This charismatic character lead has excelled in quirky, explosive, often Jewish, types and has been prominent on stage and TV since the 1960s. Ron Leibman was particularly applauded as the union organizer Ruben Warshawsky in Martin Ritt's "Norma Rae" (1979), in his Emmy-winning role as "Kaz" (CBS, 1978-79) and as Roy Cohn in Tony Kushner's two-part Broadway epic "Angels in America" (1993-94).

Raised in an upper middle class family on Manhattan's Central Park West, Leibman broke into theater in 1959. After enjoying some success in "Dear Me, the Sky Is Falling" (1963) and "We Bombed in New Haven"