Judd Hirsch Biography Quotes 5 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Judd Hirsch was born on March 15, 1935, in the Bronx, New York City, to a Jewish family with roots in Eastern Europe. His father, Joseph Sidney Hirsch, worked as an electrician, and his mother, Sally (Kitzis) Hirsch, kept close ties to the traditions of their immigrant background. Growing up in the boroughs of New York shaped his sensibility for everyday characters and streetwise humor. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and went on to the City College of New York, where he studied physics. After graduating, he worked as an engineer, a practical early career that underscored his methodical approach to problem-solving even after he turned to the arts.

Training and Early Career
While working, Hirsch began taking acting classes in New York and immersed himself in the city's theater scene, performing in summer stock, regional repertory, and Off-Broadway productions. The discipline and patience learned from his scientific training translated to a grounded stage craft. His early television work in the 1970s established him as a character actor of intelligence and empathy, and by the middle of the decade he was headlining the drama Delvecchio, playing a thoughtful Los Angeles detective who studies law on the side. That series suggested the blend that would define his career: dry wit, moral seriousness, and a gift for listening on screen.

Taxi and Television Breakthrough
Hirsch's breakthrough arrived with Taxi (1978, 1983), created and produced by James L. Brooks and collaborators. As Alex Reiger, the philosophical cabbie who served as the show's moral center, he anchored an ensemble that included Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, Marilu Henner, Jeff Conaway, Carol Kane, and the singular Andy Kaufman. Hirsch's understated authority played against the ensemble's wild energy, and his timing gave the sitcom its emotional ballast. He won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for the role and earned multiple additional nominations, confirming him as one of television's most respected leads.

Film Career and Awards
Hirsch moved fluidly into film, bringing his unforced realism to directors who valued nuance. Robert Redford cast him in Ordinary People (1980) as Dr. Berger, the plainspoken psychiatrist who steadies a family in crisis; Hirsch received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, sharing the screen with Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, and Timothy Hutton. He earned further acclaim in Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty (1988), starring opposite Christine Lahti, where he played a fugitive father wrestling with the cost of his ideals. In Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996) and its sequel, he became a pop-culture favorite as Julius Levinson, the wry, loving father to Jeff Goldblum's scientist-hero, trading banter with an ensemble that included Will Smith and Bill Pullman. Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind (2001) used Hirsch's gravitas in the academic world of Russell Crowe's John Nash. Decades later, Steven Spielberg cast him in The Fabelmans (2022) as Uncle Boris, a brief but electrifying presence; the performance earned Hirsch another Academy Award nomination and set a record for the longest interval between acting nominations.

Stage Achievements
Parallel to his screen work, Hirsch sustained a distinguished stage career. He developed a deep artistic partnership with playwright Herb Gardner, winning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for I'm Not Rappaport (1986), opposite Cleavant Derricks in its original Broadway run. He won a second Tony for Gardner's Conversations with My Father (1992), a multi-generational portrait in which Hirsch's craftsmanship captured both ironclad pride and vulnerability; the production featured a notable ensemble that included Tony Shalhoub. These roles showcased his command of language and character detail, and his standing within the Broadway community reflected decades of disciplined work.

Later Television and Continued Work
After Taxi, Hirsch returned to series television with Dear John (1988, 1992), leading a comedy ensemble that included Jere Burns and Jane Carr; his grounded performance again balanced broader comic elements and earned Golden Globe recognition. He later joined the CBS drama Numb3rs (2005, 2010) as Alan Eppes, father to characters played by David Krumholtz and Rob Morrow, bringing warmth and intergenerational texture to a procedural centered on mathematics and law enforcement. Hirsch continued to delight audiences with a self-aware cameo as Leonard's father on The Big Bang Theory, playing against Christine Baranski's imperious Beverly Hofstadter. He also headlined the sitcom Superior Donuts alongside Jermaine Fowler, returning to the working-class milieu that had long suited his sensibility.

Personal Life and Character
Hirsch has spoken sparingly about his private life, keeping the focus on his work and his children. Colleagues have consistently described him as a generous scene partner who values rehearsal, finds humor without forcing it, and resists sentimentality. His Jewish heritage and New York upbringing inform his portrayals of principled, complicated men, whether a cab driver with a code or an aging uncle whose bluntness masks fierce tenderness. He has remained closely associated with New York's theater and television communities, mentoring younger actors and reuniting with past collaborators whenever good material appears.

Legacy
Judd Hirsch's career spans more than six decades across stage, television, and film, marked by a rare combination of reliability and surprise. He became a cornerstone of ensemble storytelling on Taxi, deepened the emotional stakes of prestige films under directors like Robert Redford, Sidney Lumet, Ron Howard, and Steven Spielberg, and earned two Tony Awards for embodying Herb Gardner's difficult, deeply humane characters. His partnerships with performers such as Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, Christine Lahti, and David Krumholtz, and with producers like James L. Brooks, reflect a professional life built on mutual trust and craft. That he returned to the Academy Awards conversation more than forty years after his first nomination speaks to his enduring versatility and to the singular presence he brings to every frame. Through measured understatement and unsentimental empathy, Hirsch has given American audiences a gallery of fathers, mentors, friends, and oddballs who feel utterly, recognizably real.

Our collection contains 5 quotes who is written by Judd, under the main topics: Writing - Art - Career - Self-Improvement.

Other people realated to Judd: Bob Newhart (Comedian), Judith Guest (Novelist), JoBeth Williams (Actress), Martha Plimpton (Actress)