Richard Schiff

Richard Schiff, born May 27, 1955, in Bethesda, Maryland, is an American actor whose career spans stage, film, and television. His brothers are producer Paul Schiff and talent manager David Schiff, and his family is Jewish. His mother Charlotte later married Clarence B. Jones, who served as a lawyer to Martin Luther King Jr. Schiff's grandfather was alleged to have ties to New York's Jewish Mafia, a background that later informed a storyline on The West Wing. Before pursuing a career in the arts, Schiff held a series of working-class jobs in New York City, including driving a taxi, cleaning buses at the Greyhound terminal on 11th Avenue as part of a Teamster position, and laying cable for Manhattan Cable Television as a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Schiff attended the Bronx High School of Science for a period without graduating, later completing his secondary education through night classes at Washington Irving High School while working. He graduated from City College of New York in 1983, having initially dropped out and relocated to Colorado before returning to finish his degree. He subsequently studied acting at the William Esper Studio.

His early professional work was in directing rather than performance. In 1983, he directed an off-Broadway production of Antigone featuring a recently graduated Angela Bassett. By the mid-1980s, Schiff shifted his focus to acting and began accumulating television roles. Steven Spielberg saw him in an episode of the TV drama High Incident, which led to his casting in The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997. That visibility contributed to his being cast as White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler in the television series The West Wing, the role for which he became best known and for which he received an Emmy Award. He also made his television directorial debut on the series, helming an episode titled "Talking Points." After six seasons, Schiff chose to leave The West Wing, fulfilling his contract by appearing in half of the final season's episodes.

Throughout the 1990s, Schiff built a substantial film résumé in supporting and character roles. He appeared as a train driver in Speed and portrayed a lawyer defending a serial killer in Se7en in 1995. In 1996, he played a corrupt probation officer in City Hall alongside Al Pacino and John Cusack, and guest-starred on ER and NYPD Blue. He portrayed Col./Brig. Gen. Robert Laurel Smith in the 1998 HBO television film The Pentagon Wars and appeared in Deep Impact that same year. He also played a doctor opposite Eddie Murphy in the 1998 remake of Dr. Dolittle. In 2001, he appeared in What's the Worst That Could Happen? and played the lawyer Mr. Turner in I Am Sam opposite Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer, as well as co-starring with Al Pacino in People I Know. He later appeared in Ray as music executive Jerry Wexler, shaving his beard for the part.

Schiff's stage work extended well beyond Broadway. He starred in the premiere run of Underneath the Lintel, a one-person play by Glen Berger, at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In February 2007, he performed the same production in London's West End at the Duchess Theatre, and a radio version of the play, performed by Schiff, was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on January 5, 2008. In fall 2008, he starred as accountant Matt Friedman in Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey, opposite Margot White. In April 2011, he returned to the London West End in the play Smash, and in September 2014, he appeared in a West End revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, co-starring Lindsay Lohan. He also portrayed Erie Smith in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., in February and March 2013.

In late 2012 and early 2013, Schiff appeared on Broadway in a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, portraying the character George Aaronow. His television work during and after The West Wing years remained prolific. He had a recurring role as FBI Director Jack Fickler in Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, played Harper Dearing across episodes bridging seasons nine and ten of NCIS, and appeared as a recurring character on Once Upon a Time. He had a recurring role on HBO's Ballers in 2015, playing the boss of Dwayne Johnson's character, and appeared on Mom in an episode that reunited him with West Wing co-star Allison Janney. He held a regular role as David Hertzberg on TNT's Murder in the First in 2014, a series that also starred Taye Diggs. He played Dr. Emil Hamilton in Zack Snyder's 2013 Superman film Man of Steel, and portrayed Odin in Santa Monica Studio's God of War: Ragnarök, released in 2022. He also took on a leading role in ABC's medical drama The Good Doctor as Dr. Aaron Glassman.

Beyond his performing career, Schiff serves on the National Advisory Board of the Council for a Livable World. His brother Paul Schiff was college roommates with Bradley Whitford, who became Schiff's co-star on The West Wing.