealed that Nick had been killed as a result of an accident with a drunk driver.

Rifkin has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in film, on stage, and in television. His association with writer Jon Robin Baitz has been especially fruitful. In 1991, his performance in Baitz's play The Substance of Fire won him the Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Drama-Logue awards for Best Actor. The next year, he performed in Baitz's Three Hotels, for which he received a second Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nomination. In 1996, he starred in the film version of Substance; in 2002, he appeared in the Baitz play Ten Unknowns at Boston's Huntington Theatre. In 2004, he starred in his play The Paris Letter at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, a role he reprised in 2005 at the Laura Pels Theatre in New York City. Rifkin also appeared in the ABC drama series Brothers & Sisters, which Baitz created.

Rifkin received a 1998 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the Broadway revival of Cabaret. Additional theatre credits include David Hirson's Wrong Mountain, Arthur Miller's Broken Glass, Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country, and Neil Simon's Proposals.

Rifkin's extensive film credits include Silent Running (1972), The Sunshine Boys (1975), The Big Fix (1978), JFK (1991), Husbands and Wives (1992), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), Wolf (1994), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Negotiator (1998), Boiler Room (2000), Keeping the Faith (2000), The Majestic (2001), Dragonfly (2002), The Sum of All Fears (2002), and Pulse (2006).

On television, he has appeared in numerous made-for-TV movies and miniseries, had regular roles on The Rockford Files, One Day at a Time, Husbands, Wives & Lovers, The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, and Alias, and made guest appearances on a number of series, including Barnaby Jones, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sex and the City, The Bob Newhart Show, The Good Wife, ER, Law & Order, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Falcon Crest, Soap, Hill Street Blues, Smash, and The Outer Limits, for which he received a CableACE nomination. Most recently, he appeared in Limitless as Brian Finch's father Dennis Finch and in Gotham as Father Creel. He has recorded several audiobooks, including Lois Lowry's The Giver, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Sang Spell, and Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed. He portrays Defense Attorney Marvin Stan Exely, a recurring character on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

In October 2020, a short film, Daddy, was uploaded on Christian Coppola's YouTube channel in which Rifkin stars alongside Dylan Sprouse. In the film, "after the death of his wife, an 80-year-old man checks into The Plaza Hotel to celebrate their first anniversary apart, hiring a male escort to take her place."

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1969 The Devil's 8 Stewart Martin 1969 Flareup Sailor 1972 Silent Running Marty Barker 1972 Fuzz Cop guarding the Mayor's Mansion Uncredited 1975 The Sunshine Boys TV floor manager 1978 Rabbit Test Dr. Briscoe 1978 The Big Fix Randy 1981 The Chosen Baseball Coach 1983 The Sting II Eddie 1984 Kidco George Tuskie 1991 JFK Mr. Goldberg/Spiesel 1992 Husbands and Wives Rain's Analyst 1993 Manhattan Murder Mystery Sy 1994 Wolf Doctor Ralph 1995 Last Summer in the Hamptons Eli Garfield 1996 The Substance of Fire Isaac Geldhart 1996 I'm Not Rappaport Feigelbaum 1997 L.A. Confidential District Attorney Ellis Loew 1998 The Negotiator Commander Grant Frost 2000 Drop Back Ten 2000 Boiler Room Judge Marty Davis 2000 Keeping the Faith Larry Friedman 2001 Sam the Man Richard 2001 The Majestic Kevin Bannerman - Peter's Attorney 2002 Tadpole Professor Tisch 2002 Dragonfly Charlie Dickinson 2002 The Sum of All Fears Secretary of State Sidney Owens 2002 Just a Kiss Dr. Fauci 2006 Pulse Dr. Waterson 2010 Peep World Henry Meyerwitz 2012 The Words Timothy Epstein 2016 True Memoirs of an International Assassin Amos AKA The Ghost 2017 They Shall Not Perish Henry Morgenthau Sr. 2018 A Star Is Born Carl 2018 Daddy Mr. Smith Short film 2020 Minyan Josef 2022 Funny Pages Grandpa

Television