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Harris Yulin
American actor (1937–2025) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Harris Bart Goldberg (November 5, 1937 – June 10, 2025), known professionally as Harris Yulin, was an American actor who appeared in over a hundred film and television series roles including Night Moves (1975; filmed in 1973) with Gene Hackman, St. Ives (1976) with Charles Bronson, Scarface (1983), Ghostbusters II (1989), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Looking for Richard (1996), Bean (1997), The Hurricane (1999), Training Day (2001), and Frasier, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 1996.[1]
![Thumb](#/media/File:Harris_Yulin_"Dynasty"_(1976_NBC_press_photo)_(cropped).jpg)
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Early life and education
Harris Yulin was born in Los Angeles on November 5, 1937. Abandoned at an orphanage as an infant, he was adopted by dentist Isaac Goldberg and his wife Sylvia when he was four months old, and given the name Harris Bart Goldberg. When he began a performing career, he took the stage surname "Yulin" from his adoptive father's extended Russian Jewish family.[2]
Yulin attended the University of Southern California, but did not graduate. He enlisted in the United States Army for a year[2] and then moved to Florence, Italy, where he tried working as a painter, saying in 2000 he was "extremely bad at it." In 1962, he was living in Tel Aviv, Israel when his friends encouraged him to try acting and he began appearing in small shows. When he returned to the United States, he met acting coach Jeff Corey with connections from his father's dental career and began studying acting.[3][2]
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Career
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Acting
Yulin made his New York debut in 1963 in Next Time I'll Sing to You by James Saunders and continued to work frequently in theater throughout his career.[4] His Broadway debut came in the 1980s Watch on the Rhine. He returned to Broadway multiple times in productions of The Visit, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Price, and Hedda Gabler.[5] In 2010, he played Willy Loman in Death of A Salesman at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.[6]
His first film role was his portrayal of Wyatt Earp in Doc (1971), starring Stacy Keach as Doc Holliday. He appeared in the Brian De Palma film Scarface (1983) as corrupt cop Mel Bernstein. In 1989, he played the role of Judge Stephen Wexler in Ghostbusters II. He portrayed a corrupt national security advisor in the 1994 Harrison Ford thriller Clear and Present Danger. In 1997, he played the role of George Grierson in Bean. He appeared as Leon Friedman, a lawyer of Rubin Carter, in the 1999 film, The Hurricane. In 2001, he portrayed Secret Service Agent Sterling in Rush Hour 2.
Film critic Jim Emerson once quipped that Yulin "should be in every movie ever made".[7]
On television, Yulin appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the episode "Duet". During the second season of the television series 24, he played the Director of the National Security Agency, Roger Stanton. He was nominated for a 1996 Emmy Award for his portrayal of crime boss Jerome Belasco in the sitcom Frasier. In the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he played Quentin Travers, head of the Watchers' Council. Yulin also appeared in Season 3 of Entourage in the episode "Return of the King" as studio head Arthur Gadoff. In 2009, he performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.[8][9] In 2010 he appeared in the AMC series Rubicon. In 2017 to 2018 he appeared in 12 episodes of Ozark.[10]
At the time of his death, Yulin had been cast in the MGM+ comedy series American Classic in the role of Linus; he died days before he was scheduled to begin filming his scenes.[11]
Beyond acting
Yulin won the Lucille Lortel Award for directing The Trip to Bountiful at the Signature Theatre in New York with Lois Smith.[12] He directed and taught in New York City: at Juilliard for eight years; at Columbia University's The Graduate School of the Arts; and at HB Studio.[13]
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Personal life
Yulin dated Faye Dunaway from 1971 to 1972.[14] He and actress Gwen Welles were married until her death in 1993. Yulin's daughter, Claire Lucido, was the wife of artist Ted Mineo. Lucido died January 31, 2021.[15][13]
His second marriage was to Kristen Lowman, an actress; they lived in Bridgehampton, New York.[16] Yulin died from cardiac arrest in New York City, on June 10, 2025 at 87.[13]
Filmography
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Film
Television
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References
External links
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