Photo: NBC
Ron Leibman, the Emmy-winning actor who played Rachel Green’s father, Dr. Leonard Green, onFriends, has died. He was 82.
Leibman died on Friday after battling pneumonia,The Hollywood Reporterreported. His rep did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
While known for his role as the mean dad of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) onFriendsin the 1990s and early 2000s, Leibman initially turned down the spot on the beloved sitcom.
“I had never seen the show when they asked me to do it,” Leibmansaid in an interviewwith the A.V. Club published in 2011. “I’m not a big television-watcher. It sounded stupid to me, so I turned it down.”
But Leibman’s daughter, who was a fan ofFriends, changed his mind.
“I said, ‘All right. I’ll do it. I’ll do it once, but that’s all I’m doing.’ So I did, and had a very nice time, and they asked me back, and my daughter did get to meet those kids, so I was a big hero in the house,” he explained, noting that his role as Dr. Green is probably his most well-recognized from his decades-long career.
Lisa Kudrow, Ron Leibman, and Jennifer Aniston onFriends.Everett Collection
“It’s amazing, the power of the tube. I’ve done all this body of work, and they say, ‘Oh yes, Rachel’s father.’ I go, ‘Give me a break,'” he said.
In 1979, Leibman earned an Emmy Award for his role as Martin “Kaz” Kazinsky in the CBS seriesKaz, which he co-created. In the drama, Leibman played the titular character, a car thief-turned-criminal attorney.
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“Short-lived, well-remembered,” he said of the show, which was canceled after 23 episodes, to the A.V. Club. “I’m sitting at my desk now, and there’s an Emmy award right in front of me that I got from that. I got an Emmy, and the show was canceled two weeks later. What a business, huh?”
In addition to his career on television, Leibman was also a theater actor and took home a Tony Award in 1993.
Ron Leibman.Cindy Ord/Getty Images
For the winning performance, Leibman portrayed a fictional version of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel Roy Cohn inAngels in America: Millenium Approaches, which won a Pulitzer Prize.
He’s also appeared in notable movies likeNorma Rae,Slaughterhouse FiveandWhere’s Poppa?His most recent role was the voice of Ron Cadillac onArcher.
source: people.com
