Dan Hedaya

Dan Hedaya
Hedaya at the Carney Awards in 2016
Born	(1940-07-24) July 24, 1940 (age 84) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Tufts University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1970–present

Dan Hedaya (born July 24, 1940)^[1] is an American actor. He often plays sleazy villains or wisecracking supporting characters.^{[citation needed]} He has had supporting roles in films such as Commando (1985), Clueless (1995), and Mulholland Drive (2001).

Early life

Hedaya was born in New York City, to a Sephardic Jewish family from Aleppo, Syria.^[2][3][4][5] Hedaya was raised in Bensonhurst. While a student at Tufts University, he began performing at the campus theater.^[3] He worked as a junior high school teacher for many years before deciding to pursue acting full-time.^[5] He studied acting at HB Studio^[6] in New York City.

Career

Alongside a successful career in the movies, Hedaya has appeared in several TV roles, including Carla Tortelli's ex-husband Nick on the sitcom Cheers and its short-lived spinoff The Tortellis. He played the estranged father of Mallory Keaton's boyfriend, Nick, on the sitcom Family Ties. More recently, he played an Italian-American priest in the controversial and quickly cancelled NBC series The Book of Daniel. Adding to his list of television credits is his performance as the long-lost father of Adrian Monk on Monk. He also guest starred in 1997 and 2005 as a wisecracking lawyer on the medical drama ER.

In films, Hedaya has played the evil dictator and the secondary antagonist Arius in 1985's Commando and Mel Horowitz, the father of Alicia Silverstone's Cher, in the 1995 film Clueless. He played Julian Marty, a cuckolded husband who plots his wife's murder in the first Coen Brothers film, Blood Simple. His resemblance to Richard Nixon led to his being cast as the former president for the film Dick. Hedaya appeared in several episodes of the television series Hill Street Blues as a corrupt, bigamist cop during the series' first season. During the 1980s Hedaya also appeared in the television series Miami Vice.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1970	Myra Breckinridge	Patient In Hospital Ward	Uncredited
1976	The Passover Plot	Yaocov
1979	The Seduction of Joe Tynan	Alex Heller
1980	Night of the Juggler	Sergeant Otis Barnes
1981	True Confessions	Howard Terkel
1982	I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can	Dr. Klein
	Endangered Species	Peck
1983	The Hunger	Lieutenant Allegrezza
1984	Reckless	Peter Daniels
	Blood Simple	Julian Marty
	The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension	John Gomez
	Tightrope	Detective Molinari
1985	Commando	General Ernesto Arius
1986	A Smoky Mountain Christmas	Harry
	Wise Guys	Anthony Castelo
	Running Scared	Captain Logan
1990	Joe Versus the Volcano	Frank Waturi
	Tune in Tomorrow	Robert Quince
	Pacific Heights	The Banker
1991	The Addams Family	Tully Alford
	Doubles	Lenny Bruce
1992	Four Eyes and Six Guns	Lester Doom
1993	Boiling Point	US Treasury Agent Sam Brady
	Benny & Joon	Thomas
	Rookie of the Year	Larry Fisher
	Searching for Bobby Fischer	Tournament Director
	For Love or Money	Gene Salvatore
	Mr. Wonderful	Harvey
1994	Maverick	Twitchy, Riverboat Poker Player
1995	The Usual Suspects	Sergeant Jeff Rabin
	To Die For	Joe Maretto
	Clueless	Mel Horowitz
	Fair Game	Walter Hollenbach	Uncredited
	Nixon	Trini Cardoza
1996	Freeway	Detective Garnet Wallace
	The First Wives Club	Morton 'Morty' Cushman
	Ransom	Jackie Brown
	Daylight	EMS Officer Frank Kraft
	Marvin's Room	Bob	Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1997	In & Out	Military Attorney
	A Life Less Ordinary	Gabriel
	Alien: Resurrection	General Martin Perez
1998	A Night at the Roxbury	Kamehl Butabi
	A Civil Action	John Riley
1999	Dick	President Richard M. 'Dick' Nixon
	The Hurricane	Sergeant Della Pesca, Paterson PD
2000	Shaft	Detective Jack Roselli
	The Crew	Mike 'The Brick' Donatelli
	The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave	Gil Ruston
2001	Down	Lieutenant McBain
	Mulholland Drive	Vincenzo Castigliane
2002	Quicksand	General Stewart
	Swimfan	Coach Simkins
	New Suit	Muster Hansau
2003	American Cousins	Settimo
2005	Strangers with Candy	Guy Blank
	Robots	Mr. Gunk (voice)
	Pizza My Heart	Vinnie Montebello
2006	The Good Student	Gabrial
2007	The Warrior Class	General Rand
2010	The Extra Man	Aresh
2012	The Normals	Ragnar
2013	Clutter	Walter Bickford
2014	The Humbling	Asa
2016	Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them	'Red'
2020	Funny Face	Benj
2021	Slapface	Sheriff John Thurston
	The God Committee	Granger

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Ryan's Hope	Herbie Towers
1976	Kojak	Dan Hudson	Episode: "A Hair-Trigger Away"
1977	The Andros Targets	Prager	Episode: "The Treatment Succeeded But the Patient Died"
	The Prince of Central Park	Hot Dog Vendor	Television film
1978	The Last Tenant	Gabe	Television film
1979	Paris	Gil Davis	Episode: "Once More for Free"
1980	Death Penalty	Detective Ralph Corso	Television film
1981–1984	Hill Street Blues	Ralph MacAfee / A Bum	5 episodes
1982	CHiPs	Herzog	Episode: "Trained for Trouble"
	Report to Murphy	Unknown	Episode: "Pilot"
1984	St. Elsewhere	Joseph Keuhnelian	3 episodes
	The Dollmaker	Skyros	Television film
	Hot Pursuit	Unknown	Episode: "Goodbye... I Love You"
1984–1993	Cheers	Nick Tortelli	6 episodes
1984-1986	Miami Vice	Reuben Reydolfo / Ben Schroeder	Episodes: "One Eyed Jack" & "Payback"
1985	The Twilight Zone	Nick	Episode: Dealer's Choice
1986	Slow Burn	Simon Fleischer	Television film
	The Equalizer	Frank Donahue	Episode: Unpunished Crimes"
	Courage	John Fosh	Television film
	That Secret Sunday	Captain Bates	Television film
	A Smoky Mountain Christmas	Harry	Television film
1987	The Tortellis	Nick Tortelli	13 episodes
1987–1988	Mama's Boy	Mickey	4 episodes
1988–1989	Family Ties	Joe Moore	2 episodes
1988–1990	L.A. Law	Michael Roitman	3 episodes
1989	Who's the Boss?	Ralph	Episode: "Men Are People, Too"
	One of the Boys	Ernie	6 episodes
	Double Your Pleasure	John	Television film
1990–1991	Equal Justice	Detective Al Perry	2 episodes
1991	Veronica Clare	Louis Benato	2 episodes
1993	Flying Blind	Employer #1	Episode: "Panic in Neil's Park"
	Based on an Untrue Story	Caprawolski	Television film
	NYPD Blue	Lou 'The Werewolf'	Episode: "NYPD Lou"
1993–1995	Fallen Angels	Detective Copernik / Auger / Johnny Ralls / Lieutenant Calender	4 episodes
1993-1997	Law & Order	Lieutenant Brian Torelli / Leslie Drake	2 episodes
1994	Another Midnight Run	Eddie Moscone	Television film
	Midnight Runaround	Eddie Moscone	Television film
	Midnight Run for Your Life	Eddie Moscone	Television film
	Because Mommy Works	Judge	Uncredited; television film
1995	Picture Windows	Carl	Episode: "Soir Bleu"
1996	The Home Court	Judge Walter Ragsdale	2 episodes
1997	The Second Civil War	Mel Burgess	Television film
	The Garden Of Redemption	Captain Zito	Television film
	Homicide: Life on the Street	Leslie Drake	Episode: "Baby, It's You"
1997–2005	ER	Herb Spivak	4 episodes
1999	Locked in Silence	Dr. Rosenstock	Television film
2000	The Street	Randy Hoder	Episode: "High Yield Bonds"
	Judging Amy	Detective Tarnower	Episode: "Unnecessary Roughness"
2000–2003	Yes, Dear	Don Ludke	6 episodes
2003	Lucky	Joey 'Joey Legs'	3 episodes
2005	Pizza My Heart	Vinnie Montebello	Television film
2006	The Book of Daniel	Father Frank	4 episodes
	Monk	Jack Monk	Episode: "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad"
2008	Lipstick Jungle	Dimitri Pappademos	Episode: "Chapter Eleven: The F-Word"
2011	Too Big to Fail	Representative Barney Frank	Television film
	Person of Interest	Bernie Sullivan	Episode: "The Fix"
2013	Golden Boy	Francis Diaco	Episode: "Beast of Burden"
2014	Gotham	Detective Dix	2 episodes
2014–2015	The Mindy Project	Alan Castellano	2 episodes
2015	Last Week Tonight with John Oliver	Special Segment Actor	Episode: "Infrastructure"
2015–2019	Blue Bloods	Vincent Rella	4 episodes
2016	Odd Mom Out	Jill's Dad	Episode: "Fasting and Furious"

References

1. "Today in History". AP News. The Associated Press. July 24, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2023. Actor Dan Hedaya is 81.
2. "Philadelphia Rings a Bell FOR 'First Wives Club' Actor". Jewish Exponent. October 3, 1996. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2007.
3. Weinraub, Bernard (November 14, 1995). "After 20 Years, Dan Hedaya Is Fading Out of Anonymity". The New York Times. Retrieved December 10, 2007.
4. Zenner, Walter P. (2000). A Global Community: The Jews from Aleppo, Syria. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2791-5.
5. Schleier, Curt (October 28, 1999). "A Night at the Sephardic Film Festival". The Jewish Journal. Retrieved June 15, 2009.
6. "HB Studio - Notable Alumni | One of the Original Acting Studios in NYC". Retrieved August 5, 2019.

External links

• Dan Hedaya at IMDb