Alan Rachins

Alan is one of a very elite group of actors who has starred in two successful television series in his career; the Emmy Award winning L.A. Law, where he created the complex character of 'Douglas Brackman', earning him both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, and Dharma & Greg, playing 'Larry Finkelstein,' the hippie father, which now appears nightly in syndication

Born in Boston, Rachins attended the Wharton School of Finance. A passion for acting compelled him to move to New York to study with teachers William Ball, Warren Robertson, Kim Stanley and Harvey Lembeck, among others. Over the next decade, he performed in a succession of plays, including the original Broadway productions of After the Rain and Hadrian the Seventh, as well as the original off-Broadway productions of The Trojan Women and the outrageous and controversial Oh! Calcutta.

In 1972, Rachins put his acting career on hold when he was accepted as a fellow in the writing and directing programs at the American Film Institute. He went on to sell scripts to a variety of shows, including Hill Street Blues, Fall Guy, Hart to Hart and Knight Rider. He also directed an episode of Paris with James Earl Jones. Alan's Hill Street Blues episode won an Emmy that season for the talented actress Barbara Babcock.

On television, Alan has starred in the two-hour reunion LA Law: The Movie on NBC, The Elian Gonzales Story for the Fox Family Channel as well as the highest rated MOW for the Animal Planet entitled, The Retrievers, starring alongside Robert Hayes and Robert Wagner. Additional television appearances include the Jackie Collins miniseries, Lady Boss, as well as the Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Silent Singer. Other starring roles include the television movies, She Says She's Innocent, Single Women, Married Men, Tales From the Crypt, and Unwed Father.

Recent theatre appearances include the world premiere of Arthur Laurents' Attacks Of The Heart at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J., directed by David Saint. At the Cape Playhouse, he played the part of Matthew Harrison Brady in 'lnherit The Wind.

Additionally, he tackled the role of 'Albin', the flamboyant transvestite in the famed Jupiter Theater production of La Cage Aux Folies, was seen in Love Letters with Swoosie Kurtz at the Coronet Theatre in Beverly Hills, and starred in the Reprise production of Promises, Promises with Jason Alexander, Jean Smart and Alan Thicke at the Freud Theatre in Los Angeles.

Happily married, Alan and Joanna have a son, Robert. The couple has formed a production company, Allofit Productions, which has acquired books and original screenplays to develop for television and feature films.