In 2001, Rifkin's association with
Touchstone Television began when he played intelligence agent Arvin Sloane in
Alias, opposite
Jennifer Garner. From 2006 to 2011, he played second-in-command businessman Saul Holden on
Brothers & Sisters, opposite
Sally Field as his sister Nora Walker. He also played Ann Romano-Royer (
Bonnie Franklin)'s boyfriend Nick on
One Day at a Time. He was a series regular during the sixth season. In the season 7 premiere, "Alex Moves In", it was revealed that Nick had been killed as a result of an accident with a drunk driver. Rifkin has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in film, on stage, and in television. His association with writer
Jon Robin Baitz has been especially fruitful. In 1991, his performance in Baitz's play
The Substance of Fire won him the
Obie,
Drama Desk,
Lucille Lortel, and
Drama-Logue awards for Best Actor. The next year, he performed in Baitz's
Three Hotels, for which he received a second Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nomination. In 1996, he starred in the film version of
Substance; in 2002, he appeared in the Baitz play
Ten Unknowns at
Boston's Huntington Theatre. In 2004, he starred in his play
The Paris Letter at the
Kirk Douglas Theatre in
Los Angeles, a role he reprised the following year (2005) at the Laura Pels Theatre in New York City, and appeared in the
ABC drama series
Brothers & Sisters, which Baitz created, as a character named Saul (his given birthname). Rifkin received a 1998
Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the Broadway revival of
Cabaret. Additional theatre credits include
David Hirson's
Wrong Mountain,
Arthur Miller's
Broken Glass,
Ivan Turgenev's
A Month in the Country, and
Neil Simon's
Proposals. Rifkin's extensive film credits include
Silent Running (1972),
The Sunshine Boys (1975),
The Big Fix (1978),
JFK (1991),
Husbands and Wives (1992),
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993),
Wolf (1994),
L.A. Confidential (1997),
The Negotiator (1998),
Boiler Room (2000),
Keeping the Faith (2000),
The Majestic (2001),
Dragonfly (2002),
The Sum of All Fears (2002), and
Pulse (2006). On television, he has appeared in numerous made-for-TV movies and miniseries, had regular roles on
The Rockford Files,
One Day at a Time,
Husbands, Wives & Lovers, ''
The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, and Alias, and made guest appearances on a number of series, including Barnaby Jones, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sex and the City, The Bob Newhart Show, The Good Wife, ER, Law & Order, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Falcon Crest, Soap, Hill Street Blues, Smash, and The Outer Limits, for which he received a CableACE nomination. Most recently, he appeared in Limitless'' as Brian Finch's father Dennis Finch and appeared in
Gotham as Father Creel. He is the reader for a number of
audiobooks, including
Lois Lowry's
The Giver,
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's
Sang Spell, and
Jerry Spinelli's
Milkweed. He currently portrays Defense Attorney Marvin Stan Exely, a recurring character on
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In October 2020, a short film,
Daddy, was uploaded on Christian Coppola's
YouTube channel in which Rifkin stars alongside
Dylan Sprouse. In the film, "after the death of his wife, an 80-year-old man checks into The Plaza Hotel to celebrate their first anniversary apart, hiring a male escort to take her place." ==Filmography==