Cliff Gorman

Cliff Gorman, born Joel Joshua Goldberg on October 13, 1936, in Queens, New York, was an American actor whose Broadway career spanned from 1971 to 1986. The son of Ethel (née Kaplan) and Samuel Goldberg, who later adopted the surname Gorman, he grew up in New York and attended the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan. He died on September 5, 2002, of leukemia at his Manhattan home at the age of 65.

Gorman's stage career produced some of his most recognized work. In 1968, he received an Obie Award for his performance in the off-Broadway production of The Boys in the Band, a role he reprised in the 1970 film adaptation. His portrayal of comedian Lenny Bruce in the Broadway play Lenny earned him both a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1972 and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance in 1971. He also appeared on Broadway in Chapter Two, Doubles, and Social Security.

His film and television work extended across several decades. Bob Fosse, who directed the 1974 film version of Lenny with Dustin Hoffman in the title role, later cast Gorman in his 1979 autobiographical film All That Jazz to portray a Dustin Hoffman-like character playing Lenny Bruce within the film's narrative. Gorman's other film credits include Cops and Robbers (1973), Rosebud (1975), Brinks: The Great Robbery (1976), An Unmarried Woman (1978) alongside Jill Clayburgh, Night of the Juggler (1980), Hoffa (1992) with Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito, and Night and the City (1992). He played Joseph Goebbels in the 1981 television film The Bunker and co-starred as Lt. Andrews in Angel (1984).

Television appearances included recurring and guest roles on Law and Order, Murder, She Wrote, Friday the 13th: The Series, and Police Story, the 1970s drama written by former LAPD Detective Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh. In his personal life, Gorman and his wife cared for his former Boys in the Band castmate Robert La Tourneaux during the final months of La Tourneaux's illness, until La Tourneaux's death on June 3, 1986.