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Saul Rubinek

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Saul Rubinek
Rubinek in 2013
Born
Saul Hersh Rubinek

(1948-07-02) July 2, 1948 (age 76)
Föhrenwald, Wolfratshausen, Upper Bavaria, Allied-occupied Germany
NationalityCanadian
Occupations
  • Actor
  • director
  • producer
  • playwright
Years active1968–present
Spouses
  • Kate Lynch (separated)[1][2]
Elinor Reid
​
(m. 1990)​
[3]
AwardsSee below

Saul Hersh Rubinek (born July 2, 1948) is a Canadian actor, director, producer, and playwright.

He is widely known for his television roles, notably Artie Nielsen on Warehouse 13, Donny Douglas on Frasier, Saul Panzer on A Nero Wolfe Mystery, and Louis B. Mayer on The Last Tycoon. He also starred in the films Against All Odds (1984), Wall Street (1987), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), Unforgiven (1992), Nixon (1995), True Romance (1993), The Express (2008), Barney's Version (2010), and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018).[4]

Rubinek is a five-time Genie Award nominee, winning Best Supporting Actor for Ticket to Heaven (1981), and a two-time Gemini Award nominee. His directorial film debut, Jerry and Tom (1998), was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. He was previously a stage actor and director, working with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and Theatre Passe Muraille, and co-founding the Canadian Stage Company.

Early life

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Rubinek was born in Föhrenwald, a displaced-persons camp in Allied-occupied Germany, in 1948. His parents, Frania and Israel Rubinek, were both Yiddish-speaking Polish Jews who were hidden by Polish farmers for over two years during World War II.[3] So Many Miracles, a book written by Rubinek and published by Penguin Canada in 1988, recounts his parents' experiences in Poland during the Holocaust.[5]

The family immigrated to Canada soon after Rubinek was born.[6] His family settled down in Canada's capital city, Ottawa.[4] He spoke Yiddish, French and then learned heavily accented English, which caused him to be bullied when he was in school.[3] In his youth, he attended Camp B'nai Brith, a Jewish summer overnight camp in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec.[7] At the encouragement of his parents, Rubinek began taking acting lessons and joined the Ottawa Little Theatre in 1965.[4]

Career

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Rubinek began performing at the Stratford Festival in 1969. He contributed to the Toronto theatre scene, co-founding the Canadian Stage Company and working with Theatre Passe Muraille as an actor and producer. He began working in the United States in the 1970s, acting in Off-Broadway productions. In 1984, he won a Drama-Logue Award for Des McAnuff's La Jolla production of As You Like It.[4]

Early in his career, Rubinek gained the attention of Canadian audiences when he starred as detective Benny Cooperman in two TV films: The Suicide Murders (1985) and Murder Sees the Light (1986). These are based on the series of mystery novels by author Howard Engel set in the Niagara Region of Canada.[8] Rubinek starred as Owen Hughes, the antagonist, in Obsessed (1987). In the 1987 Canadian film Taking Care, he played Carl, the husband of the main protagonist, played by his then spouse Kate Lynch.[9] It was a medical drama based on the Toronto hospital baby deaths that was the foundation of the Susan Nelles false-conviction case.[9] In another TV film, Liberace: Behind the Music (1988), he played Seymour Heller, the long-time friend and manager of Liberace.[10]

In 1982, he played Allan in the sex-themed romantic comedy Soup for One, directed and written by Jonathan Kaufer and produced by Marvin Worth. Rubinek appeared in: Taylor Hackford's Against All Odds (1984); Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty (1986) as director Bo Hodges; Oliver Stone's Wall Street (1987), as a lawyer; The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick (1988), as a fun-loving rabbi; Brian De Palma's The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), again as a lawyer; and in a lead part as a rabbi in The Quarrel (1991). He is noted for his performance in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992) as a pulp fiction writer. He had a notable role in Tony Scott's True Romance (1993) as Lee Donowitz, a pompous, cocaine-addicted film producer based on Joel Silver.[11]

He co-starred in the 1993 Emmy Award-winning American made-for-television docudrama And the Band Played On as Dr. Jim Curran. Rubinek played the character Kivas Fajo in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Most Toys." Rubinek, an ardent Star Trek fan, abruptly took over the part after David Rappaport, the actor who was originally cast in the role, attempted suicide shortly after the filming of the episode had begun. (Rappaport later committed suicide just before the episode premiered.) Photographs of Rubinek in character were used on two cards in Decipher's 1994 ST:TNG card game: a character card entitled "Kivas Fajo" and an event card entitled "Kivas Fajo: Collector." In 1998, "The Fajo Collection," a limited (40,000 copies) edition set of 18 new cards, was released as an addition to this card game.

Another science fiction role portrayed by Rubinek was as a documentary film director named Emmett Bregman, on the seventh season of the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, in a two-part episode called "Heroes, Parts 1 & 2".[12]

He played Donny Douglas (Daphne Moon's fiancé and Niles Crane's divorce lawyer) in several episodes of the American sitcom Frasier.[13]

He appeared, in various roles, in two episodes of the 1995 revival of The Outer Limits. He played the role of Louis the Lion on YTV's The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon (1995). He had a cameo appearance as a casino pit boss in the film Rush Hour 2.[14]

Rubinek played Alan Mintz opposite Nicolas Cage in the 2000 film The Family Man. In 2000, Rubinek played Detective Saul Panzer in The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery, the series pilot for the 2001-02 A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, in which he would subsequently play the recurring role of reporter Lon Cohen. In 2005 he appeared in the short-lived American television series Blind Justice, and has appeared from 2006 to 2012 in the supporting role of Hasty Hathaway in the Jesse Stone series of TV films, starring Tom Selleck.

Rubinek with his Warehouse 13 costar Eddie McClintock

His single-episode guest appearances during the 2000s include two 2004 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm as Dr. Saul Funkhouser, the "Adrift" episode in the beginning of Lost's second season in 2005, the 2006 "Invincible" episode of Eureka, the 2007 episode of the TV series Masters of Horror "The Washingtonians", and a 2008 episode of the TV series Psych. That same year he guest-starred as Victor Dubenich, the antagonist in the pilot episode of Leverage, reappearing in 2012 for the last two episodes of season 4. In 2013, he guest-starred in two subsequent episodes of the TV series Person of Interest.[15][16]

In 2005, he directed the independent film Cruel but Necessary. The following year he appeared in a supporting role in the 2009 Canadian feature comedy The Trotsky. Rubinek starred in the Syfy series Warehouse 13 as Artie Nielsen, a covert agent employed by a secretive council to recover mystical artifacts with his team. The series finale was aired on May 19, 2014, on Syfy.[17]

His first play, Terrible Advice, premiered in September 2011 at the Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre in London, starring Scott Bakula, Sharon Horgan, Andy Nyman and Caroline Quentin.[18] In 2018, he was cast as a series regular on the Amazon Prime series Hunters.

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1968 Slow Run Narrator (voice) Short film
1980 Death Ship Jackie
Agency Sam Goldstein
Nothing Personal Pete Braden Uncredited
1981 Ticket to Heaven Larry
By Design Terry Loeb
1982 Soup for One Allan Martin
Young Doctors in Love Floyd Kurtzman
Highpoint Centino
1984 Against All Odds Steve Kirsch
1985 Martin's Day Hitchhiker
1986 Sweet Liberty Bo Hodges
1987 Wall Street Harold Salt
Taking Care Carl[9]
Hitting Home Owen Hughes
1988 The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick Rabbi Teitelman
1990 The Bonfire of the Vanities Jed Kramer
Falling Over Backwards Mel Rosenblum
1991 The Quarrel Hersh Rasseyner
1992 Man Trouble Laurence Moncrief
Unforgiven W.W. Beauchamp
1993 Undercover Blues Mr. Ferderber
True Romance Lee Donowitz
1994 Death Wish V: The Face of Death D.A. Brian Hoyle
I Love Trouble Sam Smotherman
Getting Even with Dad Bobby Drace
1995 Nixon Herb Klein
1996 Memory Run Dr. Munger
Rainbow Sam Cohen
1997 Bad Manners Matt Carroll
Pale Saints Whitey
1998 Jerry and Tom Dogtrack Victim Directorial debut
1999 Dick Henry Kissinger
2000 Lakeboat Cuthman
The Contender Jerry Tolliver
The Family Man Alan Mintz
2001 Rush Hour 2 Red Dragon Box Man Cameo appearance
2001 Bleacher Bums Chicago Bruins Manager Also director (TV movie)
2002 Triggermen Jazzer
2003 The Singing Detective Skin Specialist
Hollywood North Paul Linder
Baadasssss! Howie Kaufman
2004 Pursued Dexter O'Neill
Intern Academy Dr. Sam Bonnert
2005 Santa's Slay Mr. Green
Cruel but Necessary N/A Also producer
2007 War Dr. Sherman
2008 A Broken Life Boss
Julia Mitch
The Express Art Modell
2009 Oy Vey! Martin Hirsch
The Trotsky David Bronstein
2010 Barney's Version Mr. Charnofsky
Knucklehead Rabbi Cameo appearance
Kill Me Please M. Breiman
2015 Gridlocked Marty
2018 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Frenchman/René Segment: "The Mortal Remains"
2019 The Song of Names Mr. Feinman
2022 Shttl Rebbe Weitsenzang
2023 BlackBerry John Woodman
Clock Joseph

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1975–77 King of Kensington Jerry Beck / Ansons Phelps Episodes: "The Gambler" & "The End of the World"
1978 Love on the Nose The Idealist Television film
1979 The Wordsmith Mervyn Kaplansky
1980 The Littlest Hobo Tim Reagan Episode: "Escape"
Bizarre Various characters 24 episodes
1981 Clown White Mr. Freed Television film
1983 The Terry Fox Story Dan Grey
1984 Seeing Things Jeffries Episode: "An Eye on the Future"
Hill Street Blues Armand Bittar Episode: "Fuched Again"
1985 The Suicide Murders Benny Cooperman Television film
1985–86 The Equalizer Jason Mazer 3 episodes
1986 Murder Sees the Light Benny Cooperman Television film
1988 The Ray Bradbury Theater John Griffths Episode: "Gotcha!"
Liberace: Behind the Music Seymour Heller Television film
Street Legal Grant Mitchell Episode: "The Homecoming"
1989 Men Paul Armas 6 episodes
1990 Star Trek: The Next Generation Kivas Fajo Episode: "The Most Toys"
1993 Matrix Jeremy Winter Episode: "Collateral Damage"
And the Band Played On Dr. Jim Curran Television film
1994 L.A. Law Harold Schoen Episode: "Finish Line"
1995 Hiroshima Dr. Leo Szilard Television film
1995–99 The Outer Limits Professor Hugaro/Aaron Zgierski Episode: "Caught in the Act" & "Tribunal"
1996 Ink Alan Mesnick 22 episodes
1998 Blackjack Thomas Television film
1999 The Practice Arnold Hunter Episodes: "Home Invasions" & "Infected"
Mentors Napoleon Bonaparte Episodes: "Little Emperor"
1999–2002 Frasier Donny Douglas 15 episodes
2000 The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery Saul Panzer Television film
2001 Laughter on the 23rd Floor Ira Stone
2001–02 Once and Again Colin Fleischer Episodes: "Kind of Blue" & "Chance of a Lifetime"
A Nero Wolfe Mystery Lon Cohen 10 episodes
2002 Gleason George "Bullets" Durgom Television film
The Brady Bunch in the White House Sal Astor
2003 Coast to Coast Gary Pereira
Law & Order Ira Simpkis Episode: "Genius"
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself Eli Morton Television film
NYPD Blue Barry Tytel Episode: "Only Schmucks Pay Income Tax"
2004 Curb Your Enthusiasm Dr. Saul Funkhouser Episodes: "The Weatherman" & "The 5 Wood"
Stargate SG-1 Emmett Bregman Episode: "Heroes"
Dr. Vegas Jonathan Selznick Episode: "Lust for Life"
Threat Matrix Peter Tomashevski Episode: "19 Seconds"
Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss Paul Fleiss Television film
Jack & Bobby Nahum Mayhew Episode: "Today I am a Man"
2005 Blind Justice Dr. Alan Galloway 7 episodes
Jesse Stone: Stone Cold Hasty Hathaway Television film
Trump Unauthorized Peter Wennik Television film
Lost Clark Finney Episode: "Adrift"
2006 Jesse Stone: Night Passage Hasty Hathaway Television film
Eureka Dr. Carl Carlson Episode: "Invincible"
2007 Masters of Horror Professor Harkinson Episode: "The Washingtonians"
Jesse Stone: Sea Change Hasty Hathaway Television film
Blackout Sol
2008 Psych Lance Episode: "Lights, Camera... Homicidio"
The Trojan Horse Rafe Kott Television film
Boston Legal Donald Feldcamp "Kill, Baby, Kill"
2008–12 Leverage Victor Dubenich 3 episodes
2009–14 Warehouse 13 Artie Nielsen 64 episodes
2010 Rubicon David Hadas 2 episodes
Jesse Stone: No Remorse Hasty Hathaway Television film
2011 Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost
2012 Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt
2013 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Mr. Price Episode: "Funny Valentine"
2013–14 Person of Interest Arthur Claypool Episodes: "Lethe" & "Aletheia"
2015 Beauty & the Beast Dr. Glenroy Episode: "Heart of the Matter"
The Good Wife Judge Thomas Treem Episode: "Taxed"
2016 Angie Tribeca Pfoopa Episode "Boyz II Dead"
Blue Bloods Sy Goodman Episode: "The Price of Justice"
2017 Doubt Judge Julius Routbort Episode: "Finally"
The Last Tycoon Louis B. Mayer 6 episodes
Survivor's Remorse Leonard Moscowitz Episode: "Optics"
2018 Caught Andre Lefevre 2 episodes
Grey's Anatomy Rabbi Eli Episode: "One Day Like This"
2018–22 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Pauly Auerbach Episodes: "We're Going to the Catskills!" & "Everything is Bellmore"
2019 For All Mankind Rep. Charles Sandman Episode: "He Built the Saturn V"
2019–20 Billions Hap Halloran 3 episodes
2020 Hunters Murray Markowitz 10 episodes
Schitt's Creek Tippy Bernstein Episode: "Sunrise, Sunset"[19]

Accolades

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Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television

Broadcast Film Critics Association

  • 2001 Alan J. Pakula Award for Artistic Excellence: The Contender (won)

FilmOut LGBT Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

References

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  1. ^ Adleman, Sid (February 13, 1980). "Rubinek in NBC private eye pilot". Toronto Star. p. B1. Retrieved January 19, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  2. ^ Holden, Alfred (October 16, 1988). "Couple Reconcile with son over story of their escape". Toronto Star. p. D6. ProQuest 1357334420. Retrieved January 19, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  3. ^ a b c Scrivener, Leslie (December 20, 2009). "A simple act of kindness saved lives". Toronto Star. pp. A1, A6. ProQuest 1348712388. Retrieved January 19, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  4. ^ a b c d Seringhaus, Claire (January 16, 2011). "Saul Rubinek". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  5. ^ Kirchhoff, H J (November 17, 1988). "Two Jewish Writers". The Globe & Mail. Toronto. p. C6. ProQuest 1237377483. Retrieved January 19, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ Henry, Brian (November 5, 1988). "A Love Story of Survival". Toronto Star. p. M5. ProQuest 1365778886. Retrieved January 19, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Rachlis, Louise (May 5, 2010). "Celebrating 75 years and dufflebags of memories". Ottawa Citizen. p. E1. Retrieved January 19, 2024 – via PressReader.
  8. ^ "Benny Cooperman". www.thrillingdetective.com. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
  9. ^ a b c Pevere, Geoff (November 27, 1987). "Truth and Justice, The Canadian Way". Toronto Star. p. D8. ProQuest 1411869672. Retrieved January 19, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  10. ^ Greene, David (1988-10-09), Liberace: Behind the Music (Biography, Drama, Music), Kushner-Locke Company, The Kushner-Locke Company, retrieved 2023-01-07
  11. ^ "Inglourious Basterds and True Romance: Bonded by Family Blood". /Film. August 16, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  12. ^ Mikita, Andy (2004-02-13), Heroes: Part 1, Stargate SG-1, retrieved 2023-01-07
  13. ^ Lee, David (1999-02-18), To Tell the Truth, Frasier, retrieved 2023-01-07
  14. ^ Rush Hour 2 (2001) - IMDb, retrieved 2023-01-07
  15. ^ Fowler, Matt (December 17, 2013). "Person of Interest: "Lethe" Review". ign.com.
  16. ^ Dyess-Nugent, Phil (January 8, 2014). "Person Of Interest: "Aletheia"". avclub.com. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  17. ^ Seklir, Andrew, Part 9, Warehouse 13: Of Monsters and Men, retrieved 2023-01-07
  18. ^ Shenton, Mark. "Frank Oz to Direct Saul Rubinek's Terrible Advice at London's Menier Chocolate Factory" Archived 2012-02-22 at the Wayback Machine, Playbill. July 11, 2011.
  19. ^ Fremont, Maggie (10 March 2020). "Schitt's Creek Recap: Meanwhile, On Sunrise Bay …". Vulture. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
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