Who is Harris Yulin? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Age: 86 Years, 86 Year Old Males

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Kristen Lowman (m. 2005), Gwen Welles (m. 1975–1993)

Born Country: United States

Jewish Actors Actors

Height: 6'0" (183 cm), 6'0" Males

U.S. State: California

City: Los Angeles

Recommended For You

Recommended Lists:

Tall Male Celebrities

Career

After spending a considerable amount of time travelling through Europe and Israel, Harris Yulin started acting and directing while he was residing in Tel Aviv in the 1960s. He delivered his first New York performance in 1963 in James Saunders’ ‘Next Time I'll Sing’. His first Broadway role was Teck de Brancovis in John Golden Theatre’s ‘Watch on the Rhine’ in 1980. Despite having a thriving screen career, he continues to be involved in theatrical projects even today. Since his debut, he has performed in several Broadway productions, including ‘The Visit’, ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’, ‘The Price’, and ‘Hedda Gabler’. In 2010, he travelled to Dublin, Ireland to portray the protagonist William Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of A Salesman’ at the Gate Theatre.

In 1970, Harris Yulin made his film debut in Aram Avakian’s ‘End of the Road’, a comedy-drama film based on the 1958 novel of the same name by John Barth. That year, he also appeared in the independent drama movie ‘Maidstone’ and the telefilm ‘Neither Are We Enemies’. He starred as Wyatt Earp opposite Stacy Keach's Doc Holliday and Faye Dunaway’s Kate Elder in the 1971 western film ‘Doc’. In 1978, he was cast as Deek Peasley for six episodes in the second season of ABC’s western-drama series ‘How the West Was Won’.

In 1983, he worked with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer in Brian De Palma’s crime-drama ‘Scarface’. Yulin and Pacino collaborated again in the latter’s 1996 documentary, ‘Looking for Richard’. In 1989, he portrayed Judge Stephen Wexler in producer/director Ivan Reitman’s fantasy-comedy ‘Ghostbusters II’. Yulin shared screen space with Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, and Anne Archer in the 1994 action-drama ‘Clear and Present Danger’, playing the role of a corrupt national security adviser. In 1997, he was part of comedy film ‘Bean’, the first cinematic adaptation of Rowan Atkinson’s renowned comedic creation, Mr Bean. Yulin was cast as a Secret Service Agent in the second instalment (2001) of the ‘Rush Hour’ film series. In the same year, he acted in the Oscar-winning crime-drama ‘Training Day’.

Besides earning a Primetime Emmy nomination for his performance in comedy series ‘Frasier’, he was nominated for a CableACE Award for Guest Actor in a Dramatic Special or Series in 1997 for the CTV and USA Network series ‘La Femme Nikita’. Between 1999 and 2002, he played the recurring role of Quentin Travers in three episodes of The WB’s supernatural action-drama series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. In the second season (2002-03) of the Fox series ‘24’, he was cast as the Director of the National Security Agency, Roger Stanton. He portrayed the terminally-ill tenant of the Byrde’s in the first and second season of the Netflix series ‘Ozark’ (2017-18). In 2019, he joined the cast of the HBO comedy-drama series ‘Divorce’. He is set to star in the upcoming short film ‘Double Trouble’(Completed) .

Harris Yulin is one of few character actors who has managed to not get typecast, despite the incredible longevity of his career. Film critic Jim Emerson once humorously declared that the veteran actor “should be in every movie ever made.”

Recommended Lists:

Scorpio Actors

American Actors

Actors Who Are In Their 80s

American Film & Theater Personalities

Continue Reading Below

Family & Personal Life

Harris Yulin was born on November 5, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in a Jewish household. Late actresses Linda Stirling and Sloan Nibley were his cousins. His father, a dentist working in Los Angeles, had developed professional relationships with various people in Hollywood, who helped Yulin in acquiring a drama coach.

After leaving college, he lived in Italy for a period, pursuing a career as an artist as his friends were at the time. However, he has since admitted that he was “very bad.” From 1970 to 1972, he dated his ‘Doc’ co-star Faye Dunaway. In 1975, he exchanged wedding vows with actress Gwen Welles from 1975–1993. They were married until her death on October 13, 1993, due to cancer.

On September 11, 2005, Yulin tied the knot with actress Kristen Lowman.

Recommended Lists:

Scorpio Men

Harris Yulin Biography