Alan Rachins, the beloved television star of hit series such as LA Law and Dharma & Greg, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 82.
He succumbed to heart failure in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center early Saturday, his widow Joanna Frank said. The Hollywood Reporter.
Rachins became a household name in the 1980s and 1990s LA Law, in which he played the rich, tough-as-nails, womanizing lawyer Douglas Brackman.
In a move that showed his range, he also played a pot-smoking hippie with a penchant for conspiracy shows on the comedy Dharma & Greg from 1997 to 2002.
He also enjoyed a varied theatrical career, including a run in the original Off-Broadway production of the groundbreaking revue Oh! Calcutta.
Alan Rachins, the beloved television star of hit series such as LA Law and Dharma & Greg, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 82; in the photo by LA Law
Rachins was born in 1942 to a Jewish family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up under the control of what he described as a “domineering father.”
Art and entertainment became an outlet for the young Rachins, who was particularly inspired by the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause.
“I couldn’t express myself to him and I guess I saw this as a means to express myself,” Rachins once said. New Jersey stage.
‘And when I saw Rebel Without a Cause, which was a movie I saw with my father when I was eleven, James Dean, at one point in that movie, yelled at his father. And everything turned out well for me. In some ways, this was a way to fully express everything that’s inside of you that’s been repressed.”
Although he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton business school, he eventually dropped out and pursued a career in acting.
His early years of work revolved around the New York stage, including Oh! Calcutta, the scandalous magazine created by English writer Kenneth Tynan, a free speech advocate who was one of the first people to say ‘fuck’ on UK television.
Rachins appeared in the original 1969 off-Broadway production, whose sexual frankness and frequent nudity made her a touchstone of the counterculture.
He took a years-long hiatus from acting to focus on writing and selling scripts for such memorable ’80s shows as Knight Rider and Hill Street Blues.
However, in 1985, Rachins made a strong return to acting with the independent romantic comedy Always, which also starred his wife Joanna Frank.
A year later, he landed the role that made him a household name: the ruthless and sexually insatiable lawyer Douglas Brackman on LA Law, which was co-created by his brother-in-law Stephen Bochco.
The legal drama was a huge hit, with a cast that included names like Harry Hamlin, Jill Elkenberry and Joanna Frank in a recurring role as Brackman’s betrayed wife.
Rachins won the hearts of fans for his charismatic portrayal of Brackman, who often injected humor into plots with slapstick jokes.