Harris Yulin
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Harris Yulin (November 5, 1937, Los Angeles, California, June 10, 2025, New York, New York) was an American actor whose career spanned more than five decades and encompassed well over a hundred film and television roles. Born Harris Bart Goldberg, he was adopted as an infant and later took the stage surname Yulin from his adoptive family's Russian Jewish heritage. He studied acting with Jeff Corey and made his off-Broadway debut in 1963.
Yulin built a reputation as a reliable character actor with a commanding screen presence. His prominent film work includes the corrupt cop Mel Bernstein in Brian De Palma's Scarface (1983), and later appearances in Clear and Present Danger (1994), Training Day (2001), and Rush Hour 2 (2001). On television he earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 1996 for his portrayal of crime boss Jerome Belasco in Frasier, played the Cardassian Aamin Marritza in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Duet," and appeared as Quentin Travers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Director of the National Security Agency Roger Stanton during the second season of 24.
In Ghostbusters II (1989) he played Judge Stephen "The Hammer" Wexler, a loud and imperious magistrate presiding over the Ghostbusters' criminal trial. Alongside his screen career, Yulin was an accomplished stage director and educator, teaching at Juilliard for eight years and at Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts; he received the Lucille Lortel Award for directing The Trip to Bountiful at Signature Theatre in New York.
