Alan Rachins, the beloved TV star of hit series such as LA Law and Dharma & Greg, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 82.
He succumbed to heart failure early Saturday morning while sleeping at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, his widow Joanna Frank said. The Hollywood Reporter.
Rachins became a household name in LA Law in the 1980s and 1990s, playing the wealthy, tough-as-nails, philandering lawyer Douglas Brackman.
In a switch that showed off his range, he also played a marijuana-smoking hippie with a penchant for conspiracy theories on the sitcom Dharma & Greg from 1997 to 2002.
He also enjoyed a varied stage career, including a role in the original off-Broadway production of the groundbreaking revue Oh! Calcutta.
Alan Rachins, the beloved TV star of hit series such as LA Law and Dharma & Greg, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 82; pictured on LA Law
Born in 1942 to a Jewish family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Rachins grew up under the thumb of what he described as a “dominant father.”
Arts and entertainment became an outlet for the young Rachins, who was particularly inspired by the 1955 film Rebel Without A Cause.
“I couldn’t express myself in his presence and I think I saw this as a way to express myself,” Rachins once said. New Jersey Phase.
“And when I saw Rebel Without A Cause, a movie I saw with my dad when I was 11, James Dean yelled at his dad at one point in that movie. And for me it all came together. Somehow this was a way to fully express everything that is inside you that has been bottled up.”
Although he enrolled in the prestigious Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania, he eventually dropped out and pursued an acting career.
His early working years revolved around the New York stage – including Oh! Calcutta, the scandalous revue created by English writer Kenneth Tynan, a crusader for freedom of speech who was one of the first to say “f***” on British television.
Rachins had a role in the original 1969 off-Broadway production, whose sexual frankness and frequent nudity made it a touchstone of the counterculture.
He took a year-long hiatus from acting to focus on writing and selling scripts for such memorable 1980s shows as Knight Rider and Hill Street Blues.
He succumbed to heart failure early Saturday morning while sleeping at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his widow, Joanna Frank; they are pictured in 1988
In a switch that showed off his range, he also played a marijuana-smoking hippie with a penchant for conspiracy theories about Dharma & Greg; pictured on the show with Mimi Kennedy
Corbin Bersen, Rachins, Steven Eckholdt, Michael Tucker, Wendie Malick, Larry Drake, Alan Rosenberg, Jill Ekenberry, Richard Dysart, Debi Mazar and Blair Underwood featured in LA Law
However, in 1985, Rachins made a roaring comeback to acting with the independent romantic comedy Always, which also starred his wife Joanna Frank.
A year later, he landed the role that made him a household name: the ruthless and sexually insatiable attorney Douglas Brackman in LA Law, which was co-created by his brother-in-law Stephen Bochco.
The legal drama was a huge success, with a cast that included names like Harry Hamlin, Jill Elkenberry – and Joanna Frank in a recurring role as Brackman’s ex-wife.
Rachins won the hearts of fans for his charismatic performance as Brackman, often injecting humor into the storylines with slapstick jokes.
‘In the pilot episode there was none of the more flamboyant or bizarre side of Douglas; he was going to be the tough office manager, the penny pincher,” Rachins told the newspaper New York Times in 1990. ‘It was quite limited, and I didn’t know where it was going. But it soon took on much more color and flamboyance.’
“Alan does comedy so well, it’s one of his strengths that we write about,” the show’s executive producer David E. Kelley explained.
He was able to further express his comedic skills when he played a grumpy, aging former hippie on the sitcom Dharma & Greg.
The show was an opposites-attracting comedy about a flower child named Dharma (Jenna Elfman) married to strict lawyer Greg (Thomas Gibson).
Rachins starred in the series as Dharma’s father Larry, a left-wing man from the 1960s with a tendency to get caught up in conspiracy theories.
He later reflected, “I like the idea of playing different characters and I wouldn’t want to do the same thing all the time. That’s one of the nice things about Dharma & Greg, it allowed me to do something different.”
Rachins has also guest-starred on a wide variety of TV series including The Golden Girls, Rugrats, Grey’s Anatomy, Rizzoli & Isles, NCIS, American Dad! and Young Sheldon.