Saul Rubinek

Saul Rubinek
Saul Rubinek at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International.
Born	(1948-07-02) July 2, 1948 Föhrenwald, Wolfratshausen, Upper Bavaria, Allied-occupied Germany
Occupation(s)	Actor, Director, Producer and Playwright
Years active	1968–present
Spouse(s)	Kate (1977–?) Elinor Reid (1990–present; 2 children)

Saul Rubinek (born July 2, 1948) is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film, and stage. His first roles were in the TV films The Suicide Murders (1985) and Murder Sees the Light (1986). His first film role was in Obsessed (1987). He had roles in notable films including Against All Odds (1984), Oliver Stone's Wall Street (1987), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), and the Academy Award-winning Western Unforgiven (1992). Rubinek's first play, Terrible Advice premiered in September 2011. He is also known for his role as Artie Nielsen in the Syfy TV series Warehouse 13.

Early life

Rubinek was born in Föhrenwald, Wolfratshausen, Germany, the son of Polish Jews Frania and Israel Rubinek, who was a factory worker, theatre company manager, Yiddish Theatre actor, and Talmudic scholar. Rubinek's parents were hidden by Polish farmers for over two years during World War II and moved to Canada in 1948.

Career

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), which are based on books in author Howard Engel's popular series of mystery novels set in the Niagara Region of Canada. Rubinek starred as Owen Hughes, the antagonist, in Obsessed (1987). In another TV film, Liberace: Behind the Music (1988), he played Seymour Heller, the long-time friend and manager of Liberace.

In 1982, he played Allan in the sexually-themed romantic comedy Soup For One, that was directed and written by Jonathan Kaufer and produced by Marvin Worth. Rubinek also appeared in Taylor Hackford's Against All Odds (1984), 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 also 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 a pompous, cocaine-addicted film producer. He also 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 filming of the episode had begun. Rappaport subsequently succeeded in committing suicide just after the episode premiered. 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". He also played Donny Douglas (Daphne Moon's fiancé and Niles Crane's divorce lawyer) in several episodes of the American sitcom Frasier. He appeared, in different 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 also had a cameo appearance as a casino pit boss in the film Rush Hour 2.

Rubinek played Alan Mintz opposite Nicolas Cage in the 2000 film The Family Man. Also in 2000, Rubinek played Detective Saul Panzer in The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery, the series pilot for the 2001-2002 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 Hastings Hathaway in the Jesse Stone series of TV films, starring Tom Selleck. His single-episode guest appearances during the 2000s include two 2004 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, 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.

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.

His first play, Terrible Advice premiered in September 2011 at the Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre in Southwark, London, starring Scott Bakula, Sharon Horgan, Andy Nyman and Caroline Quentin.

Filmography

Television

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975 & 1977	King of Kensington	Jerry Beck & Ansons Phelps	"The Gambler" & "The End of the World"
1980	The Littlest Hobo	Tim Reagan	"Escape"
	Bizarre	various	30 minute sketch show
1983	The Terry Fox Story	Dan Grey	TV movie
1984	Seeing Things	Jeffries	"An Eye on the Future"
	Hill Street Blues	Armand Bittar	"Fuched Again"
1985 −1986	The Equalizer	Jason Mazer	"The Distant Fire", "Dead Drop" & "Torn"
1988	The Ray Bradbury Theater	John Griffths	Gotcha!
	Liberace: Behind the Music	Seymour Heller
	Street Legal	Grant Mitchell	"The Homecoming"
1989	Men	Paul Armas	6 episodes
1990	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Kivas Fajo	"The Most Toys"
1993	Matrix	Stage Manager, Jeremy Winter	"Collateral Damage"
	And the Band Played On	Dr. Jim Curran	TV movie
1994	L.A. Law	Harold Schoen	"Finish Line"
1995 &1999	The Outer Limits	Professor Hugaro & Aaron Zgierski	"Caught in the Act" & "Tribunal"
1996	Ink	Alan Mesnick
1998	Blackjack	Thomas	TV movie
1999	The Practice	Arnold Hunter	"Home Invasion" & "Infected"
	Mentors	Napoleon Bonaparte	"Little Emperor"
1999 −2002	Frasier	Donny Douglas	15 episodes
2000	The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery	Saul Panzer	TV movie
2001 −2002	Once and Again	Colin Fleischer	"Kind of Blue" & "Chance of a Lifetime"
	A Nero Wolfe Mystery	Lon Cohen	10 episodes
2002	The Brady Bunch in the White House	Sal Astor	TV movie
2003	Coast to Coast	Gary Pereira	TV movie
	Law & Order	Ira Simpkis	"Genius"
	And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself	Eli Morton	TV movie
	NYPD Blue	Barry Tytel	"Only Schmucks Pay Income Tax"
2004	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Dr. Saul Funkhouser	"The Weatherman" & "The 5 Wood"
	Stargate SG-1	Emmett Bregman	"Heroes"
	Dr. Vegas	Jonathan Selznick	"Lust for Life"
	Threat Matrix	Peter Tomashevski	"19 Seconds"
	Jack & Bobby	Nahum Mayhew	"Today I am a Man"
2005	Blind Justice	Dr. Alan Galloway	7 episodes
	Lost	Custody Attorney	"Adrift"
2006	Jesse Stone: Night Passage	Hasty Hathaway	TV movie
	Eureka	Dr. Carl Carlson	"Invincible"
2007	Masters of Horror	Professor Harkinson	"The Washingtonians"
	Jesse Stone: Sea Change	Hasty Hathaway	TV movie
2008	Psych	Lance	"Lights, Camera... Homicidio"
	The Trojan Horse	Rafe Kott	Part one
	Boston Legal	Donald Feldcamp	"Kill, Baby, Kill"
2008 −2012	Leverage	Victor Dubenich	3 episodes
2009 −2014	Warehouse 13	Artie Nielsen	64 episodes
2010	Jesse Stone: No Remorse	Hasty Hathaway	TV movie
2011	Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost	Hasty Hathaway	TV movie
2012	Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt	Hasty Hathaway	TV movie
2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Mr. Price	"Funny Valentine"
	Person of Interest	Arthur Claypool	"Lethe" & "Aletheia"
2016	Blue Bloods	Sy Goodman	"The Price of Justice"

Film

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Agency	Sam Goldstein
	Death Ship	Jackie/ship's comic
1981	Ticket to Heaven	Larry
1982	By Design	Terry
	Soup for One	Allan
	Young Doctors in Love	Floyd Kurtzman
	Highpoint	Centino
1984	Against All Odds	Steve Kirsch
1986	Sweet Liberty	Bo Hodges
1987	Wall Street	Harold Salt
1988	The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick	Piano Teacher
1990	The Bonfire of the Vanities	Jed Kramer
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	Brian Hoyle
	I Love Trouble	Sam Smotherman
	Getting Even with Dad	Bobby
1995	Hiroshima	Leo Szilard
	Nixon	Herb Klein
1996	Memory Run	Dr. Munger
	Rainbow	Sam Cohen
1997	Bad Manners	Matt Carroll
1998	Jerry and Tom	Dogtrack victim
1999	Dick	Henry Kissinger
2000	Lakeboat	Cuthman
	The Contender	Jerry Tolliver
	The Family Man	Alan Mintz
2001	Rush Hour 2	Red Dragon Box Man
2002	Triggermen	Jazzer
2003	The Singing Detective	Skin Specialist
	Baadasssss!	Howard 'Howie' Kaufman
2005	Santa's Slay	Mr. Green
2007	War	Dr. Sherman
2008	A Broken Life	Boss
	Julia	Mitch
	The Express	Art Modell
2009	The Trotsky	David Bronstein
2010	Barney's Version	Mr. Charnofsky
	Knucklehead	Rabbi
	Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!!	Martin Hirsch
2015	Gridlocked	Marty	Post-production

Awards

• 1982 Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, for role in film Ticket to Heaven.

Director

• Jerry and Tom (1998)
• Club Land (TV 2001)
• Bleacher Bums (TV 2001) aka The Cheap Seats (Australian release video title)
• Cruel But Necessary (2005)

External links

• Saul Rubinek at IMDb
• RubineX Cube
• "Actor to speak at Holocaust Education Week"; Frances Kraft, Canadian Jewish News, November 1, 2008