Daniel Benzali

Daniel Benzali (born January 20, 1950) is a Brazilian-American stage, television and film actor.

Biography

Benzali was born in Rio de Janeiro to Brazilian Jewish parents.^[1] He is the middle child of three boys born to a father who was an actor in the Yiddish theater in New York and a mother who was a homemaker.

Benzali was a theatre actor before making guest-starring roles on television series such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X-Files, NYPD Blue and L.A. Law. L.A. Law creator Steven Bochco was so impressed with Benzali's performance that he cast him in the lead role of his 1995 series Murder One, playing attorney Ted Hoffman. For this role he was nominated for a Golden Globe award. Benzali starred on the series The Agency, and in films such as By Dawn's Early Light (1990), Murder at 1600 (1997) and The Grey Zone (2001). He also appeared in the post-apocalyptic CBS series Jericho as the enigmatic former Department of Homeland Security director Thomas Valente. Most recently he starred in the FX television series Nip/Tuck as the main character's psychotherapist and later patient, Dr. Griffin. Another of his roles was that of Reggie, a money hungry sales manager/drug smuggler at a car dealership in the 1999 cult-classic "Suckers."

Benzali has also played musical theater. He portrayed Juan Peron in the London cast of Evita, and played faded film director Max von Mayerling, alongside Patti LuPone, in the original cast (1993) of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. Benzali had previously appeared on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof, and other smaller productions. Benzali was also formerly engaged to actress Kim Cattrall.

In December 2010, Benzali joined ABC's General Hospital.^[2] Benzali plays a character named Theodore Hoffman, a reference to his role on the mid-1990s television series Murder One. Benzali's character is also known as "The Balkan", an international crime lord.

In 1985, he had a role in the James Bond film A View to a Kill as W.G. Howe, the Californian director of Oil and Mines, based at San Francisco City Hall. His character was shot dead in his office there by Christopher Walken's character Max Zorin.^[3]

References

1. ^ "Daniel Benzali". Suckers. http://www.rogernygard.com/suckers/cast.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-13. 
2. ^ "Exclusive: Daniel Benzali Joins General Hospital". TVGuide.com. http://www.tvguide.com/News/Exclusive-Daniel-Benzali-1024208.aspx. Retrieved October 11, 2010. 
3. ^ [1]

External links

• Daniel Benzali at the Internet Movie Database
• Daniel Benzali at AllRovi
• Daniel Benzali at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

Persondata
Name	Benzali, Daniel
Alternative names
Short description	American actor
Date of birth	January 20, 1950
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death