Leibman was born October 11, 1937, in Manhattan to Grace (née Marks), who was of Russian-Jewish descent, and Murray Leibman, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who worked in the garment business.[1][2] Leibman graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University.[3]
Leibman made his film debut alongside George Segal in the dark comedy Where's Poppa? (1970). He then starred alongside Robert Redford and Segal in the heist film The Hot Rock (1972) and he was featured as a northern Jewish union organizer in the award-winning film Norma Rae (1979). In 1980, he starred in Up The Academy, a "gross-out" comedy set at a reform school and produced by MAD Magazine. (Reaction to the film was so poor that that it was repudiated by both MAD and Leibman himself, who had his name expunged from the credits and promotional material.)[citation needed]
His other film appearances include Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), Your Three Minutes Are Up (1973) with Beau Bridges and Janet Margolin, Zorro, The Gay Blade (1981), Auto Focus (2002) and Garden State (2004). A TV movie role of Leibman's was the 1988 legal thriller Terrorist On Trial where he plays a Jewish lawyer who defends an Arab defendant accused of a terrorist attack in Spain and extracted to Virginia. Leibman costars in that with Robert Davi as the defendant, and Sam Waterston as the prosecuting attorney. It may be found as In The Hands Of The Enemy.
Leibman won an Emmy Award, Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series, in 1979[5] for his convict-turned-lawyer character in Kaz (1978–79), a series which he also created and co-wrote.[6] He was later nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the role of Morris Huffner in Christmas Eve.[citation needed]
He co-starred with his second wife, Jessica Walter, in Tartuffe at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in 1986,[3] and they co-starred again in Neil Simon's play Rumors in 1988 on Broadway.[7] They also appeared together as husband and wife in the film Dummy (2003)[8][9] and in the TV series Law & Order in the episode "House Counsel" in 1995.[10]
In 2013, Leibman began appearing as a recurring character on the TV series Archer as Ron Cadillac, the husband to Malory Archer, voiced by his real-life wife Jessica Walter.[8]
Personal life
Leibman was married twice. His first wife was actress Linda Lavin, to whom he was married from 1969 to 1981.[14][15] In 1983, he married actress Jessica Walter.[3][15] They remained married until his death in 2019.[1]
Death
Leibman died from complications of pneumonia in Manhattan on December 6, 2019, at age 82.[1][16]
