Harris Yulin Is Ready to Role

Since his first film role in 1968, seldom has a year gone by that Harris Yulin hasn’t appeared on a set or stage of some sort somewhere.

From Shakespearean plays to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the versatile veteran actor has worked continuously in all venues and mediums available to him for the past five-plus decades. In addition to starring in some of the most memorable films and television shows of the 21st Century — including Scarface, Ghostbusters II, Clear and Present Danger, The Hurricane, Rush Hour 2, Training Day, 24, Veep, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Billions and Ozark, to name but a very few — he’s also voice acted in radio, narrated a number of films and audio books (including Norman Mailer’s last novel, “The Castle and the Rock), performed in countless plays, directed, produced and taught his craft at such venerable institutions as Julliard, HB Studio and Columbia University.

With hundreds of characters under his belt, the Emmy- Cable Ace- and Screen Actors Guild nominee is always ready for the next role. He’s currently filming the political drama “Ways and Means” with Patrick Dempsey for television and is said to be reprising his role in the fourth installment of the “Rush Hour” movie franchise with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

Closer to home, the Bridgehampton resident is playing the title character in a virtual reading of “Squeaky” at Guild Hall in East Hampton on March 28. Written by Jeff Cohen, directed by Bob Balaban, and co-starring Jessica Hecht, Marc Kudisch, LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Ben Shenkman, the comedy is about Stan “Squeaky” Cohen, a man banned from every Old Country Buffet in the metro Baltimore area, who can’t remember where he lost his car and refuses to move from his ramshackle house in a neighborhood riddled by crime.  

Yulin says he’s always up for a new adventure in acting, as long as the material and the circumstances are good. He can’t wait to get back on the stage again, even if it is a virtual one.

“The theater, that’s the great thrill of it,” he says of his experiences acting on stages across the world. Of course, he especially enjoys when the productions are here on the East End. “I’m so glad, and so lucky, that these world-class theaters are right here in our own backyard.”  

The Guild Hall Lifetime Achievement Winner for Performing Arts has starred in myriad local plays and readings, including, most recently, “The Gin Game” with Mercedes Ruehl and “The Glass Menagerie,” in which he directed and acted, with Ruehl, Amy Irving, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Tedra Millan at Guild Hall and “Frost/Nixon” at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor with Daniel Gerroll.

Always busy, even as a young actor Yulin knew that he would need to create his own opportunities in order to survive.

“I moved back out to LA for about five years to do a show, it was in the early 70s, but I knew that I had to get some theater stuff together to keep myself occupied and productive,” he recalls. “So I kept inventing projects for myself. Acting, directing, producing — just to try to keep going, keep working. That’s the name of the game.”

One such occasion occurred while he was living in Paris, dubbing films into English. A friend, Jock Livingston, was performing in an avant-garde nightclub review based on the works of writer William S. Burroughs at the Club Montparnasse. The two-man show needed a narrator. Enter Yulin.

He and his friend would volley dialogue back and forth between the jazz sets — Livingston performing a handful of characters and Yulin sitting in a pinpoint circle of light, narrating — while Burroughs sat at a table by the stage, drinking Pernod and intently listening. Later in the show’s run, the legendary Beat Generation author took Livingston’s place.

“It was extremely weird,” but incredibly fun, he laughs. Naturally, the show was a hit.

When asked to share some of his wisdom, Yulin offered a memory from that wild time in Paris.

“My friend Bill Burroughs had some good advice. All of these young writers would approach him as he sat at that table watching the show every night. They’d ask him to read their work. He’d point to the growing stack of manuscripts on the table.”

“’Put it on the pile’” he’d say. And they would do this. The pile would grow and change. I don’t think he ever looked at the manuscripts. But when the writers would inevitably approach him and asked for his thoughts, he’d ask ‘which one is yours?’ and then, in response to requests for advice or notes, Bill would say, ‘keep at it.’ “

“That’s fucking brilliant,” Yulin laughs. “What more could you say?”