Scarface and Ghost Busters actor Harris Yulin has died aged 88 after a heart attack as his family have confirmed the sad news
Scarface star Harris Yulin has died aged 88 after a heart attack. The actor’s death has been announced by his family and manager Sue Leibman.
He died in New York on Tuesday. Yulin was an icon on Broadway having starred in Hedda Gabler, The Price, The Visit and Watch on the Rhine, among many others.
The actor was born on November 5, 1937 in Los Angeles and made his New York stage debut in James Saunders’ Next Time I’ll Sing to You. He was also a familiar face on television. His portrayal of Jerome Belasco, a crime boss on the much-loved sitcom Frasier, earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 1996, and he also had a recurring role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
It wasn’t until 1980 that he made his Broadway debut, starring in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine. He went on to make multiple appearances on Broadway, including The Visit, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Price and his final performance in Hedda Gabler in 2001.
The star also featured in films such as Multiplicity, All Square, Wanderland, Omni Loop, Game 6, and Candy Mountain. On the small screen, he had a significant storyline on the Netflix series Ozark, and memorable roles in Veep, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, And Just Like That, Billions, Divorce and WIOU.
He also had a bustling career off Broadway, performing at The Court Theatre in Chicago in Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at The Chautauqua Festival. He took the lead role in Death of A Salesman in Dublin at The Gate Theatre, and was part of Arthur Miller’s final play Finishing The Picture at The Goodman Theatre.
He took centre stage in Frost Nixon at Bay Street Theatre where he also directed Men’s Lives by Joe Pintauro. In addition, he directed numerous plays including The Glass Menagerie at Guild Hall, Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful.
His directorial credits also include This Lime Tree Bower and The Man Who Came to Dinner. Yulin and Mercedes Ruehl performed together in many chamber pieces on the East End of Long Island, where he resided. The actor was collaborating on new projects with Stacy Keach until his passing.
The seasoned actor also taught and directed at Juilliard for eight years, and at The Graduate School of the Arts at Columbia University and at HB Studios.
Just weeks before his death, Yulin was gearing up to start production this week in a starring role in the Michael Hoffman directed MGM+ series American Classic alongside Kevin Kline and Laura Linney.
According to his family, Yulin was thrilled to be working with Michael Hoffman (who had previously directed Yulin in Game 6 in 2005) along with such a star-studded cast.
Director Michael Hoffman paid heartfelt homage to Harris Yulin, stating: “Harris Yulin was very simply one of the greatest artists I have ever encountered,” and praising his unique blend of skill and spontaneity: “His marriage of immense technique with an always fresh sense of discovery, gave his work an immediacy and vitality and purity I’ve experienced no where else.
“And what he was as an actor, he was as a man, the grace, the humility, the generosity. All of us at American Classic have been blessed by our experience with him. He will always remain the beating heart of our show.”
Yulin is survived by his wife Kristen Lowman, son-in-law Ted Mineo, nephew Martin Crane, and godchildren Marco and Lara Greenberg.
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