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The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Nestor Carbonell

21 Sep

(The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is where we turn the spotlight on a television actor or actress, and it is named after their patron saint, Zeljko Ivanek)

A personal favorite of mine, Nestor Carbonell has been there and back on television, likely to be found somewhere on your set (people don’t call them sets very much anymore I”ve noticed) during each of the past fifteen years.

Carbonell’s first television role was, like many others, in a Law & Order episode, in 1991.  Next, he  appeared in an episode of Melrose Place and two of A Different World in 1992.  He also appeared in single episodes of Reasonable Doubts and Good Advice.  Carbonell got his first shot in a lead role in 1995’s Muscle on the WB.  Muscle was a parody of ‘80s primetime soaps (think Dallas or Dynasty), and was set in a fictional gym in New York.  Carbonell starred as a gigolo named Gianni who used the gym pick up clients.  The show also starred Alan Ruck and Michael Boatman, who later played best friends on SpinCity.  The show lasted thirteen episodes, the only series of its two hour block of new series, including The Wayans Bros., The Parent ‘Hood and Unhappily Ever After, not to get a second season.

Carbonell rebounded quite nicely with a main role on Brooke Shields show Suddenly Susan as photographer Luis Rivera.  Carbonell appeared in all four seasons of the show, running from 1996 to 2000.  During that period, he also appeared in episodes of The John Larroquette Show, Veronica’s Closet and Encore! Encore!.  In 2000, he had a recurring role in Showtime series Resurrection Blvd., about a family of boxers.  He appeared in an HBO movie, The Laramie Project, in 2002 about the Matthew Shepard murder.  He starred as Batmanuel in the ill-fated live action version of The Tick, with Patrick Warburton as the title character.  After its cancellation, he appeared in single episodes of Ally McBeal, The Division, Monk, and Scrubs.

He next co-starred in the brilliant conceptual Century City(expect more on this show in the near future) about a team of lawyers in the year 2030 dealing with all manner of futuristic issues.  Sadly, the series lasted just nine episodes.  He appeared in episodes of House M.D. and Justice League and then as a recurring character in 11 episodes of Lifetime’s Strong Medicine as a well-meaning millionaire with embezzlement issues who marries one of the major characters.  After that he continued the single episode circuit, with appearances in Commander in Chief, Day Break, Andy Barker, PI, Queens Supreme and three Cold Cases.  Over the run of the series, Carbonell voiced character Senor Senior Jr. in 12 episodes of Disney Channel original Kim Possible.  In 2007, he played the firsr born son in the Jimmy Smits led family rum-and-sugar empire drama Cane, which lasted 13 episodes.

In was in 2007 in which he got the role he’s probably most famous for, ageless and mysterious Richard Alpert on Lost.  Slated to appear in seven third season episodes, the early cancellation of Cane opened Carbonell up to rejoin Lost, and he appeared in a couple of season four episodes, nine season five episodes, and was a main cast member for the final sixth season.  Alpert first arrived on the island in the mid-19th century as a slave on a ship, and later he becomes a key other member, and doesn’t age for some reason.  All of this is kind of explained in one of the very last episodes of the series, and as the series wraps, Alpert starts aging and makes it away from the island on the plane with Kate, Sawyer and some others (not Others, just other people).

After Lost, he appeared on two episodes of Psych, one of Wilfred, and now is co-starring as a federal agent out to protect Sarah Michelle Gellar (one of her two characters anyway) in Ringer.

Carbonell also went to Harvard and is cousins with 500 home run hitter and steroid user and denier Rafael Palmeiro.  Oh, and not TV but it bears mentioning he played the mayor in the Dark Knight and will reprise the role in the next Batman film.

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The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Mark Sheppard

14 Sep

(The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is where we turn the spotlight on a television actor or actress, and it is named after their patron saint, Zeljko Ivanek)

Mark Sheppard has quickly and sometimes quietly carved out a career as a regular television antagonist, slowly appearing in more recurring roles as the years go on.  Sheppard’s first roles came in a couple of episodes of Silk Stalkings, an early ‘90s crime drama, in 1992 and 1993.  He then appeared in first season episode “Fire” of the X-Files as Cecil L’ively, a man with pyrokinetic abilities.  The episode is regarded as so-so, but his performance is generally praised.  He then showed up in an episode of M.A.N.T.I.S. in 1995.  His next television appearances didn’t come until he appeared in TV movie Soldier of Fortune, Inc., and then in the ensuing television series of the same name in which he reprised the same role, both in 1997.  He played Staff Segeant Christopher “C.J.” Yates, whose expertise were in demolitions and electronic surveillance.

In the last couple of years of the decade, he made single appearances in Sliders, Martial Law, and The Practice, and then in 2000, he showed up in a Star Trek: Voyager and a JAG.  He showed up in Charmed in 2002 and then in two episodes of Firefly as Badger, an unscrupulous black market businessman who commissions the crew for a mission.  He is not well liked, but is just trustworthy enough to do business with.  In 2004 and 2005, he appeared in episodes of Las Vegas, CSI: NY and Monk and then as a recurring villain in the fifth season of 24.  He played Ivan Erwich, a member of the Russian separatist movement at the heart of that season’s plot, attempting to use deadly Sentox gas first against Russians, but then against Americans.  He was eventually killed by the leader of the movement for wasting a canister of the gas and trusting some untrustworthy Americans intelligence men.  At about the same time he played Patricia Arquette’s nemesis, Dr. Charles Walker, a psychotic killer from the 19th century on Medium.

In 2007, he appeared in three episodes of the short-lived Bionic Woman remake, as well as episodes of Shark, In Plain Sight, and NCIS.  During the same period, he was on the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica as canny and self-righteous lawyer Romo Lampkin.  Lampkin critically defends Gaius Baltar and helps Starbuck out during the great mutiny of the fourth season.  He was in a Burn Notice and three episodes of Dollhouse as well as the first episode of White Collar, where he played the antagonist, a forger.  He was in four episodes of Warehouse 13 and two of Chuck as the head, or Director, of The Ring, an evil spy organization which is the key antagonist of season 3.

He currently appears in a recurring role on Leverage as Timothy Hutton’s character, Nathan Ford’s main rival, Jim Sterling, who replaced Ford at the insurance firm where Ford used to work, and used his work with Ford’s team to win a job with INTERPOL.  He also currently appears as recurring character Crowley in Supernatural, a, um, Crossroads demon (I don’t know it is either) who becomes at one point King of Hell.  In addition to these, he had the rare treat of playing the same character as his father in Dr. Who; he played the younger Captain Everett Delawre III, while his father, William Morgan Sheppard, played the older version.

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The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Kari Matchett

7 Sep

(The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is where we turn the spotlight on a television actor or actress, and it is named after their patron saint, Zeljko Ivanek)

A slightly more obscure Hall of Famer,  Kari Matchett has quietly developed a strong television career for herself.  A Canadian, her career started with single episode appearances in 1996 in Canadian series The Rez and Forever Knight.  She then got a chance to appear as a recurring character on Canadian teen drama Ready or Not, which aired in the US on Showtime Movie Channel and later on the Disney Channel.  After appearing in a couple of television movies and an episode of Poltergeist: The Legacy (another Canadian-based show), she got her first chance to appear as a regular in Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, a science fiction show created after Roddenberry’s death, based on his notes, as guided by his widow.

After two seasons, she was back in the throes of Canadian TV, showing up in drama Power Play.  The show, about a sports agent who becomes general manager of the fictitious NHL team Hamilton Steeleheads, starred Matchett as the GM’s boss.  UPN aired a couple of episodes of the show in the US, but it was quickly pulled as the second episode had the impressive distinction of being the lowest rated prime-time series episode ever aired.

Matchett got a couple of film roles in Angel Eyes and Cube 2: Hypercube before getting her next regular gig, in the US finally, showing up in A Nero Wolfe Mystery, starring Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton, on A&E in 2001.  Matchett played Hutton’s sometimes girlfriend Lily Rowan.  She went back to Canada afterwards, portraying a detective on Canadian series Blue Murder, which was about a group of detectives in Toronto, and then had a three episode stint on the one season Wonderfalls.  She got her next starring role in 2005’s Invasion, broadcast on ABC.  Invasion, one of several attempts to capitalize on the popularity for supernatural serial show Lost, showcased Matchett as a doctor, and one of several townspeople inFlorida dealing with an alien invasion of water-based life-forms which took over humans.  After the show was cancelled, Matchett became a recurring character in season 6 of 24, as the personal assistant and girlfriend of Vice President Noah Daniels, portrayed by Powers Boothe.  She was also sleeping with a lobbyist, who turned out to be a secret agent, and was feeding him information.

2007 was a big year for Matchett.  In addition to 24, she showed up in five episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as a lawyer with a romantic interest in Matthew Perry’s character.  She also was in the main cast of Heartland, a TNT series starring Treat Williams, about a hospital and the world of heart surgery (great literal show name).  In the same year, she also began a five episode run on ER.  In 2008, she showed up in single episodes of Criminal Minds, The Cleaner, and Ugly Better, and appeared in a six episodes of the Starz series Crash, based on the movie of the same name.  The next year, she showed up in three episodes of Leverage as main character Timothy Hutton’s ex-wife.  She also showed up in episodes of Flashpoint, The Philanthropist, and Miami Medical.  Currently, she is co-starring in USA’s Covert Affairs.  She plays secret agent Piper Perabo’s boss, Joan Campbell, who happens to be married to the CIA’s Director of the National Clandestine Services, played by Peter Gallagher.  Not bad for a Canadian.

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The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Paula Marshall

31 Aug

(The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is where we turn the spotlight on a television actor or actress, and it is named after their patron saint, Zeljko Ivanek)

The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is equal opportunity, and it’s past time for the appearance of our first female member.

This week we’ll celebrate Paula Marshall.  If you are familiar with her at all, you probably know that her appearance in a pilot all but assures that season one of the show will be its last.  In fact, she was on six new shows that were cancelled within a period of eight years.  We’ll get to all that and more.  Let’s start with the beginning.

Marshall got her first television jobs in 1990 in single eisodes of True Blue and Mancuso, FBI, but got more exposure in three episode runs of both Life Goes On and  The Wonder Years in 1992.  She then appeared in classic Seinfeld episode The Outing, as an NYU student interviewing Jerry who becomes convinced that Jerry and George are in a relationship, leading to the famous line, “Not that there’s anything wrong with it.”  After appearing in a Diagnosis Murder episode, she got her first regular sitcom role in the 1994’s Wild Oats, on Fox, about a group of twenty-somethings in Chicago.  The series also co-starred Paul Rudd, and lasted all of six episodes.  After cameos in two Nash Bridges episodes and a Single Guy, she got her next series, Chicago Sons, about three brothers, portrayed by Jason Bateman, David Krumholtz, and D.W. Moffett. Marshall plays the love interest for the Jason Bateman character.

Marshall next got a recurring role in Spin Cityand then was cast in her third show, Rob Thomas’ critically acclaimed Cupid, alongside Jeremy Piven.  Marshall played a psychologist treating a patient who believes he is truly the mythological entity cupid.  After Cupid’s cancellation,Marshall immediately fell into David E. Kelley’s Snoops, as a member of an unconventional female dominated detective agency led by Gina Gershon.  Ten episodes aired on ABC.  She appeared in three episodes of Sports Night, as a porn star and love interest of Josh Molina.  She soon appeared in her fifth sitcom, Cursed, later renamed The Weber Show, starring Steven Weber as a man “cursed” by an ex-girlfriend, and thus who suffers from constant bad luck.  The series also co-starred Chris Elliott and Wendell Pierce. Marshall showed up in two episodes of Just Shoot Me and one of Miss Match before getting her next show, Hidden Hills, in 2002, an NBC sitcom about three suburban families.  Eighteen episodes aired this time.

Marshall’s next television project consisted of being reunited with Cupid creator Rob Thomas in a four episode stint as a guidance counselor on Veronica Mars who has a brief fling with Veronica’s dad. She came back to regular role-dom for Out of Practice, a sitcom about a family of doctors who fought with one another, starring Henry Winkler, Stockard Channing, and Ty Burrell.  After Out of Practice said goodbye, Marshall appeared in seven episodes of Nip/Tuck as an actress who dates Sean, and showed up in three episodes of James Woods’ Shark.  She appeared in nine episodes of Californication, as a friend of David Duchovny’s wife with whom he has a one-night stand.

Against absolutely all odds, a Paula Marshall series actually got a second season, as Gary Unmarried, in which she starred with Jay Mohr as divorced parents, received a second season, but no more.  That was also her most recent brush with appearing as a regular, but since, she’s appeared as Cuddy’s sister in House.  In addition to all these cancelled series, she also showed up in at least two pilots which were not picked up, Cooking Lessons, and Sticks, by Rob Thomas.

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The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Evan Handler

24 Aug

(The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is where we turn the spotlight on a television actor or actress, and it is named after their patron saint, Zeljko Ivanek)

Today we’re saluting Evan Handler.  Handler was born in 1961 in New York City and was raised in nearby Westchester.  He got his first couple of roles in 1981, in the films The Chosen and Taps.  He had a couple more appearances, including a guest spot in Miami Vice before he got his fist chance to start in a series, Woops! In 1992 on Fox, which failed, cancelled after 10 episodes, and apparently has a reputation as one of the worst shows ever.  Handler stars as one of a six person ensemble who gather together as survivors after world nuclear holocaust (Handler is apparently saved by having been driving a Volvo).  Handler showed up in Natural Born Killers and Ransom, and episodes of New York Undercover and Law & Order before getting his second shot in a series with the two season It’s Like, You Know.  It’s Like, You Know was an attempt at making a Seinfeld inLos Angeles, and was perhaps most notable for featuring Jennifer Grey playing herself as one of the characters.

Handler guest starred in three West Wing episodes as a political strategist, guest starred in three episodes The Guardian, appeared in Friends, and appeared in Six Feet Under as a radical artist who goes out for drinks with Claire and her professor.  He got his next big role in Sex and the City as Harry Goldenblatt,Charlotte’s jewish divorce lawyer, who eventually dates, and marries Charlotte.  He appeared in an episode of Without a Trace and an episode of 24 and got another main role opportunity in 2005’s Hot Properties on ABC.  According to wikipedia, Hot Properties was compared to Sex and the City and Designing Women.  It was about four single, professional women who love Oprah and work in a real estate office (hence the name.) SofiaVergara of Modern Family and Mad TV’s Nicole Sullivan were two of the women.   Handler played a doctor who shared office space with the women.  The show was not renewed after 13 episodes.

Handler appeared in a CSI:Miami episode and then showed up as Dave in an episode of Lost, Hurley’s friend who nobody else can see.  He showed up in four episodes of the ill-fated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as a writer who led the show before Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford showed up to take over.  After having several fights with Perry’s character, who mocks Handler’s style of humor, he leaves the show.  After appearing in both Sex and the City movies, Handler got his current break as Charlie Runkle in Californication, as David Duchovny’s best friend, agent, and comic relief.  Californication is still going strong, having finished four seasons, and been renewed for a fifth.

Handler is also a bit of a thesbian, creating a minor controversy when he walked off stage in the Broadway production of I Hate Hamlet in 1991 after star Nicol Williamson injured him in an on-stage sword fight.  He also appeared in Broadway productions of Brighton Beach Memoirs and Master Harold…and the Boys.  Another talent of Handler’s is writing; he wrote a book about his time fighting and recovering from leukemia during his late 20s called Time on Fire: My Comedy of Terrors.

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The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Greg Grunberg

17 Aug

(The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is where we turn the spotlight on a television actor or actress, and it is named after their patron saint, Zeljko Ivanek)

This week we’ll spotlight the career of successful televsion actor Greg Grunberg.

Unlike (probably?) most actors, Grunberg owes a large part of his television success to one man, a childhood friend, J.J. Abrams, with whom he grew up as fellow jews in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Grunberg, born in 1966, didn’t appear in anything until the early ’90s.  Wikipedia sums up his career up to his first big break in 1998 with the short sentence, “Grunberg has had guest roles in television starting in 1990. “ Amongst those guest roles were spots on Murphy Brown, Ned and Stacey, and a one season drama called Relativity (which starred Richard Schiff and Lisa Edelstein amongst others). Finally, in 1998, he got his big break – his buddy J.J. Abrams cast him as Sean Blumberg in Felicity, Abrams’ first TV series. Unlike many of the other characters in the series, Grunberg’s Blumberg (okay, those names almost rhyme right? That’s not just me?) is not in college, but is rather a jobless 20-something who is always coming out with cockamemie ideas for products, including shrimp yogurt, marzipan boxers and “Before and After” – a restaurant that only serves appetizers and desserts (that’s definitely kind of brilliant). Apparently half the characters at some point are roomates with him.

After that, and three appearances in NYPD Blue, he jumped right into Abrams’ next series, Alias, in which he played Eric Weiss, another good natured friend character who does not get involved with the lead. Descended from Harry Houdini, he is initially friends with Jennifer Garner’s Sydney Bristow through her CIA handler Michael Vaughn, and dispenses advice to other CIA characters in the show. Grunberg next guested on a House MD episode, as well as a more notable guest role as the pilot on Oceanic Airlines flight 815, the flight which crashed in Lost – his character died in the, well, pilot. He starred in a series produced by JJ Abrams for him called The Catch, about a bounty hunter, but while the pilot was shot, the series ended up never getting picked up, sadly. He also appeared in an NBC sitcom called The Jake Effect, alongside Jason Bateman and Nikki Cox, which never aired, even though seven episodes were made. Bravo thought highly enough of it, though, to air it in 2006 as part of its “Brilliant But Cancelled” programming.

He appeared in a Monk episode, and then got the third of his three big-time roles, the first not under the auspices of JJ Abrams, in Heroes, as Matt Parkman. Parkman is a telepath, whose powers continue to expand and expand, until they extend to mind control and making others see illusions which aren’t present. He starts as an LAPD cop, and, well, if I even try to explain any of the plot after that, it would take me at least another thousand words (wikipedia does a pretty good job here). After the sad but inevitable demise of Heroes both critically and commercially, Grunberg found a home on NBC midseason replacement Love Bites, which by that time became an anthology series about love stories, but with Grunberg or a couple of other characters always appearing. The show was cancelled after six episodes aired. As that show was cancelled less than a month ago, Grunberg is a free agent at the moment, but he has other talents as well, as a member and creator of Band from TV, a cover band of television actors which records songs for charity. Other members include Hugh Laurie and Adrian Pasdar.

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The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Peter Jacobson

10 Aug

I’d like to use this edition of the Zejlko Ivanek Hall of Fame to salute nebbishy Jewish character actor Peter Jacobson.

Born in 1965, Peter Jacobson didn’t really get a chance to play a role of consequence until getting regular cast credit in the unbelievably short-lived (no wikipedia entry) Talk To Me, a comedy about a radio station which had only three episodes before cancellation, but featured the relatively high profile talent of Beverly D’Angelo, Kyra Sedgwick and Nicole Sullivan.  After that, he worked for five episodes on the short-lived TNT series Bull, appeared in HBO’s 61* about the home run race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris and guest startrd in an episode of Ed before getting his second shot as a series regular, in the Scott Foley legal-sitcom A.U.S.A., which aired on NBC and also failed quickly.  Late in Law & Order’s run (though like any good theater actor he had appeared much earlier in the series as a different character) he guest starred in a couple of episodes as eccentric but brilliant defense attorney Randy Dworkin.

His path to relative stardom was still a long ways away.  He appeared in episodes of Scrubs, CSI:Miami, and Method and Red, along with two episodes of Hope & Faith (A two-parter.)  He showed up in five episodes of In Justice, an ABC mid-season replacement starring Kyle McLaughlin, Constance Zimmer and Marisol Nichols about a team who try to free innocent people who have been put into prison and he was a major character in trippy three part SciFi miniseries The Lost Room about a room filled with objects that have weird powers.  The miniseries starred Peter Krause, Julianna Marguiles, and Elle Fanning and Jacobson portrayed Wally Jabrowski, a drifter who is familiar with the objects in the mysterious room.

Jacobson got a chance to appear in relatively successful Debra Messing miniseries The Starter Wife, where Messing plays a woman who is divorced, after several years of marriage to aHollywoodbigwig, who leaves her for a younger woman.  Jacobson plays her ex-husband, who was eventually dumped by the younger woman he left Messing for.  The miniseries was picked up as a regular series, and Jacobson’s part was re-cast.  This was of course, Jacobson had finally found a home.  Not just a home, but rather a House, as Jacobson portrayed one of the candidates for House’s new team at the beginning of the fourth season, Chris Taub.  A plastic surgeon by trade, Taub is #39 during the period when House is choosing his new team.  He eventually makes it through, chosen by Cuddy, buoyed by his willingness to challenge House.  He cheats on his wife, eventually divorces her, and is now living with Foreman.  Jacobson, though a major character since season 4 had to wait until season 7 to finally get the main cast character he so richly deserved, and will enjoy it for what will probably be the last season of House coming up.

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The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame

3 Aug

Mr. Zeljko Ivanek himself

This feature is dedicated to honoring the great TV actors. Some of them will be “that guys” , actors you see in an episode of Law & Order or your favorite show, and you can’t put a finger on what his or her name is, but you know you’ve seen them all over the place.  Some of them may be a bit bigger, because, after all, I want to offer equal opportunity.   Whoever I choose, though, their patron saint will be the great television actor Zeljko Ivanek, after whom this feature is named.

It would be a stretch to say that Zeljko Ivanek, a 53-year old actor from Slovenia, appeared in all of the most culturally relevant television dramas of the past ten years, but not much of one.  He got his television career underway in the 1980s, appearing in single episodes of St. Elsewhere and L.A. Law, but his TV career really took off with his recurring role as prosecuting attorney Ed Danvers in Homicide: Life on the Street in the mid-’90s.  During his time on Homicide, he guested in a season one episode of X-Files as Roland (the title of the episode as well), a seemingly mentally disabled janitor accused of killing scientists who work at the lab he cleans.  While the episode is not necessarily regarded as a classic, his performance is unsurprisingly well regarded.  He played some roles in films, and while, for an actor with less work I would spend some time discussing these films, if I didn’t edit Zeljko’s career I could go on forever.  He appeared in single episodes of Frasier, Murder She Wrote, Chicago Hope and Millennium in the second half of the ’90s.  He next worked with Homicide creator Tom Fontana on Oz, as the evil (well, Republican, so close enough) governor who appears in several episodes of the show over the years, wanting to dispense tough justice, death penalties, and possibly consider Warden Ernie Hudson for Lieutenant Governor (the warden of a jail as second in command of a state?  Yeah, I didn’t think it seemed plausible either).  During his time on Oz, he played astronaut Ken Mattingly (portrayed by Gary Sinise in Apollo 13) in the Tom Hanks and Ron Howard produced HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

He was just getting warmed up.  He appared in Law & Order as his Homicide character, and also appeared in two other episodes 11 years apart (one in a Jim McGreevey take off as a contractor who had a gay affair with the governor of Connecticut) and a Law & Order SVU, as well as an ER, and an episode of the short-lived Dennis Leary show The Job.  He was still just getting warmed up.  He appeared in a recurring role in the first season of 24 as Andre Drazen,  the smarter of two brothers who are both sons of main season 1 villain Dennis Hopper, who Drazen and his brother manage to spring from a top security prison.  He appeared in two season 5 West Wing episodes as a staffer for temporary president Speaker of the House John Goodman.  After a CSI, an NYPD Blue (late in the series’ run) and a couple episodes of the two season James Woods show Shark, he appeared in Lost, as Juliet’s jerk of a boss who mysteriously gets run over by a bus.  He played founding father John Dickinson in HBO’s John Adams miniseries and a gun-wielding sick man who takes the ward hostage in a 2008 House episode.

Now, the offers started pouring in.  In Big Love, he plays a domineering ex-husband of Chloe Sevigny’s Nicki. In Heroes, he portrayed an evil hunter of, well, heroes for about half a season before dying.    In True Blood, he played a kind of evil Magister, a judge  amongst vampires, before dying.  In Damages, he won an Emmy for playing a bad, but not really evil, lawyer for Ted Danson’s character, before dying, by shooting himself in the head in front of Glenn Close.  He most recently starred in The Event as a surprisingly, to everyone, non-evil, presidential adviser.

This is in addition to enough work on Broadway to receive three Tony nominations (even though I haven’t been to a Broadway show in several years, I had the pleasure of seeing him in a revival of The Caine Mutiny Court Trial, for which he was nominated for a lead performance).

Sadly, with The Event’s cancellation, he is temporarily without a home.  But, not for long, I have confidence – for wherever, there is television, there will be Zejlko Ivanek.

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