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Ron Leibman, best known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Roy Cohn in Broadway’s Angels in America, has died. He was 82. A spokeswoman for Leibman’s wife, Emmy-winning actress Jessica Walter, confirmed to The New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia.
Born in New York in 1937, Leibman graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University. He joined the improvisational group the Compass Players in the late 1950s and from there would go on to have a successful career spanning six decades.
After earning Drama Desk Awards for his performances in We Bombed in New Haven (1969) and Transfers (1970), Leibman won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in the 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning two-part play Angels in America, one of four Tonys earned by Part 1.
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Leibman’s impressive career wasn’t limited to the stage though. After his film debut in Where’s Poppa?, he appeared in films like Slaughterhouse-Five, Norma Rae, and, more recently, 2004’s Garden State. He took home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series for his performance in the short-lived ’70s television series Kaz, which he also created and co-wrote, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance Christmas Dove.
TV fans will also recognize Leibman from his recurring roles on NBC’s long-running drama Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit, HBO’s critically acclaimed The Sopranos, and NBC’s popular sitcom Friends, in which he portrayed Dr. Leonard Green, the no-nonsense father of Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Green.
Survivors include Walter, whom he married in 1983. From 1969 to 1980 Leibman was married to actress Linda Lavin.
Ron Leibman and Jessica Walter