The family immigrated to Canada soon after Rubinek was born.[6] His family settled down in Canada's capital city, Ottawa.[4] He spoke Yiddish, French and then learned heavily accented English, which caused him to be bullied when he was in school.[3] In his youth, he attended Camp B'nai Brith, a Jewish summer overnight camp in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec.[7] At the encouragement of his parents, Rubinek began taking acting lessons and joined the Ottawa Little Theatre in 1965.[4]
Early in his career, Rubinek gained the attention of Canadian audiences when he starred as detective Benny Cooperman in two TV films: The Suicide Murders (1985) and Murder Sees the Light (1986). These are based on the series of mystery novels by author Howard Engel set in the Niagara Region of Canada.[8] Rubinek starred as Owen Hughes, the antagonist, in Obsessed (1987). In the 1987 Canadian film Taking Care, he played Carl, the husband of the main protagonist, played by his then spouse Kate Lynch.[9] It was a medical drama based on the Toronto hospital baby deaths that was the foundation of the Susan Nelles false-conviction case.[9] In another TV film, Liberace: Behind the Music (1988), he played Seymour Heller, the long-time friend and manager of Liberace.[10]
He co-starred in the 1993 Emmy Award-winning American made-for-televisiondocudramaAnd the Band Played On as Dr. Jim Curran. Rubinek played the character Kivas Fajo in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Most Toys." Rubinek, an ardent Star Trek fan, abruptly took over the part after David Rappaport, the actor who was originally cast in the role, attempted suicide shortly after the filming of the episode had begun. (Rappaport later committed suicide just before the episode premiered.) Photographs of Rubinek in character were used on two cards in Decipher's 1994 ST:TNG card game: a character card entitled "Kivas Fajo" and an event card entitled "Kivas Fajo: Collector." In 1998, "The Fajo Collection," a limited (40,000 copies) edition set of 18 new cards, was released as an addition to this card game.
Rubinek played Alan Mintz opposite Nicolas Cage in the 2000 film The Family Man. In 2000, Rubinek played Detective Saul Panzer in The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery, the series pilot for the 2001-02 A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, in which he would subsequently play the recurring role of reporter Lon Cohen. In 2005 he appeared in the short-lived American television series Blind Justice, and has appeared from 2006 to 2012 in the supporting role of Hasty Hathaway in the Jesse Stone series of TV films, starring Tom Selleck.
His single-episode guest appearances during the 2000s include two 2004 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm as Dr. Saul Funkhouser, the "Adrift" episode in the beginning of Lost's second season in 2005, the 2006 "Invincible" episode of Eureka, the 2007 episode of the TV series Masters of Horror "The Washingtonians", and a 2008 episode of the TV series Psych. That same year he guest-starred as Victor Dubenich, the antagonist in the pilot episode of Leverage, reappearing in 2012 for the last two episodes of season 4. In 2013, he guest-starred in two subsequent episodes of the TV series Person of Interest.[15][16]
In 2005, he directed the independent film Cruel but Necessary. The following year he appeared in a supporting role in the 2009 Canadian feature comedy The Trotsky. Rubinek starred in the Syfy series Warehouse 13 as Artie Nielsen, a covert agent employed by a secretive council to recover mystical artifacts with his team. The series finale was aired on May 19, 2014, on Syfy.[17]
^
Kirchhoff, H J (November 17, 1988). "Two Jewish Writers". The Globe & Mail. Toronto. p. C6. ProQuest1237377483. Retrieved January 19, 2024 – via ProQuest.
^Greene, David (1988-10-09), Liberace: Behind the Music (Biography, Drama, Music), Kushner-Locke Company, The Kushner-Locke Company, retrieved 2023-01-07
Canadian Film Awards 1968-1978, Genie Awards 1980-2011, Canadian Screen Awards 2012-present. Separate awards were presented by gender prior to 2022; ungendered awards for best performance regardless have been presented since.
