Joel Joshua Goldberg (October 13, 1936 – September 5, 2002), known professionally as Cliff Gorman, was an American actor. He won an Obie Award in 1968 for the stage presentation of The Boys in the Band, and went on to reprise his role in the 1970 film version.
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Life and career
Gorman was born Joel Joshua Goldberg in Queens, New York, the son of Jewish parents, Ethel (née Kaplan) and Samuel Goldberg, who later changed their surname to Gorman. He attended the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan.
Gorman won a Tony Award in 1972 for playing Lenny Bruce in the play Lenny. Although the film version, directed by Bob Fosse, featured Dustin Hoffman, Gorman was recruited to portray a Dustin Hoffman-like character portraying Lenny Bruce in a side-story in Fosse's autobiographical film All That Jazz (1979).
He was originally cast as the lead in the 1978 sitcom Hello, Larry, but was replaced by McLean Stevenson after Gorman was involved in an altercation with costar Donna Wilkes. This bad blood between Gorman and Wilkes would spill over onto the production of the 1984 film Angel, where Wilkes was the lead, and Gorman had a supporting role as Lt. Andrews.
He played Joseph Goebbels in the 1981 television film The Bunker. He had roles in the films Cops and Robbers (1973), Rosebud (1975), Brinks: The Great Robbery (1976), An Unmarried Woman (1978) with Jill Clayburgh, Night of the Juggler (1980), Hoffa (1992) with Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito, and Night and the City (1992). His TV work included performances in the series Law and Order, Murder, She Wrote, Friday the 13th: the Series, and the 1970s drama Police Story, written by former LAPD Detective Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh.
