Actor / Director Profile

The multi-faceted actor/singer/composer/director John Rubinstein was born in Los Angeles in 1946, the same year his father, the internationally renown Polish concert pianist Artur Rubinstein, became an American citizen. Slim and sensitive-looking, he attended UCLA, during which he also made his 1965 professional stage debut in "Camelot" with Howard Keel, and his first film, Journey to Shiloh (1968). After several years of television and film appearances, he made his 1972 Broadway debut as the baby-faced, curly-haired title role in the popular musical "Pippin", directed by Bob Fosse, for which he received a Theater World Award. As a composer, he wrote the film scores of Robert Redford's The Candidate (1972) and Jeremiah Johnson (1972), and appeared in the movies Getting Straight (1970), Zachariah (1971) (title role), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Daniel (1983) and 21 Grams (2003). In 1980, he returned to Broadway, starring in "Children of a Lesser God", which won him the Tony, Drama Desk and L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards. Other Big Apple appearances would include "Fools", "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" (Drama Desk nomination), "Hurlyburly" and "M. Butterfly", and he originated the male counterpart in the popular two-person play "Love Letters" in 1989. As he matured, John grew into stronger corporate roles, some deceptively cunning and decisively slick, notably on TV, wherein he essayed the role of MGM mogul Irving Thalberg in the mini-movie The Silent Lovers (1980) (TV). He won an Emmy Award nomination for his recurring ex-husband role on the popular drama series "Family" (1976), for which he was also responsible for the music, and a CableAce Award nomination for his work in Arthur Miller's "The American Clock". In 1984, he starred opposite Jack Warden in the comedy series "Crazy Like a Fox" (1984). At the same time, John continued to compose, orchestrate and conduct the scores to over 50 TV shows and mini-series, including "China Beach" (1988), Amber Waves (1980) (TV) and The Dollmaker (1984) (TV). A prolific stage and TV director as well, he co-directed the L.A. revival of Elmer Rice's "Counsellor-At-Law", in which he also played the title role, as well as a number of established musicals including "Into the Woods" and "A Little Night Music". He has directed TV episodes of "Nash Bridges" (1996) and "High Tide" (1994), as well as the Emmy-winning "A Matter of Conscience" (1989), among others and, in recent years, has appeared in fine stage form in "Ragtime", "Enigmatic Variations", and "Wicked". Married twice, John has five children, including the actor Michael Weston.