Ron Rifkin

Ron Rifkin, born Saul M. Rifkin on October 31, 1938, in New York City, is an American actor whose career spans Broadway, film, and television. The oldest of three children born to Miriam and Herman Rifkin — his father a Russian-born immigrant — Rifkin was raised as an Orthodox Jew in New York, a faith he maintained though he departed from Orthodoxy at age 32. His wife, Iva March Rifkin, who owned a fashion design business, died in 2023.

Rifkin's Broadway career extended from 1961 to 2000 and encompassed productions across multiple genres. His stage work includes Neil Simon's Proposals, Arthur Miller's Broken Glass, Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country, David Hirson's Wrong Mountain, and Paddy Chayefsky's The Tenth Man. His most celebrated Broadway achievement came with the 1998 revival of Cabaret, in which he portrayed Herr Schultz, earning him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

A sustained creative partnership with playwright Jon Robin Baitz produced some of Rifkin's most recognized stage work. In 1991, his performance in Baitz's The Substance of Fire earned him the Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Drama-Logue awards for Best Actor. The following year he appeared in Baitz's Three Hotels, receiving a second Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nomination. He reprised his connection to Baitz's work in the 1996 film adaptation of The Substance of Fire, appeared in Ten Unknowns at Boston's Huntington Theatre in 2002, and starred in The Paris Letter at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles in 2004, a role he brought to New York's Laura Pels Theatre in 2005.

Rifkin's film work dates to the early 1970s and includes 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). Among these, his portrayal of District Attorney Ellis Loew in L.A. Confidential became one of his more prominent film roles.

On television, Rifkin held series regular roles on The Rockford Files, One Day at a Time, Husbands Wives & Lovers, The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, and Alias. Beginning in 2001, he played intelligence agent Arvin Sloane opposite Jennifer Garner in the Touchstone Television spy drama Alias. From 2006 to 2011, he portrayed businessman Saul Holden, second-in-command to Sally Field's character Nora Walker, in the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters, a series created by Baitz. On One Day at a Time, he played Nick, boyfriend to Ann Romano-Royer, as a series regular in the sixth season; the character was written out in the season seven premiere as the victim of a drunk-driving accident. He has also appeared in recurring and guest capacities on series including Barnaby Jones, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sex and the City, Hill Street Blues, ER, Law & Order, The Good Wife, Smash, Falcon Crest, and Gotham, where he played Father Creel. His work on The Outer Limits earned him a CableACE nomination. He has portrayed recurring character Defense Attorney Marvin Stan Exely on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and appeared as Dennis Finch, Brian Finch's father, in Limitless. In October 2020, he starred alongside Dylan Sprouse in the short film Daddy, directed by Christian Coppola. Rifkin has additionally served as the reader for several audiobooks, including Lois Lowry's The Giver, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Sang Spell, and Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed.