Alan L. Rachins (; Both his parents were Jewish, and his father worked in a family food manufacturing business, Snow Crest. planning to enter the family business, Rachins enrolled at Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, but he ultimately dropped out and moved to New York to study acting.
Career
Beginning in 1967, 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 controversial Oh! Calcutta!
thumb|right|200px|Rachins in 2006
Despite these successes as a writer and director, Rachins returned to his acting career with a leading role in Henry Jaglom's independent film, Always.
Rachins appeared on the ABC television series Eli Stone, playing an attorney in consultation with Stone. For two seasons, he provided the voice of Norman Osborn in the animated series The Spectacular Spider-Man. He also appeared on the TNT television series Rizzoli & Isles as a recurring guest star, and guest starred as Frank (Bob's father, and Gabe, PJ, and Teddy's granddad) in the Good Luck Charlie episode "It's a Charlie Duncan Thanksgiving".
Personal life and death
Rachins and actress Joanna Frank married in 1978 and had a son. The couple formed the production company Allofit Productions which acquired books and original screenplays to develop for television and feature films. Rachins was a member of Mensa International. He supported Michael Dukakis in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries.
Rachins died from heart failure at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California on November 2, 2024, 30 days after his 82nd birthday.
|-
|1990|| Heart Condition || Dr. Posner ||
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="white-space:nowrap"
! Year !! Title !!Role!!Notes
|-
|1986–1994 ||L.A. Law||Douglas Brackman Jr.||171 episodes
|-
|1987
|J.J. Starbuck
|Pasban Bapu
|Episode: "The Circle Broken"
|-
|1990
|Ferris Bueller
|Himself
|Episode: "Pilot"
|-
|1991||The Golden Girls||Jason Stillman||Episode: "Even Grandmas Get the Blues"
|-
| 1992–1994||Batman: The Animated Series||Temple Fugate / Clock King||Voice, 2 episodes