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Versatility
Background:
A prolific and versatile character actor who had substantial
theater experience with the New York Shakespeare Festival, Dan Hedaya
is popular among TV viewers as Nick Tortelli (1984-1993), the sleazy
first husband of Rhea Perlman's character, on the popular 80s TV
sitcom, "Cheers." He also played the character in the
short-lived "Cheers" spin-off, "The Tortellis,"
which aired for four months in 1987.
Dan has also appeared in the TV series "Hill Street Blues,"
"Family Ties," "Law and Order," and "NYPD
Blue," as well as in the TV movie "Courage" (1986;
with Sophia Loren).
On the big screen, the 5' 9" player who often plays sleazy
villains or uptight wisecracking individuals, has starred in such
films as "The Passover Plot" (1976), "The Seduction of
Joe Tynan" (1979), "True Confessions" (1981), "The
Hunger" (1983), "Blood Simple" (1984), "Commando"
(1985), "Boiling Point" (1993), "The Usual Suspects"
(1995), "Clueless" (1995), "Nixon" (1995), "The
First Wives Club" (1996), "Ransom" (1996), "Marvin's
Room" (1996), "Alien: Resurrection" (1997), "A
Night at the Roxbury" (1998), "Dick" (1999), "Shaft"
(2000), "Mulholland Dr." (2001) and "Strangers with
Candy" (2005).
The Man
Childhood and Family:
A Syrian descendant who comes from a tight-knit Sephardic-Jewish
family, Dan Hedaya, nicknamed Dan "the man" Hedaya, was
born on July 24, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a BA
degree in theater from Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts,
in 1962.
Cheers
Career:
Beginning his acting career as an undergraduate at Tufts, Dan
Hedaya made his stage debut with a tiny role in a college production
of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." After teaching junior
high school English and math for seven years, he returned to stage
full-time with an appearance in a Joseph Papp production of William
Shakespeare's tragedy, "Macbeth."
In 1976, Hedaya, under the name Daniel Hedaya, made his big screen
debut in Michael Campus' dramatization of the controversial
best-selling 1965 book by British Biblical scholar Hugh J.
Schonfield, "The Passover Plot." The Israeli-produced
Biblical suspense movie that also stars Zalman King, Harry Andrews,
and Donald Pleasence, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume
Design.
Hedaya performed on the N.Y. stage with Al Pacino in David Rabe's
first play in his Vietnam War trilogy, "The Basic Training of
Pavlo Hummel" (1977), and made his first TV-movie, alongside
Brooke Shields, in the warm family movie "The Prince of Central
Park" (1977), which was inspired by Evan Rhodes' novel. He also
made his American film debut with Jerry Schatzberg's political drama
starring Alan Alda, Barbara Harris, Meryl Streep, and Rip Torn, "The
Seduction of Joe Tynan" (1979).
From 1981 to 1984, Hedaya played the recurring role of corrupt cop
Ralph Macafee on the NBC legendary serial police drama "Hill
Street Blues." Afterward, he played another recurring role, that
of Nick Tortelli (1984-1993), on the popular 80s TV sitcom, "Cheers."
He also played the character in the short-lived "Cheers"
spin-off, "The Tortellis," which aired for four months in
1987.
Hedaya also appeared with Kevin Kline in "Henry V" at
the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park (summer 1984) and
received excellent notices for his role in "Blood Simple"
(1984). The crime film, which marked the directorial debut of Joel
and Ethan Coen and the first major film of cinematographer Barry
Sonnenfeld, placed 98th on AFI's “100 Years... 100 Thrills”
and #73 on Bravo TV's “100 Scariest Movie Moments.”
In 1994, Hedaya was nominated for an Emmy (Outstanding Guest Actor
in a Drama Series) for his guest role as the shady man Lou the
Werewolf, who thinks he's a werewolf and demands to be locked up into
a cell before he kills someone, in the episode "NYPD Lou"
on the ABC Emmy-winning police drama "NYPD Blue." During
this time, he also appeared regularly on Showtime’s anthology
television series "Fallen Angels" (1993-1995).
Hedaya subsequently joined the cast of the short-lived NBC sitcom
"The Home Court" (1995-1996), playing Judge Walter
Ragsdale, and won a National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by
an Ensemble for his work alongside Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, and
Bette Midler in Hugh Wilson's Academy Award-nominated comedy film
based on the 1992 novel by Olivia Goldsmith, "The First Wives
Club" (1996), in which he portrayed Midler's ex-husband Morton
Cushman. He also received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for
Outstanding Performance by a Cast for his performance alongside Meryl
Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Diane Keaton, and Robert De Niro in Jerry
Zaks' dramatic film based on the play by Scott McPherson, "Marvin's
Room" (1996).
From 1997 to 2005, Hedaya played Attorney Herb Spivak on the hit
NBC medical drama series "ER." Meanwhile, he portrayed
President Richard M. Nixon in Andrew Fleming's comedy film about the
Watergate scandal, "Dick" (1999), alongside Michelle
Williams and Kirsten Dunst. For his role in the film, Hedaya earned a
Golden Satellite Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in
a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical.
Entering the new millennium, Hedaya began playing the recurring
role of Don Ludke on the CBS Emmy-nominated sitcom "Yes, Dear,"
starring Anthony Clark, Jean Louisa Kelly, Mike O'Malley, and Liza
Snyder. He played the character until 2003.
Hedaya was next cast as corrupt policeman Jack Roselli in John
Singleton's sequel of the 1971 film, "Shaft" (2000;
starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role), co-starred with Burt
Reynolds, Richard Dreyfuss, Jennifer Tilly, and Seymour Cassel in
Michael Dinner's crime/comedy film "The Crew" (2000), and
with James Marshall and Naomi Watts in the English remake of the 1983
Dutch horror film about a killer elevator, "De Lift" (aka.
"The Elevator"), "Down" (2001), which premiered
at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2001, but was not released on
video in the United States until two years later. He was also cast in
writer/director David Lynch's mystery film "Mulholland Dr."
(2001; with Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, and Justin Theroux),
Sam Firstenberg's American-Indian action film "Quicksand"
(2002; with Michael Dudikoff, Brooke Theiss, and Richard Kind), John
Polson's psychological thriller film "Swimfan" (2002;
starring Jesse Bradford, Erika Christensen, and Shiri Appleby), and
Don Coutts' romantic comedy movie "American Cousins"
(2003).
On the small screen, he was spotted as a guest in an episode of
FOX’s drama series "The $treet," CBS’ serial
drama starring Amy Brenneman, "Judging Amy," and in two
episodes of FX Network’s dark comedy series starring John
Corbett, "Lucky."
After appearing in writer/director Alan Hruska's dramatic film
"The Warrior Class" (2004; starring Anson Mount and Erica
Leerhsen), Hedaya supported Amy Sedaris in the Sundance-screened
comedy "Strangers with Candy" (2005) and lent his voice to
Mr. Gunk in the computer-animated film "Robots" (2005). He
also appeared in the made-for-television movie "Pizza My Heart"
(2005; starring Shiri Appleby), a modern spin-off of “Romeo &
Juliet,” played Father Frank, an Italian priest who has
connections to the mob, on the short-lived NBC drama series "The
Book of Daniel" (2006), and guest-starred as Jack Monk in an
episode of USA Network’s series starring Tony Shalhoub, "Monk."
Hedaya is now working on his upcoming film project, "Jornada
del muerto" (aka. "Journey of Death"), an action film
directed by John Milius in which he co-stars with Mark McGrath.
Awards:
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