By Melissa Lemieux
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Actor Ron Leibman has passed away at the age of 82 from complications related to pneumonia, as confirmed by his agent, Robert Attermann of Abrams Artists Agency.
"We at Abrams Artists Agency are saddened to hear the news of Ron's passing," Attermann said in a statement to The Wrap. "Ron was an incredibly talented actor with a distinguished career in film, TV and theatre. Our thoughts go out to his wife, Jessica, and his family."
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Leibman may be best known to mainstream viewers as the father of Rachel Green from the NBC sitcom Friends, but his career was quite varied.
From appearances in movies like The Hot Rock and Slaughterhouse-Five to his Emmy-winning work on the crime drama Katz, which he also co-wrote, to supporting roles in such series as Rugrats and a storied stage career which included 535 performances in the Neil Simon satire Rumors, he took on a variety of parts with aplomb.
Here are some of his other best-known—or most infamous—roles.
5. Ron Cadillac, Archer
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Leibman's final role saw him acting against his real-life wife, Jessica Walter, playing the husband of Walter's spy queen character Malory Archer.
As Cadillac, Leibman stood out during his nine appearances on the show, gilding his character's sweaty charm with an oily heart that made him likable even when he was doing horrible things—much like the other characters in the series do regularly.
4. Maj. Vaughn Liceman, Up the Academy
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It's less his performance that makes Leibman a stand-out in this 1980 comedy, but the backstage drama which accompanied his performance.
Leibman, after attending an early screening of the film, requested his name be removed from the picture's credits, a rare gesture not often seen in modern big-budget studio cinema.
And Leibman wasn't alone. Mad magazine ultimately disowned what was once conceived as a showcase for their Alfred E. Neuman character. The parody Mad published of its own movie even gently tweaked Leibman for being "smart enough" to get his name removed from the movie.
3. Mark Paul Kopell, Law and Order
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While lots of actors have appeared on Law and Order over the years, it takes something special to stand out.
As Mark Paul Kopell, the ex-college buddy of ADA McCoy, Leibman makes smarm an art as he outmaneuvers McCoy at every turn while representing a mob boss. But the tables turn when he finds himself charged with crimes of his own.
2. Reuben Warshowsky, Norma Rae
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It's not easy to perform a love triangle filled with repressed feelings and keep all three characters sympathetic, but it's an act that Leibman, as passionate New York union organizer Reuben Warshowsky in 1979's Norma Rae, manages deftly.
While Norma Rae and Reuben spark and clash—and Reuben is admittedly "in [Norma]'s head"—ultimately he does the moral thing and leaves town once he's helped Norma set up a union, because he knows that she loves her husband. In a film about doing what's right, that's a fitting ending.
1. Roy Cohn, Angels in America
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Just as difficult is keeping an unsympathetic character entertaining. As Roy Cohn, a lawyer dying of AIDS who refuses to meet his fate or the truth with grace, Leibman was a stunning revelation. He won a Tony for originating the part on Broadway.
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