Ron Leibman

Ron Leibman has been married twice. He and his first wife, singer and actress Linda Lavin, wed on September 7, 1969. After 12 years of marriage, they divorced in August 1981.

He met actress Jessica Walter exactly a year later, in August 1982. Leibman has famously stated that it was loneliness that brought them together while Walter maintains that it was love. Either way, they married on June 26, 1983. Neither union produced any children but Leibman helped Walter in raising her daughter, Brooke, from her previous marriage to Ross Bowman, a former Broadway stage manager and film director.

Born on October 11, 1937, in New York City, New York, Ron Leibman is the son of Grace (née Marks) and Murray Leibman. He grew up in a middle-class household with his father providing for the family as a garment businessman.

He attended Ohio Wesleyan University, and during his time there, became involved with ‘The Compass Players’, a famous improvisational troupe that performed cabaret revue from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis. After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan in 1958, Leibman studied at the Actors Studio in New York City.

After finishing his course at the Actors Studio, Ron Leibman started his career in off-Broadway, appearing in various capacities in several productions. The 1963 production of ‘Dear Me, The Sky Is Falling’ was his first outing on a Broadway stage. He followed that up by playing Rip Calabria in the very first production of Robert Thom’s ‘Bicycle Ride to Nevada’ (1963). In 1964, he performed as Captain Salzer in a production of ‘The Deputy’ by Rolf Hochhuth.

He also appeared as Sergeant Henderson in ‘We Bombed in New Haven’ (1968), Herb in ‘I Ought to Be in Pictures’ (1980), Lennie in ‘Doubles’ (1985), and Lenny Ganz in ‘Rumors’ (1988).

He received the Tony Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Roy Cohn in the 1993 production of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play ‘Angels in America’. In 1995, he played Shylock in an off-Broadway production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’.

After making his first screen appearance in 1963 in NBC’s anthology drama ‘The DuPont Show of the Week’, he played cameo roles in a variety of television shows, including CBS’ mystery soap opera ‘The Edge of Night’ (1964), ABC’s crime-drama ‘Hawk’ (1966), and NBC’s crime-drama ‘Police Story’ (1975) as well as starred in numerous made-for-television films, such as ‘Ride with Terror’ (1963), ‘A Question of Guilt’ (1978), ‘Many Happy Returns’ (1986), and ‘Don King: Only in America’ (1997).

In his later years, he portrayed Detective Al Burkhardt in NBC’s sitcom ‘Pacific Station’ (1991-92), media mogul Allen Rush in CBS’ soap opera ‘Central Park West’ (1995-96), newly-married Stan Peterson in Fox’s sitcom ‘Holding the Baby’ (1998) and Rachel Green’s father Dr. Leonard Green in the iconic NBC sitcom ‘Friends’ (1996-2004).

Ron Leibman made his film debut in 1970, portraying the character Sidney Hocheiser in the satirical comedy ‘Where’s Poppa’. He played the single-minded stalker Billy Pilgrim in the film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 novel ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’, deranged NYPD troubleshooter "Batman" in ‘The Super Cops’ (1973), union organizer Reuben Warshowsky in ‘Norma Rae’ (1979), loud and angry horse racing promoter Dave Davis in ‘Phar Lap’ (1984), and the sleazy manager of an urban cowboy nightclub in New York City, Freddie Ugo, in ‘Rhinestone’ (1984).

Leibman’s last film to date is the 2010 romantic-comedy ‘A Little Help’, in which he co-starred with Jenna Fischer, Chris O'Donnell, and Brooke Smith.

He presently holds the acting department chair at The New School in New York City.