Alan Rosenberg
Screen Actors Guild President
~ Biography ~
Alan Rosenberg was born in Passaic, New Jersey. His father was a member of a swing band
and both Alan and his brother, Mark, eventually became involved in the
entertainment business. Alan is an actor and Mark became president of production at Warner Bros.
Pictures and later as a producer of many films. Alan protested the war in Vietnam and
became very active in civil rights groups.
Alan Rosenberg earned a degree in political
science and drama at Case Western in Ohio and then studied at the Yale School of
Drama. He got his first stage break in "A Prayer for My Daughter" (1978), which
was work shopped at the Eugene O'Neill Playwright's Conference and then
transferred to the New York Shakespeare Festival where he made his Off-Broadway
debut. Before his debut Alan was named one of the "promising new faces" by the New York Times.
In New York, he sometimes drove a cab during the graveyard shift
to support himself while working in small theater productions.
His first break in films was playing the role of Turkey in the coming of age film
"The Wanderers" (1979), as a member of a non-violent gang, directed by Phillip Kaufman.
In 1983 he moved to Los Angeles and landed his first TV job
in the miniseries "Robert Kennedy and His Times" (1985) playing newspaper
columnist Jack Newfield. After this breakthrough, Rosenberg began working
steadily, turning up in such TV-movies as "Kojak: The
Belarus File" (1985), as gangster Frank Nitti in "The Revenge of Al Capone"
(1989) and as homicide victim Jennifer Levin's father in "The Preppie Murder"
(1989). Most notably he gained attention playing divorce lawyer Eli Levinson, a
role which he created on the courtroom series "Civil Wars" (ABC, 1991-93) and
reprised on another legal show, "L.A. Law" (NBC, 1993-94). On film he memorably
played the Apostle Thomas in Martin Scorsese's controversial "The Last
Temptation of Christ" (1988). He made his Broadway debut in Neil Simon's "Lost
in Yonkers" in 1991.
Rosenberg first met his wife Marg Helgenberger
working on a small part in Ryan's Hope. The two met again,
accidentally in a LA bank, and later married in September 1989. They have a son named
Hughie. Alan and Marg have been featured together in several productions,
including the 1991 PBS presentation "Peacemaker". They subsequently acted
together in the 1994 Peter Weller-directed short "Partners" which aired on
Showtime and the 1998 Lifetime TV-movie "Giving Up the Ghost" in which he played
a character based on his brother, Mark, who sadly died of a heart-attack in 1993
at the age of 44.
Rosenberg was Emmy nominated Outstanding Guest Actor in a
Drama Series for: "ER" (1994) episode "Into That Good Night" in which he played
the dying heart patient, Sam Gasner.
In 1995 Alan starred alongside Harold Gould in Joe Cacaci's two character play "Old Business"
Alan was later cast as Cybill Shepherd's divorced second husband, writer Ira Woodbine on "Cybill" (CBS, 1995-98).
Rosenberg next joined the cast of "Chicago Hope" in the role
of lawyer Stuart Brickman. In September 2001 he started as head of
a child advocacy office in the CBS drama "The Guardian."
Alan recently received rave notices for portraying a skewed version of himself,
in Michael Pressman's film "Frankie & Johnnie Are Married."