Richard Schiff

Richard Schiff
Schiff at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Knife Fight
Born	(1955-05-27) May 27, 1955 Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	City College of New York
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian
Years active	1983–present
Political party	Democrat
Spouse	Sheila Kelley (1996–present)
Children	Gus Schiff Ruby Schiff

Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor and comedian. He is perhaps 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.

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.

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.

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). His career began an upward climb that led to his co-starring role as White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler on Aaron Sorkin's award winning 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 .

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, in which he played Don Beiderman. 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 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 following season's episodes. When NBC chose to end the series, Schiff continued his appearances until the end of the show's run in May 2006, though he appeared only briefly in the series finale. That same year, he starred alongside Peter Krause in Civic Duty.

Schiff in May 2009

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 Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In February 2007, he appeared in the West End production of Underneath the Lintel in the Duchess Theatre 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 The 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, 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. 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! 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 of 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.

He portrayed Erie Smith in a revival of the Eugene O'Neill play, "Hughie", at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., February–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 has a regular role on the TNT's newest crime drama Murder in the First as David Hertzberg. The show also stars Taye Diggs, Kathleen Robertson, and Tom Felton.

Personal life

Schiff met his wife Sheila Kelley during auditions for Antigone in 1993, and they married in 1996. They have a son, Gus, and a daughter, Ruby.

Schiff is a member of the Democratic Party; he supported Barack Obama in the 2008 US Presidential Election. Previously, he had endorsed Senator Joe Biden, before Biden dropped out.

His brother is film producer Paul Schiff.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Malcolm X	JFK Reporter
1992	The Bodyguard	Skip Thomas
1994	The Hudsucker Proxy	Mailroom Screamer
1994	Speed	Train Driver
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	Dr. 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
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
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	Dr. Emil Hamilton
2014	Kill the Messenger	Richard Zuckerman/Walter Pincus
2014	The Gambler	Jeweler
2014	Before I Disappear	Bruce Warham
2015	The Automatic Hate	Dr. Ronald Green
2015	Entourage	as himself
2015	Take Me to the River	Don
2016	American Fable	Jonathan

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 Fletche	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 (1999-2000) 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	House of Lies	Harrison 'Skip' Galweather	5 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	Manhattan	Occam	6 episodes
2015	The Affair	Jon Gottlief	12 episodes
2015	Rogue	Marty Abrams / Marty Stein	12 episodes
2015	Ballers	Mr. Anderson	3 episodes
2015	Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp	Dean Fairchild	8 episodes
2016	Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency	Zimmerfield

External links

• Official website
• Richard Schiff at IMDb
• Richard Schiff at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television