Born in Bethesda, Maryland on May 27^th 1955 Richard Schiff was the middle of three boys born to a mother who was a real estate agent and a father who was a cable TV and publishing executive.Richard made the decision to leave school after high school but later studied at The City College of New York for a short while in 1973. His interest in improving his education was short lived and once again he dropped out.

After working in somewhat dead end jobs for a year or two Richard once again returned to New York and decided to try his hand at acting and enrolled again at The City College New York where he studied on the acting program. His penchant for acting was outweighed by his interest in directing and he turned his hand to directing several off- Broadway shows.During his time directing he met his wife Sheila Kelley when she auditioned for the play he was directing, ‘Antigone’ in 1993, which eventually starred Angela Bassett. Sheila and Richard married in 1996.

Having conquered his fear of acting Richard took the plunge in the mid 1980’s and made in roads into an acting career. One of his first roles in 1996 was when he guest starred on the popular TV series ‘ER’ with George Clooney. Other guest appearances where made on the show by Mariska Hargitay, Kirsten Dunst and the young Zac Efron.

1998 was a busy year for Richard when he starred alongside Eddie Murphy in the remake of ‘Doctor Dolittle’ and in the same year he played a Brigidaire in ‘The Pentagon Wars’ with Kelsey Grammer and Cary Elwes. His biggest success in that year came in the blockbuster movie ‘Deep Impact’ in which he played Don Beiderman and starred with the leading man Robert Duvall, leading lady Tea Leoni and a young Elijah Wood.Returning to the small screen in 1999 Richard took on the role of Toby Zeigler in ‘The West Wing’ which won for him an

With the end of ‘The West Wing’ Richard returned to the stage in the premiere of ‘Underneath the Lentil’ which was a one act, single actor show. 2007 saw Schiff taking the show to London’s West End at the Duchess Theater.

Throughout  his acting career Richard had sported a beard but for the role of Jerry Wexler in the 2004 movie ‘Ray’ he shaved especially for the part which saw him starring opposite Jamie Foxx in the title role.

ABB