Harris Yulin

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 for their unauthorized excavation under First Avenue. 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. 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, 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 Trapped with the Ghostbusters, Wexler ultimately rescinded the judicial restraining order against them so they could capture the Scoleri Brothers. The character returns in the animated storyline Real Ghostbusters Starring in Ghostbusters II and is referenced in IDW Publishing's Ghostbusters Annual 2017.

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.