Richard Schiff

Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award. Schiff made his directorial debut with The West Wing, directing an episode entitled "Talking Points". He is on the National Advisory Board of the Council for a Livable World.[1] He currently has a recurring role on the HBO series Ballers. Since September 2017, he has had a leading role in ABC's medical drama The Good Doctor, as Dr. Glassman, president of a fictional teaching hospital in San Jose, California.[2]
== Early life ==
Schiff was born on May 27, 1955, in Bethesda, Maryland, and was raised there, the second of three sons of Charlotte, a television and publishing executive, and Edward Schiff, a real estate lawyer.[3]
Schiff dropped out of high school, but later obtained an equivalency diploma. In 1973, he studied briefly at The City College of New York (CCNY) but did not graduate. He moved to Colorado, where he found employment cutting firewood. Returning to New York in 1975, he began to study acting at CCNY and was accepted into their theater program.
Schiff and his family are Jewish.[4][5]
== Career ==
Schiff initially studied directing. He directed several off-Broadway plays, including Antigone in 1983 with a just-graduated Angela Bassett. In the mid-1980s Schiff decided to try his hand at acting and landed several TV roles. He was seen by Steven Spielberg in an episode of the TV drama High Incident and was cast in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) which led to being cast in more frequently and eventually to the role as White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler in the television series The West Wing. Schiff became known for his reclusive and intense approach to his craft as well as his low-key delivery style.[6]
In 1995, Schiff portrayed a lawyer in Se7en. In 1996, he guest starred on the TV series ER (Season 2 - Episode 17), and appeared in NYPD Blue the following year. In 1996, he portrayed a corrupt probation officer in City Hall along with Al Pacino and John Cusack. Schiff portrayed a doctor alongside Eddie Murphy in the 1998 Dr. Dolittle remake. He also portrayed Col./Brig. Gen. Robert Laurel Smith in the 1998 HBO TV movie The Pentagon Wars, based on the real-life development of the US Army's Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. That same year, Schiff appeared in the movie Deep Impact. Schiff appeared in one episode of Becker during its first season. In 2001, he acted in the movie What's the Worst That Could Happen? starring Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito. He played the part of the tough lawyer Mr. Turner in I Am Sam opposite Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer and co-starred in People I Know with Al Pacino.
Schiff appeared in Ray as Jerry Wexler, shaving his beard for the role. After working on The West Wing for 6 seasons, Schiff chose to leave the series, fulfilling his contractual obligations by appearing in half of the final season's episodes. That same year, he starred alongside Peter Krause in Civic Duty.
Schiff had a cameo appearance as himself in the second-season finale of the series Entourage. The scene has Schiff at lunch with his agent Ari Gold, where he declares a desire to act in action movies. He appeared again as a fictionalised version of himself in Entourage (2015). In early 2006, Schiff returned to his stage roots, starring in the premiere run of Underneath the Lintel, a one-act, single-character play by Glen Berger, at the George Street Playhousein New Brunswick, New Jersey. In February 2007, he appeared in the West Endproduction of Underneath the Lintel in the Duchess Theatre[7] in London, England, and appeared on BBC Radio Five Live and talked at length to Simon Mayo about his experiences acting in The West Wing and his new West End production. In 2007, he appeared as Philip Cowen in the season finale of Burn Notice. A radio version of Underneath the Lintel, performed by Schiff, was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on January 5, 2008. Schiff starred in Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey in the fall of 2008, as accountant Matt Friedman, opposite Margot White as Sally Talley. Later that year Schiff co-starred in Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson and Another Harvest Moon with Ernest Borgnine and appeared in the season finale of Eli Stone.
Schiff portrayed Charles Fischer in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in the Season 2 episode "Complications". The character was a collaborator of Skynet and a traitor to the resistance. He was sent back in time to the present as a reward for his service to Skynet. He played an Orthodox rabbi on an episode of In Plain Sight with former West Wing co-star Mary McCormack. In 2009, he co-starred in the movies Imagine That, with Eddie Murphy, and Solitary Man, with Michael Douglas and Susan Sarandon. Later in 2009, he went back to London to shoot two other movies: The Infidel,[8] in which he starred opposite Omid Djalili, and Made in Dagenham, with Sally Hawkins and Bob Hoskins. Schiff also appeared as a hypnotist in one episode of Monk's seventh season.
He starred in Past Life. He also had a recurring role in Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior as FBI Director Jack Fickler. Schiff had a recurring role in The Cape.[9]He also has guest starred on Any Human Heart with Jim Broadbent playing the role of a psychiatrist and on White Collar's second season episode 15. He also played the role of an ex-CIA agent in a terrorist organization in Johnny English Reborn. In April 2011, Schiff returned to the London West End in the play Smash![10] He played opposite Rob Lowe in the drama Knife Fight, and starred opposite Josh Duhamel, Rosario Dawson and Bruce Willis in Fire with Fire. Schiff played an important plot character in three episodes of CBS's NCIS, bridging seasons 9 and 10, as Harper Dearing, the replacement for Osama bin Laden on the Most Wanted Wall for attacks against the United States Navy"
Schiff has been cast to star in the new Showtime series House of Lies, starring Kristen Bell and Don Cheadle. He also stars in the TV movie Innocent with Bill Pullman. He has a recurring guest role in the TV series Once Upon A Time and has joined Helen Hunt and former West Wing star Bradley Whitford in the movie Decoding Annie Parker. Schiff stars in the political series Chasing The Hill.
In late 2012 and early 2013 he portrayed George Aaronow in a Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross. He portrayed Erie Smith in a revival of the Eugene O'Neillplay, Hughie, at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., in February and March 2013, and Dr. Emil Hamilton in Zack Snyder's 2013 Superman film, Man of Steel. In September 2014, Schiff returned to the West End in a revival of Speed-the-Plow by David Mamet, co-starring Lindsay Lohan. In 2015, Schiff appeared as Dwayne Johnson's character's boss on HBO's Ballers. Around the same time, he also had roles in the films Kill the Messenger, The Automatic Hate, and Take Me to the River.
Schiff had a regular role on the TNT's newest crime drama Murder in the First as David Hertzberg. The show also starred Taye Diggs, Kathleen Robertson, and Tom Felton.
== Personal life ==
Schiff met his wife Sheila Kelley during auditions for Antigone in 1983, and they married in 1996.[11] They have a son, Gus, and a daughter, Ruby.[12]
Schiff is a member of the Democratic Party; he supported Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Previously, he had endorsed then-Senator Joe Biden, before Biden dropped out. In 2016, Schiff supported Senator Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries.[13] He endorsed Cynthia Nixon's bid for Governor of New York in the 2018 election.[14]
In February 2017, Schiff was instrumental in popularizing the moniker "President Bawbag" in relation to President Donald Trump. The term bawbag is Scottish in origin and refers to the scrotum. #PresidentBawbag went viral across social networks after Schiff tweeted several times, encouraging the use of the hashtag.[15]
His brother is film producer Paul Schiff. He is not related to Congressman Adam Schiff, the U.S. Representative for California's 28th congressional district.[16]
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1992	Malcolm X 	JFK Reporter 	
1992	The Bodyguard 	Skip Thomas 	
1992	Hoffa 	Government Attorney 	
1994	The Hudsucker Proxy 	Mailroom Screamer 	
1994	Speed 	Train Driver 	
1994	Major League II 	Commercial Director 	
1995	Tank Girl 	Trooper in Trench 	
1995	Rough Magic 	Marvin Wiggins 	
1995	Se7en 	Mark Swarr 	
1996	City Hall 	Larry Schwartz 	
1996	The Arrival 	Calvin 	
1996	The Trigger Effect 	Gun Shop Clerk 	
1996	Michael 	Italian Waiter 	
1997	Touch 	Jerry 	
1997	Volcano 	Haskins 	
1997	The Lost World: Jurassic Park 	Eddie Carr 	
1998	Dr. Dolittle 	Gene Reiss 	
1998	Living Out Loud 	Phil 	
1998	Deep Impact 	Don Beiderman 	
1999	Forces of Nature 	Joe 	
1999	Crazy in Alabama 	Norman 	
2000	Gun Shy 	Elliot 	
2000	Whatever It Takes 	P.E. Teacher 	
2001	I Am Sam 	Mr Turner 	
2001	What's the Worst That Could Happen?	Walter Greenbaum 	
2002	People I Know 	Elliot Sharansky 	
2004	Ray 	Jerry Wexler 	
2004	With It 	Virgil LaRocca 	Short film
2006	Civic Duty 	Tom Hilary 	
2007	Waiting 	John 	Short film
2007	Martian Child 	Mr Lefkowitz 	
2009	Imagine That 	Carl Simons 	
2009	Solitary Man 	Steve Heller 	
2009	Another Harvest Moon 	Jeffery 	
2010	The Infidel 	Lenny Goldberg 	
2010	Made in Dagenham 	Robert Tooley 	
2011	Johnny English Reborn 	Titus Fisher 	
2012	Knife Fight 	Dimitris Vargas 	
2013	Decoding Annie Parker 	Mr Allen 	
2013	The Frozen Ground 	Roy Hazelwood 	
2013	Man of Steel 	Emil Hamilton 	
2014	Kill the Messenger 	Richard Zuckerman/Walter Pincus	
2014	The Gambler 	Jeweler 	
2014	Before I Disappear 	Bruce Warham 	
2015	The Automatic Hate 	Ronald Green 	
2015	Entourage 	Himself 	
2015	Take Me to the River 	Don 	
2016	American Fable 	Jonathan 	
2017	The Men 	Miles Driskoll 	
2017	Shock and Awe 	The Usual 	
2017	Geostorm 	Senator Thomas Cross 	
=== Television ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1988 	Cheers 	Tourist 	Episode: "One Happy Chappy in a Snappy Serape"
1990 	Tales from the Crypt 	Lester Middleton 	Episode: "Korman's Kalamity"
1992 	Picket Fences 	Joey Fero 	Episode: "Pilot"
1992 	L.A. Law 	Dog Pound Operator 	Episode: "Helter Shelter"
1993 	South of Sunset 	Bobby Bruck 	Episode: "Dream Girl"
1993 	Doogie Howser, M. D. 	Billy Tishler 	Episode: "What Makes Doogie Run"
1994 	The John Larroquette Show 	Wilson 	Episode: "Don't Drink and Drive Nuclear Waste"
1994 	Murphy Brown 	Mel Woodworthy 	Episode: "Anything but Cured"
1994 	Thunder Alley 	Pat Perkins 	Episode: "Blood Suckers"
1994 	Love & War 	Lester Michaels 	Episode: "The Bum"
1995 	Maybe This Time 	Pearlman 	Episode: "Snitch Doggy-Dogg"
1995 	NYPD Blue 	Vartan Illiescu 	Episode: "Bombs Away"
1995 	Murder One 	Prof. Stanley Fletcher 	Episode: "Chapter Nine"
1996 	ER 	Mr. Bartoli 	Episode: "The Match Game"
1996 	Chicago Hope 	Mark Sarison 	Episode: "Quiet Riot"
1996 	Special Report: Journey to Mars 	Eric Altman 	Television movie
1996–1997 	Relativity 	Barry Roth 	17 episodes
1997 	NYPD Blue 	Steve Cameron 	Episode: "Is Paris Burning?"
1998 	The Practice 	Bob Show 	Episode: "Trees in the Forest"
1998 	Brooklyn South 	Chris McIntrick 	Episode: "Cinnamon Buns"
1998 	Ally McBeal 	Bernie Gilson 	Episode: "These Are the Days"
1998 	The Pentagon Wars 	Lt. Colonel/Brigadier General Robert Laurel Smith	Television movie
1998 	The Taking of Pelham One Two Three 	Mr. Green 	Television movie
1999–2006 	The West Wing 	Toby Ziegler 	141 episodes
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2000)
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2001–02)
Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2001–02)
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series(2003–06)
1999 	Becker 	Barry 	Episode: "Truth and Consequences"
1999 	Roswell 	Agent Stevens 	3 episodes
2005 	Entourage 	Richard Schiff 	Episode: "The Abyss"
2007 	Burn Notice 	Phillip Cowan 	2 episodes
2008 	Eli Stone 	David Green 	Episode: "Soul Free"
2008 	Monk 	Dr. Lawrence Climan 	Episode: "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized"
2008 	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 	Charles Fischer 	Episode: "Complications"
2009 	In Plain Sight 	Samuel Garfinkel 	Episode: "Aguna Matatala"
2010 	Past Life 	Dr. Malachi Talmadge 	9 episodes
2010 	Svetlana 	Dr. Lawrence 	Episode: "Eco-Shlong"
2010 	Any Human Heart 	Dr. Byrne 	2 episodes
2011 	The Cape 	Patrick Portman 	3 episodes
2011 	White Collar 	Andrew Stanzler 	Episode: "Power Play"
2011 	Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior 	Jack Fickler 	4 episodes
2011 	Up All Night 	Dr. Dean Chafin 	Episode: "Parents"
2012–2016 	House of Lies 	Harrison 'Skip' Galweather 	9 episodes
2012 	Once Upon a Time 	King Leopold 	2 episodes
2012 	The Mindy Project 	Doctor 	Episode: "Pilot"
2012 	NCIS 	Harper Dearing 	3 episodes
2013 	Bones 	Professor Leon Watters 	Episode: "The Spark in the Park"
2014 	Murder in the First 	David Hertzberg 	10 episodes
2014–2015 	Manhattan 	Occam 	9 episodes
2014 	Key and Peele 	Ambassador 	Episode: "Sex Addict Wendell"
2015–2017 	Rogue 	Marty Stein 	22 episodes
2015–2017 	Ballers 	Mr. Anderson 	19 episodes
2015 	Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp	Dean Fairchild 	Episode: "Auditions"
2015 	The Affair 	Jon Gottlief 	11 episodes
2016 	The Grinder 	Gordon Stutz 	2 episodes
2016 	Mom 	Robert 	Episode: "Pure Evil and a Free Piece of Cheesecake"
2016 	Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency 	Zimmerfield 	5 episodes
2017 	When We Rise 	Judge Vaughn Walker 	2 episodes
2017 	Chicago Justice 	Frank Linden 	Episode: "Tycoon"
2017–present	The Good Doctor 	Dr. Aaron Glassman 	Main cast
2017 	Jean-Claude Van Johnson 	Alan Morris 	2 episodes
2018 	Counterpart 	Roland Fancher 	
2018 	Castle Rock 	Warden Porter's superior 	Episode: "Harvest"