Judd Hirsch (born March 15, 1935) is an American
actor known for playing the characters Alex Reiger on the
television comedy series
Taxi and
Alan
Eppes on the current
CBS series
Numb3rs.
Personal life
Hirsch was
born in the Bronx, New
York
, the son of Sally (née Kitzis) and Joseph Sidney
Hirsch, an electrician.
Hirsch was
raised in a Jewish family and his father was an
immigrant from Russia
.
Hirsch
attended De Witt Clinton
High School and later earned a college degree from the City College of
New York
in physics. He was
married to his first wife from 1956 to 1958. He married Bonni Sue
Chalkin in 1992 and divorced her in 2003. Hirsch has two children:
Alexander and Montana.
Career
For his performance in
Taxi, in
1981 and again in 1983, Judd Hirsch won the
Emmy Award for Lead Actor In a Comedy Series.
Hirsch went on to play the title character on the modestly
successful sitcom
Dear
John and in 1989 won a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a
Television Series in a Comedy or Musical for this role. He later
teamed with
Bob Newhart in the
short-lived comedy
George and
Leo. He had also previously starred for one season in the
series
Delvecchio,
playing a police detective (1976-1977).
In
motion pictures, Hirsch received a
nomination for the
Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor for his role in 1980s
Ordinary People. Other films in the
1980s include the 1983 drama
Without a Trace, the 1984
dramedies
Teachers and
The Goodbye People, and
the 1988 drama
Running on
Empty directed by
Sidney Lumet
and co-starring
River Phoenix. In 1996
Hirsch portrayed the father of
Jeff
Goldblum's character in
Independence Day, and in 2001
he appeared in the acclaimed
A Beautiful Mind.
Hirsch has co-starred since 2005 on the
CBS
Television drama
NUMB3RS as
Alan Eppes, father of FBI agent
Don Eppes (
Rob Morrow)
and Professor
Charlie Eppes (
David Krumholtz). Hirsch and Krumholtz also
played father and son in
Conversations with My
Father, a
Herb Gardner play
for which Hirsch won the
Tony
Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.
Krumholtz credits Hirsch with jump-starting his career after Hirsch
chose him during the audition process for
Conversations.
Other noteworthy stage performances include
The Hot l Baltimore, Talley's Folley, and his starring role
in
I'm Not Rappaport, in
which Hirsch also won a Tony Award in 1986.
More recently, Hirsch has guest-starred on episodes of
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
and
Law & Order: SVU, among
others, and lent his voice to the animated programs
Family Guy and
American
Dad! In 1999, he reprised his role from
Taxi for a
brief moment in
Man on the
Moon, the
biopic film of his co-star
from
Taxi,
Andy Kaufman
(portrayed by
Jim Carrey).
Filmography
References
- Emmy Awards Official Website
- Golden Globe Official Website, 1989 awards.
- Tony Awards Official Website
External links
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