Allan Rich

Allan Rich could have easily quit acting when his liberal beliefs got him blacklisted during Hollywood's shameful Red Scare. He instead reinvented himself as a successful stock broker-turned-respected-art-gallery-owner before returning to his first career love. Rich started acting onstage alongside storied performers like Edward G. Robinson, Milton Berle, and Henry Fonda. Blacklisted for allegedly being a Communist sympathizer, the New York native turned to Wall Street, where within five years he had opened his own brokerage firm and started collecting fine art. After opening Allen Rich Galleries on Madison Avenue, he returned to the stage alongside Dustin Hoffman in Ron Ribman's "Journey of the Fifth Horse." Rich made his film debut with a juicy role as D.A. Herman Tauber in the 1973 biopic "Serpico" with Al Pacino. When scenes of his were shown on the Academy Awards broadcast, the entrepreneurial thespian took out ads in various Hollywood trade papers, landed an agent, and started earning roles in film and television at a brisk rate. With his stentorian voice and no-nonsense demeanor, Rich wound up playing authority figures ranging from judges ("Kojak," "Hill Street Blues") and doctors ("Night Court," "Jack") to Nazis ("Eating Raoul") and professors ("Happy Days"). Along with major roles playing a 1950s television exec in "Quiz Show" and Demi Moore's attorney in "Disclosure," Rich has also taught acting and summed up his philosophy in the 2007 book "A Leap From the Method." Allan Rich died of complications of dementia on August 22, 2020. He was 94.