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Richard Schiff

(1955-)

Richard Schiff is a Jewish American emmy award-winning actor best known for his role as Toby Ziegler on the NBC drama The West Wing.

Schiff (born May 27, 1955) was born in Bethesda, Maryland.  He dropped out of high school in his teenage years and later studied, but did not graduate, from the City College of New York.  Afterwards he lived for a time-being in Colorado before returning to New York to study acting in the CCNY theatre program.

Initially in the professional world as a director, making several off-Broadway plays, Schiff eventually moved into acting and landed his first movie role in Steven Spielberg's 1997 classic, Jurassic Park. Since then he has also appeared in other movies such as Dr. Doolittle, Deep Impact, I am Sam, and The Infidel.

His most famous role was as White House Communications Director and policy advisory Toby Ziegler on NBC's The West Wing, which he starred in for nearly seven seasons and won an emmy award for his role.

In 2012, Schiff spoke before the policy conference of AIPAC in Washington, DC to discuss his pro-Israel views and his recent, and first, trip to Israel the previous summer.

Schiff is married to Sheila Kelly and has a son Gus and a daughter Ruby.


Sources: Wikipedia