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:

• National Board of Review: Best Acting by an Ensemble, "The First Wives Club," 1996