John Rubinstein
- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
John Rubinstein is an actor, director, composer, singer, and teacher. He was born in Los Angeles, California in 1946, the same year his father, the renowned Polish-born concert pianist Artur Rubinstein, became an American citizen. He is the youngest of four children. His sister, Eva, danced and acted on Broadway, originating the role of "Margot" in the original production of "The Diary of Anne Frank"; she later became an internationally known photographer. His brother, Paul, recently retired from his career as a stockbroker in New York; his sister, Alina, is a psychiatrist in Manhattan. John attended St. Bernard's School and Collegiate School in New York City, and then returned to Los Angeles in 1964 to study theater at UCLA. During his college years, he began his professional career as an actor, appearing in 1965 with Howard Keel in Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot" in San Carlos and Anaheim; playing a role in the Civil War film, Journey to Shiloh (1968); and starting his long list of television appearances in shows, such as The Virginian (1962), Dragnet 1967 (1967) and Room 222 (1969). It was also at UCLA that he began composing and orchestrating music: incidental music for theatrical plays, and a musical, "The Short and Turbulent Reign of Roger Ginzburg", with book and lyrics by David Colloff, that won the 1967 BMI Varsity Musical Award as Best Musical.
Rubinstein made his Broadway acting debut in 1972, and received a Theater World Award, for creating the title role in the musical "Pippin", directed by Bob Fosse. In 1980, he won the Tony, Drama Desk, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and Drama-Logue Awards for his portrayal of "James Leeds" in Mark Medoff's "Children Of A Lesser God", directed by Gordon Davidson. Other Broadway appearances were in Neil Simon's "Fools", and David Rabe's "Hurlyburly", both directed by Mike Nichols; Herman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial", which earned him another Drama Desk nomination; David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly"; "Getting Away With Murder", by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, directed by Jack O'Brien, and the musical "Ragtime", directed by Frank Galati. In 2014, he joined the Broadway cast of the hit revival of "Pippin," directed by Diane Paulus, this time playing Pippin's father, Charlemagne. He repeated this role on the national tour throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe in 2014-2016. In 2017 he originated the role of Grandpa Joe in the Broadway musical, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," directed by Jack O'Brien. In 1987, he made his off-Broadway debut at the Roundabout Theater as "Guildenstern" in Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", with Stephen Lang and John Wood, and subsequently performed in "Urban Blight" and "Cabaret Verboten". In 2005, he received the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play, as well as nominations for both the Outer Critics' and Drama League Awards, for his portrayal of "George Simon" in Elmer Rice's "Counselor-at-Law", directed by Dan Wackerman, at the Pecadillo Theatre.
His appearances in regional theaters include the musicals "Camelot" (at
various times as "Tom of Warwick", "Mordred" and "King Arthur") and "South
Pacific"; the role of "Billy" in David Rabe's "Streamers", "Ariel" in "The Tempest", "Marchbanks" in Shaw's "Candida", both Sergius and Bluntschli
(alternating nights with Richard Thomas) in Shaw's "Arms And The Man",
several roles in Arnold Weinstein's "Metamorphoses", directed by Paul
Sills at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, "Sight Unseen" at L.A.'s
Odyssey Theatre, "The Torch-Bearers" and "Our Town" at the Williamstown
Theater Festival, Arthur Miller's "Broken Glass" at Monterey Peninsula
College, and Warren Smith in "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" (in a
160-city National Tour). In 1985 He starred in "Merrily We Roll Along"
at the La Jolla Playhouse, in a version newly re-written by Stephen
Sondheim and George Furth, directed by James Lapine. He was the
original Andrew Ladd III in A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters" at the Long
Wharf Theater in New Haven, opened the play in New York off-Broadway,
and later performed it on Broadway, in San Francisco, Boston, Los
Angeles and Washington D.C. He created the role of Molina in "Kiss Of
The Spider Woman", the musical by Terrence McNally, John Kander, and
Fred Ebb, directed by Harold Prince, and the role of Kenneth Hoyle in
Jon Robin Baitz's "Three Hotels". In 1997, he played Tateh in the
American premiere run of the musical "Ragtime", by Terrence McNally,
Stephen Flaherty, and Lynn Ahrens, directed by Frank Galati, at the
Shubert Theater in Los Angeles, receiving both an L. A. Drama Critics
Circle nomination and a Drama-Logue Award as Best Actor in a Musical,
and continued in the show both in Vancouver and on Broadway. He
appeared opposite Donald Sutherland in Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's
"Enigmatic Variations" at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, and
at the Savoy Theatre in London's West End; played the Wizard of Oz in
the hit musical "Wicked", by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz,
directed by Joe Mantello, at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles for 18
months; and starred with John Schuck and Ken Page in the world premiere
of a musical version of "Grumpy Old Men" in Winnipeg at the Manitoba
Theatre Centre.
His 24 feature films include Atlas Shrugged Part II; Hello, I Must Be
Going, which opened the 2012 Sundance Festival; 21 Grams; Red Dragon;
Mercy; Another Stakeout; Someone To Watch Over Me; Daniel; The Boys
From Brazil; Rome and Jewel; Choose Connor; Sublime; Jekyll; Kid Cop;
Getting Straight; Zachariah; The Trouble with Girls; Journey To Shiloh;
and The Car. He received an Emmy Award nomination for his portrayal of Jeff Maitland III in the ABC series "Family", a role he played for five years; and he starred for two years with Jack Warden in the CBS series "Crazy Like A Fox". He has acted in over 200 television films and series
episodes, including Arthur Miller's "The American Clock" (CableAce
Award Nomination), "Feud!", "When We Rise", "Mrs. Harris", "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town",
"Norma And Marilyn", "The Sleepwalker", "Working Miracles", "In My
Daughter's Name", "Perry Mason", "Voices Within: The Lives Of Truddi
Chase", "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles", "Skokie", "Movieola", "Roots: The
Next Generations", and "A Howling In The Woods". He has
played recurring parts on "This Is Us", "The Fosters", "Perception", "The Mentalist",
"Desperate Housewives", "Parenthood", "No Ordinary Family", "Greek",
"The Wizards of Waverly Place", "Dirty Sexy Money", "Day Break",
"Angel", "The Guardian", "The Practice", "Star Trek: Enterprise",
"Girlfriends", "Robocop: the Series", "The Young and the Restless", and
"Barbershop."
Mr. Rubinstein has composed, orchestrated, and conducted the musical
scores for five feature films, including Jeremiah Johnson (directed by
Sidney Pollack) and The Candidate, (directed by Michael Ritchie), both
starring Robert Redford; Paddy (with Milo O'Shea); The Killer Inside Me
(with Stacy Keach); and Kid Blue (with Dennis Hopper); and for over 50
television films, among them the Peabody Award-winning "Amber Waves",
"The Dollmaker" (starring Jane Fonda), "A Walton Wedding", "The Ordeal
Of Patty Hearst", "Choices Of The Heart", and "Emily, Emily", as well
as the weekly themes for "Family" and "China Beach".
He spent six years as host for the radio program "Carnegie Hall
Tonight", broadcast on l80 stations in the United States and Canada,
and two years as the keyboard player for the jazz-rock group Funzone.
He has recorded over 100 audio books, including 25 of the best-selling
Alex Delaware novels by Jonathan Kellerman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
"Independence Day" by Richard Ford, Tom Clancy's "Debt Of Honor" and
"Op Center", and E. L. Doctorow's "City of God", "World's Fair", and
"All The Time In The World".
In 1987, Rubinstein made his directorial debut at the Williamstown
Theater Festival, staging Aphra Behn's "The Rover", with Christopher
Reeve and Kate Burton; the following season he directed the first
American-cast production of Christopher Hampton's "Les Liaisons
Dangereuses", with Dwight Schultz and Dianne Wiest. Off-Broadway, he
directed the New York premieres of "Phantasie", by Sybille Pearson, and
"Nightingale", by Elizabeth Diggs; and the world premiere of A. R.
Gurney's "The Old Boy", with Stephen Collins. At the Cape Playhouse in
Massachusetts, he staged "Wait Until Dark", with Hayley Mills and
William Atherton. For NYU, he directed productions of "The Three
Sisters" and "Macbeth"; for UCLA, "Company"; and for USC, "Brigadoon",
"Into The Woods", "On The Town", "City of Angels", and "The Most Happy
Fella". In Los Angeles, at Interact Theatre Company, of which he has
been a member since 1992, he co-directed and starred in the revival of
Elmer Rice's Counsellor-At-Law, winning Drama-Logue Awards and L.A.
Drama Critics Circle Awards in both categories, as well as Ovation
Awards for Ensemble Acting and Sound Design; the production itself won
22 awards; he also directed and acted in Sondheim and Lapine's "Into
The Woods" and "A Little Night Music", and Meredith Willson's "The
Music Man", and also directed Sheridan's "The Rivals" and Frank
Loesser's "Guys and Dolls". For television, he directed the CBS
Schoolbreak Special "A Matter Of Conscience", which won the Emmy Award
for Best Children's Special in 1990, an episode of the CBS series "Nash
Bridges", the ABC AfterSchool Special miniseries "Summer Stories", and
three episodes of the TV series "High Tide".
In 2011, Rubinstein provided commentary for the online web-casting of
the XIVth International Tchaikovsky Competition, a classical music
competition held in Moscow. He teaches courses in musical theater
audition and acting for the camera, and directs the annual spring
musical, at the University of Southern California.
He is married to Bonnie Burgess, and has five children: Jessica, Michael (the actor Michael Weston), Peter, Jacob, and Max.
Rubinstein made his Broadway acting debut in 1972, and received a Theater World Award, for creating the title role in the musical "Pippin", directed by Bob Fosse. In 1980, he won the Tony, Drama Desk, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and Drama-Logue Awards for his portrayal of "James Leeds" in Mark Medoff's "Children Of A Lesser God", directed by Gordon Davidson. Other Broadway appearances were in Neil Simon's "Fools", and David Rabe's "Hurlyburly", both directed by Mike Nichols; Herman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial", which earned him another Drama Desk nomination; David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly"; "Getting Away With Murder", by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, directed by Jack O'Brien, and the musical "Ragtime", directed by Frank Galati. In 2014, he joined the Broadway cast of the hit revival of "Pippin," directed by Diane Paulus, this time playing Pippin's father, Charlemagne. He repeated this role on the national tour throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe in 2014-2016. In 2017 he originated the role of Grandpa Joe in the Broadway musical, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," directed by Jack O'Brien. In 1987, he made his off-Broadway debut at the Roundabout Theater as "Guildenstern" in Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", with Stephen Lang and John Wood, and subsequently performed in "Urban Blight" and "Cabaret Verboten". In 2005, he received the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play, as well as nominations for both the Outer Critics' and Drama League Awards, for his portrayal of "George Simon" in Elmer Rice's "Counselor-at-Law", directed by Dan Wackerman, at the Pecadillo Theatre.
His appearances in regional theaters include the musicals "Camelot" (at
various times as "Tom of Warwick", "Mordred" and "King Arthur") and "South
Pacific"; the role of "Billy" in David Rabe's "Streamers", "Ariel" in "The Tempest", "Marchbanks" in Shaw's "Candida", both Sergius and Bluntschli
(alternating nights with Richard Thomas) in Shaw's "Arms And The Man",
several roles in Arnold Weinstein's "Metamorphoses", directed by Paul
Sills at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, "Sight Unseen" at L.A.'s
Odyssey Theatre, "The Torch-Bearers" and "Our Town" at the Williamstown
Theater Festival, Arthur Miller's "Broken Glass" at Monterey Peninsula
College, and Warren Smith in "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" (in a
160-city National Tour). In 1985 He starred in "Merrily We Roll Along"
at the La Jolla Playhouse, in a version newly re-written by Stephen
Sondheim and George Furth, directed by James Lapine. He was the
original Andrew Ladd III in A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters" at the Long
Wharf Theater in New Haven, opened the play in New York off-Broadway,
and later performed it on Broadway, in San Francisco, Boston, Los
Angeles and Washington D.C. He created the role of Molina in "Kiss Of
The Spider Woman", the musical by Terrence McNally, John Kander, and
Fred Ebb, directed by Harold Prince, and the role of Kenneth Hoyle in
Jon Robin Baitz's "Three Hotels". In 1997, he played Tateh in the
American premiere run of the musical "Ragtime", by Terrence McNally,
Stephen Flaherty, and Lynn Ahrens, directed by Frank Galati, at the
Shubert Theater in Los Angeles, receiving both an L. A. Drama Critics
Circle nomination and a Drama-Logue Award as Best Actor in a Musical,
and continued in the show both in Vancouver and on Broadway. He
appeared opposite Donald Sutherland in Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's
"Enigmatic Variations" at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, and
at the Savoy Theatre in London's West End; played the Wizard of Oz in
the hit musical "Wicked", by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz,
directed by Joe Mantello, at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles for 18
months; and starred with John Schuck and Ken Page in the world premiere
of a musical version of "Grumpy Old Men" in Winnipeg at the Manitoba
Theatre Centre.
His 24 feature films include Atlas Shrugged Part II; Hello, I Must Be
Going, which opened the 2012 Sundance Festival; 21 Grams; Red Dragon;
Mercy; Another Stakeout; Someone To Watch Over Me; Daniel; The Boys
From Brazil; Rome and Jewel; Choose Connor; Sublime; Jekyll; Kid Cop;
Getting Straight; Zachariah; The Trouble with Girls; Journey To Shiloh;
and The Car. He received an Emmy Award nomination for his portrayal of Jeff Maitland III in the ABC series "Family", a role he played for five years; and he starred for two years with Jack Warden in the CBS series "Crazy Like A Fox". He has acted in over 200 television films and series
episodes, including Arthur Miller's "The American Clock" (CableAce
Award Nomination), "Feud!", "When We Rise", "Mrs. Harris", "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town",
"Norma And Marilyn", "The Sleepwalker", "Working Miracles", "In My
Daughter's Name", "Perry Mason", "Voices Within: The Lives Of Truddi
Chase", "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles", "Skokie", "Movieola", "Roots: The
Next Generations", and "A Howling In The Woods". He has
played recurring parts on "This Is Us", "The Fosters", "Perception", "The Mentalist",
"Desperate Housewives", "Parenthood", "No Ordinary Family", "Greek",
"The Wizards of Waverly Place", "Dirty Sexy Money", "Day Break",
"Angel", "The Guardian", "The Practice", "Star Trek: Enterprise",
"Girlfriends", "Robocop: the Series", "The Young and the Restless", and
"Barbershop."
Mr. Rubinstein has composed, orchestrated, and conducted the musical
scores for five feature films, including Jeremiah Johnson (directed by
Sidney Pollack) and The Candidate, (directed by Michael Ritchie), both
starring Robert Redford; Paddy (with Milo O'Shea); The Killer Inside Me
(with Stacy Keach); and Kid Blue (with Dennis Hopper); and for over 50
television films, among them the Peabody Award-winning "Amber Waves",
"The Dollmaker" (starring Jane Fonda), "A Walton Wedding", "The Ordeal
Of Patty Hearst", "Choices Of The Heart", and "Emily, Emily", as well
as the weekly themes for "Family" and "China Beach".
He spent six years as host for the radio program "Carnegie Hall
Tonight", broadcast on l80 stations in the United States and Canada,
and two years as the keyboard player for the jazz-rock group Funzone.
He has recorded over 100 audio books, including 25 of the best-selling
Alex Delaware novels by Jonathan Kellerman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
"Independence Day" by Richard Ford, Tom Clancy's "Debt Of Honor" and
"Op Center", and E. L. Doctorow's "City of God", "World's Fair", and
"All The Time In The World".
In 1987, Rubinstein made his directorial debut at the Williamstown
Theater Festival, staging Aphra Behn's "The Rover", with Christopher
Reeve and Kate Burton; the following season he directed the first
American-cast production of Christopher Hampton's "Les Liaisons
Dangereuses", with Dwight Schultz and Dianne Wiest. Off-Broadway, he
directed the New York premieres of "Phantasie", by Sybille Pearson, and
"Nightingale", by Elizabeth Diggs; and the world premiere of A. R.
Gurney's "The Old Boy", with Stephen Collins. At the Cape Playhouse in
Massachusetts, he staged "Wait Until Dark", with Hayley Mills and
William Atherton. For NYU, he directed productions of "The Three
Sisters" and "Macbeth"; for UCLA, "Company"; and for USC, "Brigadoon",
"Into The Woods", "On The Town", "City of Angels", and "The Most Happy
Fella". In Los Angeles, at Interact Theatre Company, of which he has
been a member since 1992, he co-directed and starred in the revival of
Elmer Rice's Counsellor-At-Law, winning Drama-Logue Awards and L.A.
Drama Critics Circle Awards in both categories, as well as Ovation
Awards for Ensemble Acting and Sound Design; the production itself won
22 awards; he also directed and acted in Sondheim and Lapine's "Into
The Woods" and "A Little Night Music", and Meredith Willson's "The
Music Man", and also directed Sheridan's "The Rivals" and Frank
Loesser's "Guys and Dolls". For television, he directed the CBS
Schoolbreak Special "A Matter Of Conscience", which won the Emmy Award
for Best Children's Special in 1990, an episode of the CBS series "Nash
Bridges", the ABC AfterSchool Special miniseries "Summer Stories", and
three episodes of the TV series "High Tide".
In 2011, Rubinstein provided commentary for the online web-casting of
the XIVth International Tchaikovsky Competition, a classical music
competition held in Moscow. He teaches courses in musical theater
audition and acting for the camera, and directs the annual spring
musical, at the University of Southern California.
He is married to Bonnie Burgess, and has five children: Jessica, Michael (the actor Michael Weston), Peter, Jacob, and Max.