Judd Hirsch

The Physicist Who Ended Up in a Taxi

Judd Hirsch earned a physics degree at the City College of New York before ever stepping onto a stage. He wasn't chasing the spotlight out of vanity but out of a kind of technical curiosity about human behavior. He worked as an engineer and in the military before acting crossed his path in the mid-60s.

It was a purely practical decision.

He started out in theater with supporting roles and plays that barely lasted a few weeks on stage. But his imposing presence and that deep, gravelly voice gave him a natural authority that casting directors quickly noticed. In 1978 he received the script for Taxi, and his life changed completely.

The character of Alex Reiger was the rational center of a crew of misfits in a New York garage. Hirsch won two Emmy Awards for this role and became the everyday man everyone would want close by in living rooms around the world. Over the show's five seasons, he earned the highest salary in the cast because he was the only one capable of holding together the chaos of his co-stars.

The Therapist Who Didn't Wear a Beard

While he was filming the series Robert Redford, he was called for Ordinary People in 1980. He played Dr. Berger, a psychiatrist who broke away from the clichés of the era. There were no fake beards or endless silences. Just a man trying to save a broken teenager.

That role earned him his first Oscar nomination. But Hirsch preferred to keep working on Broadway whenever he could. He won his first Tony in 1986 for I'm Not Rappaport and won again in 1992 with Conversations with My Father. The stage was his refuge from the fleeting fame of television.

Broadway never let him down.

In the 90s he specialized in playing the father or mentor every movie needed. In 1996 he took part in Independence Day, bringing a human touch to a blockbuster full of aliens and explosions. He earned a substantial salary, but his interest still lay in characters with rough edges.

The Eight-Minute Record

Decades of steady work followed in series like Numb3rs and brief appearances in art-house films. It seemed his awards time had passed. Then came the call from Steven Spielberg to shoot The Fabelmans in 2022.

He needed only eight minutes on screen for the industry to take notice of him again. His performance as Uncle Boris is a whirlwind that explains the meaning of art in a single scene. For this role he received an Oscar nomination in 2023, breaking a record for the longest wait between nominations.

And the gamble paid off.

42 years passed between his first and second nominations. Filming his scenes in the Spielberg movie was completed in just three effective days on set.