Peter Riegert

Peter Riegert is an American actor born on April 11, 1947, in the Bronx, New York, to Lucille, a piano teacher, and Milton Riegert, a food wholesaler. He grew up in Hartsdale, New York, in a non-observant Jewish household. Riegert graduated from Ardsley High School in 1964 and subsequently attended the University at Buffalo. Before pursuing acting, he held a variety of positions, including teaching, waiting tables, and social work.

Riegert's Broadway career spanned from 1975 to 1997. He made his Broadway debut in the musical Dance with Me and went on to star in The Old Neighborhood and The Nerd. His additional Broadway appearances include Censored Scenes From King Kong and An American Daughter. Off-Broadway, he performed in productions including Road to Nirvana, The Birthday Party, Isn't It Romantic, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and A Rosen by Any Other Name.

His film career began with National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978, in which he played Donald "Boon" Schoenstein. He subsequently portrayed oil company executive "Mac" MacIntyre in the 1983 film Local Hero and pickle store owner Sam Posner in Crossing Delancey in 1988. In 1994, he appeared as Lt. Mitch Kellaway in The Mask. His other film credits include Traffic and We Bought a Zoo.

On television, Riegert made his debut in two episodes of M*A*S*H. He earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for his performance in the 1993 HBO film Barbarians at the Gate. He starred as composer Jake Rubin, a character based on Irving Berlin, in the 1984 miniseries Ellis Island, and appeared opposite Bette Midler in the television adaptation of Gypsy. Riegert played crooked Newark Assemblyman and later New Jersey State Senator Ronald Zellman in seasons three and four of the HBO series The Sopranos from 2001 to 2002, and portrayed defense attorney Chauncey Zeirko in multiple episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. He appeared as George Moore in the first season of the FX series Damages in 2007, played David Sachs, the father of Seth Green's character, in the comedy series Dads from 2013 to 2014, and held a recurring role as left-wing lawyer Roger Pugh in season three of the HBO series Succession. Additional television credits include the final episode of Seinfeld, in which he played the president of NBC, a multi-episode arc on One Tree Hill as college professor August Kellerman, a recurring role as Judge Harvey Winter on The Good Wife, appearances in seasons three and four of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and a multi-episode guest appearance in the Netflix comedy series Disjointed. Riegert also voiced the character Max Weinstein in the Family Guy episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein."

As a writer and director, Riegert made his screenwriting and directorial debuts with the short film By Courier, based on a short story by O. Henry. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film and won the Festival Award for Best First Feature at the Marco Island Film Festival. Riegert also directed and co-wrote the 2004 film King of the Corner, in which he starred alongside Isabella Rossellini, Eric Bogosian, Dominic Chianese, Beverly D'Angelo, and Rita Moreno. The film was featured at the Newport Film Festival.

Riegert narrated the audiobook of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which received a 2008 Audie Award nomination in literary fiction, as well as the audiobook of The Voyage of the Narwhal and stories by Raymond Carver. He also served as narrator for The First Basket, a documentary on professional basketball's influence on Jewish culture. Riegert has been married to Cornelia Read since 2019.