Peter Riegert
| Peter Riegert | |
|---|---|
Peter Riegert in 1979 at the première of The Rose
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| Born | April 11, 1947 The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | The State University of New York (The University at Buffalo) |
| Occupation | Actor, screenwriter, director |
| Years active | 1975–present |
Peter Riegert (born April 11, 1947) is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, known for his roles as Donald "Boon" Schoenstein in Animal House (1978), "Mac" MacIntyre in Local Hero (1983), the fast talking gangster Aldo in Oscar (1991) and the tough Lt. Kellaway in The Mask (1994). He directed the 2000 short film By Courier and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film, shared with producer Ericka Frederick. On television, he had a recurring role as crooked New Jersey State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman in seasons three and four of the HBO series The Sopranos (2001-2002) and appeared as George Moore in the first season of the FX series Damages (2007)
Contents
Early life
Riegert was born in The Bronx, the son of Lucille, a piano teacher, and Milton Riegert, a food wholesaler.[1] Riegert grew up in Hartsdale, New York, and was raised in a nonobservant Jewish household.[2] He graduated from Ardsley High School in 1964 and later from the University at Buffalo. He worked at a number of jobs, including teaching, waiting tables, and social worker before settling on acting as a career.
Career
Stage
He made his Broadway debut in the musical Dance with Me. Other Broadway credits include The Old Neighborhood, An American Daughter, The Nerd, and Censored Scenes From King Kong. Off-Broadway he has appeared in Road to Nirvana, The Birthday Party, Isn't It Romantic, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and A Rosen by Any Other Name.
Film
| Year | Movies | As |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | National Lampoon's Animal House | Donald "Boon" Schoenstein |
| 1979 | Americathon | McMerkin |
| 1979 | Chilly Scenes of Winter | Sam Magurie |
| 1983 | Local Hero | MacIntyre |
| 1986 | News at Eleven | Eric Ross |
| 1987 | The Stranger | Dr. Harris Kite |
| 1988 | Crossing Delancey | Sam Posner |
| 1989 | W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult | W Eugene Smith |
| 1990 | A Shock to the System | Robert (Bob) Benham |
| 1991 | Oscar | Aldo |
| 1991 | The Runestone | (Fanducci) |
| 1993 | Gypsy | Herbie |
| 1993 | Barbarians at the Gate | Peter Cohen |
| 1994 | The Mask | Lt. Mitch Kellaway |
| 1995 | The Infiltrator | Rabbi Cooper |
| 1995 | An Element of Truth | Sidney |
| 1997 | Face Down | Lieutenant Cooper (Coop) |
| 1997 | North Shore Fish | Porker |
| 1998 | The Baby Dance | Richard Luckman |
| 1998 | The Scandalous Me: Jacqueline Susann Story | Irving Mansfield |
| 2000 | Traffic | Attorney Michael Adler |
| 2001 | Bojangles | Marty Forkins |
| 2004 | King of the Corner | Leo Spivak |
| 2004 | Mystery Dance | Alan Baker |
| 2010 | The Stranger | Dr Harris Kildee |
| 2011 | The Hit List | Bill Grieber |
| 2011 | Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness | (himself) |
| 2011 | We Bought a Zoo | Delbert McGinty |
| 2013 | At Middleton | Boneyard Sims |
| 2016 | American Pastoral | Lou Levov |
TV
Riegert made his television debut as Cpl. Igor Straminsky in two episodes of M*A*S*H. He has also portrayed New Jersey State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman in The Sopranos and defense attorney Chauncey Zeirko in multiple episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He starred opposite former girlfriend Bette Midler in the television adaptation of Gypsy and was featured in the HBO drama Barbarians at the Gate (which earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special), the final episode of Seinfeld as the president of NBC and the television movie Back When We Were Grownups, and he voiced the character of Max Weinstein in the controversial episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" of Family Guy. Riegert guest starred in a Season 2 episode of Leverage as corrupt lawyer Peter Blanchard. In 2011, Riegert began a multi-episode arc on One Tree Hill as August Kellerman, Nathan's unforgiving college professor. Riegert appeared as the character George Moore in Season 1 of Damages. He also appears in a recurring role of Judge Harvey Winter in CBS's The Good Wife. He is currently appearing in Dads as David Sachs, the father of Eli Sachs, played by Seth Green.
Director and writer
Riegert made his screenwriting and directorial debuts with By Courier, based on a short story by O. Henry. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film and won him the Festival Award for Best First Feature at the Marco Island Film Festival.
Riegert directed and co-wrote King of the Corner, a 2004 film featured at the Newport Film Festival. It stars Peter Riegert and Isabella Rossellini, and includes Eric Bogosian, Dominic Chianese, Beverly D'Angelo and Rita Moreno.
Voice work
Riegert narrated the audiobook of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which was nominated for a 2008 Audie Award in literary fiction. He narrated the audiobook of The Voyage of the Narwhal, a mid-19th century romance with the Arctic,[3] and also read the stories of Raymond Carver.
He was also the narrator for The First Basket, a documentary film on professional basketball's influence on Jewish culture.[4]
References
- ↑ http://www.filmreference.com/film/88/Peter-Riegert.html
- ↑ "I was aware of being Jewish and I don't mean that in a small way" http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/26162/peter-reigert-gives-voice-to-bad-jews-in-directorial-debut
- ↑ http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Literature/Contemporary-Literature/The-Voyage-of-the-Narwhal/36360
- ↑ http://www.thefirstbasket.com/team.html
External links
- Peter Riegert at the Internet Movie Database
- Peter Riegert at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- IndustryCentral profile
- AllMovie.com profile
- Interview with Riegert
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- Articles with hCards
- 1947 births
- Male actors from New York City
- American male film actors
- American film directors
- American male stage actors
- American male television actors
- Living people
- English-language film directors
- Jewish American male actors
- Jewish American writers
- Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from the Bronx
- People from Hartsdale, New York
- University at Buffalo alumni
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors
