James Rebhorn
Encyclopedia
James Robert Rebhorn is an American
character actor who has appeared in over 100 television shows, feature films and plays.
, Rebhorn moved to Anderson, Indiana
as a child. A devout Lutheran
, he attended Wittenberg University
in Springfield
, Ohio
, where he studied political science
. Richard S. Huffman was one of his instructors and directed him in a lead role in Aristophanes
' Lysistrata
. While there, he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha
fraternity
. After graduating in 1970, Rebhorn moved to New York City
, where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts in acting from Columbia University
's School of the Arts and joined the metropolitan theater scene. He currently resides in South Orange, New Jersey
.
stereotypes, lawyers, politicians, doctors, and military men, and often plays the bad guy. He has delivered equally notable performances in a variety of other roles, including that of a brutal serial killer on NBC
's Law & Order (he would later return to the show as defense attorney Charles Garnett), Ellard Muscatine in Lorenzo's Oil
(1992), Fred Waters in Blank Check
(1994), Lt. Tyler in White Squall
(1996), and a shipping magnate in The Talented Mr. Ripley
(1999). One of his best known performances came in the popular 1996 film Independence Day
, where he played Secretary of Defense Albert Nimzicki. He acted against Al Pacino
in Scent of a Woman
(1992), and also played an expert witness in My Cousin Vinny
(1992) with Marisa Tomei
; thus, he acted in scenes with the 1993 Oscar
winners for both best actor and best supporting actress. He appeared again with Al Pacino in Carlito's Way
(1993) the following year.
On television, he played several daytime roles, including an abusive stepfather, Bradley Raines, on the soap opera
Guiding Light
from 1983 to 1985, and an abusive father, Henry Lange, on sister soap As The World Turns
from 1988-91. An earlier daytime role was as John Brady in Texas
from 1981 to 1982. In 1994 he played the role of supervillain John McFlemp in the episode "Farewell, My Little Viking" of the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete
.
In 1998, he played the District Attorney
in the series finale of Seinfeld
. He also appeared in a supporting roles in The Game
and Meet the Parents
. In 2004, he appeared in the TV mini series Reversible Errors
. His role in the short-lived and controversial NBC
drama The Book of Daniel cast him as the father of the title character. He also appeared as a judge in Baby Mama
. In the 2009 movie The Box, Rebhorn portrayed a NASA scientist. He currently has a recurring role on the USA series White Collar
as Special Agent Reese Hughes and recently co-starred in the Comedy Central
sitcom Big Lake
. He played Max Kenton's uncle in the 2011 movie Real Steel
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
character actor who has appeared in over 100 television shows, feature films and plays.
Personal life
Born in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, Rebhorn moved to Anderson, Indiana
Anderson, Indiana
Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Anderson, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses Madison county. Anderson is the headquarters of the Church of God and home of Anderson University, which is...
as a child. A devout Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
, he attended Wittenberg University
Wittenberg University
Wittenberg University is a private four-year liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio serving 2,000 full-time students representing 37 states and approximately 30 foreign countries...
in Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River, Buck Creek and Beaver Creek, approximately west of Columbus and northeast of Dayton. Springfield is home to Wittenberg...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, where he studied political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
. Richard S. Huffman was one of his instructors and directed him in a lead role in Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
' Lysistrata
Lysistrata
Lysistrata is one of eleven surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War...
. While there, he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest men's secret general fraternities in North America, having initiated more than 280,000 members and held chapters at more than 300 universities. It is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference and was founded by Warren A. Cole, while he was a...
fraternity
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
. After graduating in 1970, Rebhorn moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts in acting from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's School of the Arts and joined the metropolitan theater scene. He currently resides in South Orange, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
Career
Rebhorn is known for portraying WASPyWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
stereotypes, lawyers, politicians, doctors, and military men, and often plays the bad guy. He has delivered equally notable performances in a variety of other roles, including that of a brutal serial killer on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Law & Order (he would later return to the show as defense attorney Charles Garnett), Ellard Muscatine in Lorenzo's Oil
Lorenzo's Oil
Lorenzo's Oil is a 1992 drama film directed by George Miller. It is based on a true story of Augusto and Michaela Odone, two parents in a relentless search for a cure for their son Lorenzo's adrenoleukodystrophy...
(1992), Fred Waters in Blank Check
Blank Check (film)
Blank Check is a 1994 film directed by Rupert Wainwright, starring Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, Miguel Ferrer, Tone Lōc, Michael Lerner and James Rebhorn and released by Walt Disney Pictures.-Plot:...
(1994), Lt. Tyler in White Squall
White Squall (film)
White Squall is a 1996 American drama feature film, directed by Ridley Scott.-Plot:The film is based on the fate of the brigantine Albatross, which sank on 2 May 1961, allegedly because of a white squall. The film relates the ill-fated school sailing trip led by Dr. Christopher B. Sheldon , whom...
(1996), and a shipping magnate in The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 American psychological thriller written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella. It is an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith 1955 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed as Plein Soleil .The film stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth...
(1999). One of his best known performances came in the popular 1996 film Independence Day
Independence Day (film)
Independence Day is a 1996 science fiction film about an alien invasion of Earth, focusing on a disparate group of individuals and families as they converge in the Nevada desert and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4 – the same...
, where he played Secretary of Defense Albert Nimzicki. He acted against Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
in Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman
This article is about the American film. For the Korean drama, see Scent of a Woman .Scent of a Woman is a 1992 drama film directed by Martin Brest that tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible, blind, medically retired Army officer...
(1992), and also played an expert witness in My Cousin Vinny
My Cousin Vinny
My Cousin Vinny is a 1992 American comedy film written and produced by Dale Launer, directed by Jonathan Lynn and starring Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Marisa Tomei, Mitchell Whitfield, Lane Smith, Bruce McGill and Fred Gwynne...
(1992) with Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
; thus, he acted in scenes with the 1993 Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
winners for both best actor and best supporting actress. He appeared again with Al Pacino in Carlito's Way
Carlito's Way
Carlito's Way is a 1993 crime film directed by Brian De Palma, based on the novels Carlito's Way and After Hours by Judge Edwin Torres. The film adaptation was scripted by David Koepp. It stars Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, Luis Guzman, John Leguizamo, Jorge Porcel, Joseph Siravo, and...
(1993) the following year.
On television, he played several daytime roles, including an abusive stepfather, Bradley Raines, on the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
from 1983 to 1985, and an abusive father, Henry Lange, on sister soap As The World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
from 1988-91. An earlier daytime role was as John Brady in Texas
Texas (TV series)
Texas is an American daytime soap opera which aired on NBC from August 4, 1980 until December 31, 1982. Created by John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington, and Paul Rauch, the show was a spinoff of Another World...
from 1981 to 1982. In 1994 he played the role of supervillain John McFlemp in the episode "Farewell, My Little Viking" of the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete
The Adventures of Pete & Pete
The Adventures of Pete & Pete is an American children's television series produced by Wellsville Pictures and broadcast by Nickelodeon. The show featured humorous and surreal elements in its narrative, and many recurring themes centered on two brothers both named Pete Wrigley, and their various...
.
In 1998, he played the District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
in the series finale of Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
. He also appeared in a supporting roles in The Game
The Game (film)
The Game is a 1997 neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher, starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn, and produced by Polygram. It tells the story of an investment banker who is given a mysterious gift: participation in a game that integrates in strange ways with his life...
and Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents is a 2000 American comedy film written by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg and directed by Jay Roach. Starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, the film chronicles a series of unfortunate events that befall a good-hearted but hapless male nurse while visiting his girlfriend's parents...
. In 2004, he appeared in the TV mini series Reversible Errors
Reversible Errors (film)
Reversible Errors is a 2004 2 episode television miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Scott Turow.It was directed by Mike Robe, who previously directed Scott Turow's The Burden of Proof. Filming was done in and around Halifax, Nova Scotia, and featured shots of Halifax City Hall and...
. His role in the short-lived and controversial NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
drama The Book of Daniel cast him as the father of the title character. He also appeared as a judge in Baby Mama
Baby Mama (film)
Baby Mama is a 2008 comedy film from Universal Pictures written and directed by Michael McCullers and starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear, and Dax Shepard.-Plot:...
. In the 2009 movie The Box, Rebhorn portrayed a NASA scientist. He currently has a recurring role on the USA series White Collar
White Collar (TV series)
White Collar is a USA Network television series created by Jeff Eastin, starring Matt Bomer as con-man Neal Caffrey and Tim DeKay as Special Agent Peter Burke. It premiered on October 23, 2009. In December 2009, White Collar was renewed for a second season that began on July 13, 2010...
as Special Agent Reese Hughes and recently co-starred in the Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
sitcom Big Lake
Big Lake (TV series)
Big Lake is an American comedy television series on the Comedy Central network. It premiered August 17, 2010. The first season ended on September 14, 2010.-Premise:...
. He played Max Kenton's uncle in the 2011 movie Real Steel
Real Steel
Real Steel is a 2011 American science fiction film starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Shawn Levy. The film is based in part on the 1956 short story "Steel" by Richard Matheson, though Levy placed the film in U.S. state fairs and other "old-fashioned" Americana settings. Real Steel was in...
.