Early life
Yulin was born Harris Bart Goldberg in Los Angeles, California. Abandoned at an orphanage as an infant, he was adopted at four months of age by dentist Isaac Goldberg and his wife Sylvia.1 He later adopted the stage surname Yulin from his adoptive father's Russian Jewish heritage.1
He attended the University of Southern California but did not graduate.1 He subsequently served briefly in the U.S. Army, then spent time attempting to pursue painting in Florence, Italy. A move to Tel Aviv followed, where friends encouraged him to try acting seriously. Upon returning to the United States, he studied under respected acting coach Jeff Corey, whose other students over the years included Jack Nicholson, James Coburn, and Barbra Streisand.1
Career
Theater
Yulin made his New York stage debut in 1963 in Next Time I'll Sing to You by James Saunders,1 and continued to work in theater throughout his career alongside his screen work. His Broadway debut came in 1980 in a revival of Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine,1 and he returned to Broadway multiple times in productions including The Visit (featuring Jane Alexander), The Diary of Anne Frank, The Price, and Hedda Gabler (featuring Kate Burton and Michael Emerson).1 He played Hamlet three times off-Broadway over his career.2
In 2010 he played the lead role of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.1
Beyond acting, Yulin earned acclaim as a stage director. His production of The Trip to Bountiful at Signature Theatre in New York, with Lois Smith in the lead role, won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival.1 He also collaborated extensively with actress Mercedes Ruehl in chamber pieces.
He taught acting at the Juilliard School for eight years, at Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts, and at HB Studio.2
Film
Yulin's first prominent film role came in End of the Road (1970), and he built a steady career as a character actor through the 1970s.1 His film work in that decade included the Arthur Penn thriller Night Moves (1975), opposite Gene Hackman.1 His breakout role arrived in Brian De Palma's Scarface (1983), in which he played the corrupt Miami police detective Mel Bernstein.1 That performance established Yulin as a reliable on-screen presence for morally ambiguous figures in authority.
Subsequent notable film appearances include Harrison Ford's Clear and Present Danger (1994), the comedy Multiplicity (1996) with Michael Keaton, Norman Jewison's The Hurricane (1999), Antoine Fuqua's Academy Award-winning Training Day (2001), Rush Hour 2 (2001), and Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines (2012).3
Television
Yulin built a substantial television career across several decades. Early TV work included appearances in Kojak, Little House on the Prairie (1975), Cagney and Lacey, and the miniseries How the West Was Won (1978-1979).1
In the 1990s he took on memorable recurring and guest roles on prestige series. His portrayal of the Cardassian war criminal Aamin Marritza in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Duet" is frequently cited by fans of that series as one of its finest single-episode performances.1 He earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 1996 for his portrayal of crime boss Jerome Belasco in Frasier.1
His work in the 2000s included a recurring role as Director of the National Security Agency Roger Stanton during the second season of 24,1 and the recurring role of Quentin Travers, head of the Watchers' Council, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.1 He also appeared in The X-Files, Entourage, and the AMC drama series Rubicon (2010). Later career television credits include Veep, Nikita, Pan Am, Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013 HBO film), and the Netflix drama Ozark.3
Ghostbusters II
In Ghostbusters II (1989) Yulin played Judge Stephen "The Hammer" Wexler, a loud and imperious magistrate presiding over the Ghostbusters' criminal trial for their unauthorized excavation under First Avenue.4 Wexler opened the proceedings by declaring that the law does not recognize the existence of ghosts and that he did not believe in them either. He took an immediate disliking to the Ghostbusters' attorney Louis Tully and later to Peter Venkman.
After finding the Ghostbusters guilty on all charges, Wexler ordered each to pay a fine of $25,000 and sentenced them to eighteen months at the city correctional facility at Rikers Island.4 His furious tirade during sentencing caused a sample of Psychomagnotheric Slime in the courtroom to react violently, and the negative emotional energy released the ghosts of Nunzio and Tony Scoleri Brothers, murderers Wexler himself had sentenced to death by electrocution. Trapped with the Ghostbusters, Wexler ultimately rescinded the judicial restraining order against them so they could capture the Scoleri Brothers.4
The character returns in the animated storyline Real Ghostbusters Starring in Ghostbusters II and is referenced in IDW Publishing's Ghostbusters Annual 2017.
Personal life
Yulin dated actress Faye Dunaway from 1971 to 1972.1 He later married actress Gwen Welles in 1975; she died of cancer in 1993.1 His daughter, actress Claire Lucido, predeceased him, dying on January 31, 2021.1 In 2005 Yulin married actress Kristen Lowman, with whom he lived in Bridgehampton, New York.1 He is survived by Lowman, his son-in-law Ted Mineo, his nephew Martin Crane, and his godchildren Marco and Lara Greenberg.2
Death
Harris Yulin died on June 10, 2025, in New York City of cardiac arrest. He was 87 years old.25 Director Michael Hoffman, who worked with him on stage, described his craft: "His marriage of immense technique with an always fresh sense of discovery gave his work an immediacy and vitality and purity I've experienced nowhere else."2
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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"Harris Yulin," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_Yulin
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Wiseman, Andreas (June 11, 2025). "Harris Yulin Dies: Star Of Broadway, TV & Film Was 87," Deadline, https://deadline.com/2025/06/harris-yulin-dead-1236431177/
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"Harris Yulin," IMDb, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0950867/
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Ghostbusters II (1989), directed by Ivan Reitman. Columbia Pictures. Judge Wexler trial sequence.
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CNN, "Harris Yulin, prolific stage and screen actor of 'Ghostbusters II' fame, dead at 87" (June 11, 2025), https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/11/entertainment/harris-yulin-death
