Harris Yulin, the veteran stage and screen actor best known for his roles in Scarface and Ghostbusters II, has died at the age of 87.
His family and manager, Sue Leibman, confirmed to the New York Post that Yulin passed away on Tuesday in New York City from cardiac arrest.
“Yulin was part of the vanguard of a generation who cared passionately about the craft of acting,” the statement said. “This deep, lifelong dedication led to extraordinary, resonant performances that were a gift to audiences, the actors he worked with, and the art of acting itself.”
Born in Los Angeles, California, Harris Yulin grew up in a Jewish household and studied acting at UCLA. He relocated to New York City in the early 1960s to pursue theatre. He made his Off‑Broadway debut in 1963 in Next Time I’ll Sing to You and earned his Broadway debut in the acclaimed revival of Watch on the Rhine in 1980. Over subsequent decades, Yulin appeared in major Broadway productions such as The Visit, The Price, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Hedda Gabler. His directorial efforts extended to The Glass Menagerie, The Trip to Bountiful, and The Man Who Came to Dinner, with Trip to Bountiful earning him a Lucille Lortel Award in 2006.
His screen career began with the 1970 film End of the Road, followed by portrayals in Doc (1971) as Wyatt Earp and Night Moves (1975). In 1983, he gained wide recognition as corrupt cop Mel Bernstein in Brian De Palma’s Scarface—opposite Al Pacino—and later as Judge Stephen Wexler in Ghostbusters II (1989).
Yulin’s versatile filmography includes roles in Clear and Present Danger (1994), Bean (1997), The Hurricane (1999), Rush Hour 2 (2001), Training Day (2001), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), and Omni Loop (2024)
On television, Yulin made notable guest appearances and recurring roles. Highlights include Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (“Duet”), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Quentin Travers), 24 (NSA Director Roger Stanton), and Frasier, where his performance as Jerome Belasco earned a 1996 Primetime Emmy nomination In later years, he appeared in Nikita, Veep, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Billions, and most memorably in Ozark (2017–2018) as Buddy Dieker.
In his personal life, Yulin dated Faye Dunaway in the early 1970s, was married to actress Gwen Welles until her death in 1993, and later married Kristen Lowman in 2005. He was passionate about birding and the sea.
