Famed character actor Harris Yulin has died, passing away yesterday at the age of 87. Yulin’s family and manager Sue Leibman say in a statement that the actor died of cardiac arrest in New York City.
The LA-born actor started acting on film and television in 1970 and racked up over 140 credits to his over his lifetime, mostly playing authority figures often with dubious agendas.
Yulin has had film roles like Detective Mel Bernstein in “Scarface,” Security Advisor James Cutter in “Clear and Present Danger,” the nasty Judge Wexler in “Ghostbusters II,” Wyatt Earp in “Doc,” Rubin Carter’s lawyer in “The Hurricane,” Black Harry in “Cutthroat Island,” Agent Sterling in “Rush Hour 2,” and Detective Russell in “Training Day”.
Other film credits including “Night Moves,” “The Mignith Man,” “Candy Mountain,” “Judgement in Berlin,” “Narrow Martin,” “Final Analysis,” “The Baby-Sitters Club,” “Looking for Richard,” “Multiplicity,” “Murder at 1600,” “Bean,” “Cradle Will Rock,” “Perfume,” “American Outlaws,” “The Emperor’s Club,” “Fur,” “My Soul to Take,” and “The Place Beyond the Pines” among many others.
He was also a prolific TV actor – earning an Emmy nomination for his work as a crime boss in “Frasier”. He was known for several genre roles including a much raved about performance as a broken and haunted Cardassian filing clerk who poses as his former war criminal boss in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” first season episode “Duet”.
He also played Quentin Travers, the head of the Watchers council, in several episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”; was the duplicitous NSA director in the second season of “24,” a studio head in “Entourage,” and more recently had a twelve-episode stint on “Ozark”.
Other TV credits include “Billions,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Veep,” “Murphy Brown,” “The Blacklist,” “Nikita,” “La Femme Nikita,” “The X-Files,” “Third Watch,” “Law & Order,” “Damages,” “Rubicon,” “Pan Am,” “Forever,” “For the People,” “I Know This Much Is True,” “Cagney & Lacey,” “Wonder Woman,” “Dynasty,” “SWAT,” “Police Woman,” “Kojak,” “Barnaby Jones,” “IRonside,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “Baretta,” “As the World Turns” and more.
