Judd Hirsch Biography

Judd Hirsch
Actor
Born:March 15, 1935 in The Bronx, New York, USA

Bronx-born actor Judd Hirsch attended the City College of New York, where he majored in engineering and physics.  A blossoming fascination with the theater convinced Hirsch that his future lay in acting.  He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked with a Colorado stock company before his 1966 Broadway debut in Barefoot in the Park.  He spent many years at New York’s Circle Repertory Company, where he appeared in the first-ever production of Lanford Wilson’s The Hot L Baltimore.  After an auspicious bow in the well-received television movie The Law (1974), Hirsch landed his first weekly series assignment playing the title character in the cop drama Delvecchio, from 1976 to 1977.  From 1978 to 1983, he was seen as Alex Reiger in the popular ensemble comedy Taxi and earned two Emmy Awards. 

While occupied with Taxi, Hirsch found time to act off-Broadway, winning an Obie award for the 1979 production Talley’s Folly.  The following decade, Hirsch was honored with two Tony Awards for his Broadway efforts I’m Not Rappaport and Conversations With My Father. 
After starring in Taxi, Hirsch was the lead in the television series Detective in the House, in 1985, and had a Golden Globe-winning turn as John Lacey in Dear John, from 1988 to 1992.
More recently, Hirsch co-starred opposite Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz in the CBS series Numb3rs.  He currently appears on the critically acclaimed FX Network series Damages, starring Glenn Close.

Hirsch’s motion-picture credits include his Academy Award®-nominated performance in the critically acclaimed, Oscar®-nominated film Ordinary People, starring Timothy Hutton, Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland.  He also played Russell Crowe’s mathematics mentor in Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind and was seen playing Jeff Goldblum’s father in the movie blockbuster Independence Day.  Most recently, Hirsch starred with Sean Penn in This Must Be the Place, which garnered rave notices at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.