Stephen Macht

Stephen Macht, born May 1, 1942, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an American actor, rabbi, and professor. He was raised in Brooklyn Heights, New York, until the age of nine, when the death of his father prompted a move with his mother and older brother to Mystic, Connecticut, where they lived with his maternal grandfather, a haberdasher. Macht is of Russian Jewish descent, the son of Janette and Jerome Irving Macht.

His academic formation was extensive. He earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College, a master's degree from Tufts University, and a doctorate in dramatic literature from Indiana University, completing that work between 1965 and 1968. He also trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Macht held a faculty position at Smith College and later became a tenured professor at Queens College. In 2013, he added a master's degree in Jewish Studies from the Academy for Jewish Religion and received ordination as a rabbi. His book Moral Change: a Tragedy or a Return?: How Aristotle's Tragic Reversal Illuminates Maimonides' Teshuva was published in October 2016.

Macht's stage career brought him to Broadway in 1972, where he appeared in two productions: Vivat! Vivat Regina! and the play Lysistrata. His theatrical work continued beyond New York, and it was while performing at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada in 1975 that a Universal Studios talent scout took notice, leading to a studio contract. By the mid-1970s, Macht had transitioned away from teaching and into a sustained career in film and television.

His early screen work established him in substantial roles. In the 1977 film Raid on Entebbe, he portrayed Yoni Netanyahu, the Israeli officer killed during the hostage rescue operation in Uganda. That same year he appeared in The Choirboys. In 1978, he took a lead role in The Immigrants, a syndicated miniseries following the rise of the son of Italian immigrants in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, and also in 1978 played German boxing champion Max Schmeling opposite Bernie Casey's Joe Louis in the NBC television film Ring of Passion.

Television continued to occupy much of his career through the 1980s. Following his appearance in the ABC television movie American Dream in 1981, he was cast in a short-lived series in which he played a family man who leaves suburban life to settle in inner-city Chicago. In 1982 and 1983, he appeared on the CBS drama Knots Landing as Joe Cooper, brother of Karen MacKenzie, played by Michele Lee. He portrayed Benedict Arnold in the 1984 miniseries George Washington and appeared in the NBC television film Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac the same year. From 1985 to 1988, he spent three seasons on CBS's Cagney & Lacey as David Keeler, the love interest of Sharon Gless's character Cagney, and during that run made his directorial debut. In 1987, he played Nancy McKeon's father in the NBC film Strange Voices. He portrayed an Austrian Jewish man compelled to accept baptism with his wife and daughter to flee the Nazis in the 1988 Disney Channel film A Friendship in Vienna.

His feature film credits from this period include Nightwing (1979), The Mountain Men (1980), Galaxina (1980), The Last Winter (1984), The Monster Squad (1987), and roles in three installments of the Trancers series as Dr. Harris. Later film appearances included Stephen King's Graveyard Shift (1990), Amityville: It's About Time (1992), The Legend of Galgameth (1996), and Watchers Reborn (1998).

Television work in the 1990s included a role in the syndicated miniseries Sidney Sheldon's Memories of Midnight (1991), a guest appearance in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Siege" in 1993 as Krim Aldos, and a role as a cult member's suffering husband in the 1994 NBC film Moment of Truth: A Mother's Deception. In 1995, he appeared in the third-season Babylon 5 episode "A Day in the Strife" as Na'Far, the new official Narn representative installed after the Centauri invasion of the Narn homeworld. A six-month arc on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live followed in 1996, in which he played Elliot Durban. Notably, Macht had been Gene Roddenberry's first choice to play Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role that ultimately went to Patrick Stewart in 1986.

From August 2007 through February 2009, Macht portrayed Trevor Lansing on the soap opera General Hospital, playing an attorney for organized crime boss Anthony Zacchara and the father of attorney Ric Lansing. Soap Opera Digest nominated him Best Villain of 2007 for the role. Between 2014 and 2019, he made guest appearances on the USA Network drama Suits alongside his son, actor Gabriel Macht.

Macht has been married to Suzanne Victoria Pulier, an archivist and museum curator, since 1964. They have four children: Julie, Ari Serbin, Gabriel, and Jesse, a musician.