Biography
Dan Hedaya (born July 24, 1940) is an American actor. While a student at Tufts University, he began performing at the campus theater. He often plays sleazy villains or uptight, wisecracking individuals; two of his best-known roles are as a cuckolded husband in the Coen brothers' crime thriller Blood Simple, and the scheming Nick Tortelli on the sitcom Cheers.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Influenced
2025
Renowed influencer Dzanielle navigates fake friends among the black card-swiping, Ozempic-sharting, workout-addicted Upper East Siders. In her comedic...

Slapface
2022
as Sheriff John Thurston
A boy deals with the loss of his mother by creating a relationship with a dangerous monster.

The God Committee
2021
as Emmett Granger
Medicine, money and morality clash when a hospital's Heart Transplant Selection Committee has only minutes to decide which of three patients on the tr...

Funny Face
2021
as Benj
In a Brooklyn threatened by disfigurement from greedy urban developers, two young people meet in a late-night bodega. Their unexpected bond takes on a...

The Big Take
2018
as Frank Maniscalpo
A reclusive movie star hires a private detective after he's anonymously blackmailed. Things turn violent when an aspiring writer is fingered for the c...

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
2016
as Red
In 1926, Newt Scamander arrives at the Magical Congress of the United States of America with a magically expanded briefcase, which houses a number of ...

Black Dog, Red Dog
2015
as Norman
Follows the life of Stephen Dobyns as he deals with life, women, and his move from journalism to poetry.

The Humbling
2014
as Asa
Following a breakdown and suicide attempt, an aging actor becomes involved with a much younger woman but soon finds that it's difficult to keep pace w...

Clutter
2013
as Walter Bickford
Charlie Bradford, an aspiring filmmaker in his 30s, is doing the best he can to distance himself from the chaos of his childhood home. But his eccentr...

The Normals
2012
as Ragnar
With a debt collector hot on his trail, Harvard graduate Billy Schine enrolls in a clinical drug trial to make a quick buck. Carted out of New York Ci...

Too Big to Fail
2011
as Congressman Barney Frank
An intimate look at the epochal financial crisis of 2008 and the powerful men and women who decided the fate of the world's economy in a matter of a f...

The Extra Man
2010
as Aresh
A man who escorts wealthy widows in New York's Upper East Side takes a young aspiring playwright under his wing.

The Warrior Class
2007
as Rand
Rookie lawyer Alec Brno has just been assigned the case of his career: exposing a billion-dollar oil scam led by a ruthless mafia boss. When he reluct...

Strangers with Candy
2006
as Guy Blank
A prequel to the critically acclaimed series featuring Jerri Blank, a 46 year old ex-junkie, ex-con who returns to high school in a bid to start her l...

The Good Student
2006
as Gabe
When Ally, a popular teen and local celebrity goes missing, her small suburban town erupts in panic.

Pizza My Heart
2005
as Vinnie Montebello
Another modern spin-off of Romeo & Juliet, this time about two families who each run rivaling pizza restaurants in New Jersey.

Robots
2005
as Mr. Gunk (voice)
Rodney Copperbottom is a young robot inventor who dreams of making the world a better place, until the evil Ratchet takes over Bigweld Industries. Now...

American Cousins
2003
as Settimo
Two American mafiosi, Gino and Settimo, take refuge in the Glasgow cafe owned by their Scottish/Italian cousin, but he isn't the tough guy they'd expe...

New Suit
2003
as Muster Hansau
A once-idealistic writer inadvertently ignites a feeding frenzy in Hollywood with the mention of a mysterious new screenplay and its illusive author.

Swimfan
2002
as Coach Simkins
Ben Cronin has it all: the admiration of his many friends, a terrific girlfriend, and he's on the fast-track to an athletic scholarship. Ben's rock-so...

Round Up: Deposing 'The Usual Suspects'
2002
as Jeff Rabin (photo)
Documentary that includes interviews with Singer as well as the rest of the cast - mainly Spacey. There is no "plot" or "promotional" elements to this...

Quicksand
2002
as General Stewart
Randi Stewart is a sergeant on a marine base where her father is the commanding officer. She is being treated by the new base psychiatrist, Bill Turne...

Down
2001
as Lt. McBain
After the elevators at a New York City skyscraper begin inexplicably malfunctioning, putting its passengers at risk, mechanic Mark Newman and reporter...

Mulholland Drive
2001
as Vincenzo Castigliane
Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two s...

The Crew
2000
as Mike 'The Brick' Donatelli
Four retired mobsters plan one last crime to save their retirement home.

Shaft
2000
as Jack Roselli
New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail...

The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave
2000
as Gil Ruston
Super Dave Osborne, our accident-prone stuntman hero, comes out of a self-imposed retirement to raise money for his new girlfriend's son's heart opera...

The Hurricane
1999
as Della Pesca
The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

Dick
1999
as President Richard M. Nixon
Two high school girls wander off during a class trip to the White House and meet President Richard Nixon. They become the official dog walkers for Nix...

Locked in Silence
1999
as Dr. Rosenstock
A story of a young boy who becomes an elective mute after witnessing what he believes to be the killing by his older brother of a teenage boy. The you...

Mulholland Dr.
1999
as Vincenzo Castigliane

A Civil Action
1998
as John Riley
Jan Schlickmann is a cynical lawyer who goes out to 'get rid of' a case, only to find out it is potentially worth millions. The case becomes his obses...

A Night at the Roxbury
1998
as Kamehl Butabi
Despite being well into adulthood, brothers Doug and Steve Butabi still live at home and work in the flower shop owned by their dad. They exist only t...

The Second Civil War
1997
as Mel Burgess
When a planeload of Pakistani orphans are shipped to his state for permanent relocation, the governor of Idaho defies the president and closes the sta...

Alien Resurrection
1997
as General Perez
Two hundred years after Lt. Ripley died, a group of scientists clone her, hoping to breed the ultimate weapon. But the new Ripley is full of surprises...

A Life Less Ordinary
1997
as Gabriel
A couple of angels, O'Reilly and Jackson, are sent to Earth to make sure that their next supervised love-connection succeeds. They follow Celine, a sp...

In & Out
1997
as Military Attorney
A midwestern teacher questions his sexuality after a former student makes a comment about him at the Academy Awards.

The Garden of Redemption
1997
as Capt. Zito
A priest struggles with his religious beliefs as he sees his countrymen murdered in Nazi occupied Italy and as he becomes attracted to a woman operati...

Marvin's Room
1996
as Robert "Bob" Carter
A leukemia patient attempts to end a 20-year feud with her sister to get her bone marrow.

Daylight
1996
as Frank Kraft
A group of armed robbers fleeing the police head for the New Jersey Tunnel and run right into trucks transporting toxic waste. The spectacular explosi...

Ransom
1996
as Jackie Brown
When a rich man's son is kidnapped, he cooperates with the police at first but then tries a unique tactic against the criminals.

The First Wives Club
1996
as Morton Cushman
After years of helping their hubbies climb the ladder of success, three mid-life Manhattanites have been dumped for a newer, curvier model. But the tr...

Freeway
1996
as Detective Wallace
Following the arrest of her mother, Ramona, young Vanessa Lutz decides to go in search of her estranged grandmother. On the way, she is given a ride b...

Nixon
1995
as Trini Cardoza
A look at President Richard M. Nixon—a man carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders while battling the self-destructive demands from within—spa...

Red Wind
1995
as Detective Copernik
In 1940s, sympathetic African American L.A. shamus Philip Marlowe helps a dame in trouble whose lovers are offing each other over a possibly fake pear...

Fair Game
1995
as Walter Hollenbach (uncredited)
Max Kirkpatrick is a cop who protects Kate McQuean, a civil law attorney, from a renegade KGB team out to terminate her

To Die For
1995
as Joe Maretto
Suzanne Stone wants to be a world-famous news anchor and she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. What she lacks in intelligence, she make...

The Usual Suspects
1995
as Jeff Rabin
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also res...

Clueless
1995
as Mel Horowitz
Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first ...

Search and Destroy
1995
as Tailor
A self-help guru's televised teachings inspire a down-and-out businessman to pursue his dream of making a movie.

Because Mommy Works
1994
as Judge (uncredited)
Since her divorce nurse Abbey lives alone with her 6 years old son Willie. Her ex-husband Ted may have Willie every second weekend. But when Ted marri...

Midnight Run for Your Life
1994
as Eddie Moscone
When an accused murderer flees to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, bounty hunter Jack Walsh is hired to bring her back, unaware that the police, a hitman and a...

Maverick
1994
as Twitchy, Riverboat Poker Player
Bret Maverick is a gambler who would rather con someone than fight them, and needs an additional $3k in order to enter a winner-takes-all poker game b...

Midnight Runaround
1994
as Eddie Moscone
Bounty hunter Jack Walsh heads for a small rural community in Oklahoma to bring back a young bail jumper, only to discover that the entire town has un...

Another Midnight Run
1994
as Eddie Moscone
Jack Walsh tries to track down two of the top con-artists around. But they know every trick in the book and Jack has trouble bringing them back to LA ...

Mr. Wonderful
1993
as Harvey
Electrician Gus gets the chance to fulfil a childhood dream by buying an old bowling-alley with some of his friends, but first he must find his ex-wif...

For Love or Money
1993
as Gene Salvatore
New York concierge Doug Ireland wants to go into business for himself and refurbish a hotel on Roosevelt Island, N.Y., but he needs an investor. With ...

Based on an Untrue Story
1993
as Caprawolski
Perfume creator Satin Chau is about to reveal her new designer scent, 'Puppy,' when she is cruelly struck down by a rare condition called anosmia, whi...

Sex, Shock & Censorship in the 90's
1993
as Private Investigator
Newswoman Fay Sommerfield takes a morally outraged look at excessive violence, bad language and sacrilege that pass for entertainment in the early 90s...

Searching for Bobby Fischer
1993
as Tournament Director
A seven-year-old chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer.

Rookie of the Year
1993
as Larry 'Fish' Fisher
12-year-old Henry Rowengartner, whose late father was a minor league baseball player, grew up dreaming of playing baseball, despite his physical short...

Benny & Joon
1993
as Thomas
A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.

Boiling Point
1993
as Brady
Red is an aging scam-artist who's just been released from prison together with Ronnie, a young and not-so-bright hoodlum who is easily manipulated. Th...

Four Eyes and Six-Guns
1992
Ernest Albright opens his eyeglass store in what he thinks is a thriving community, but soon discovers that his store is just a shabby shack in Tombst...

The Addams Family
1991
as Tully Alford
When a man claiming to be long-lost Uncle Fester reappears after 25 years lost, the family plans a celebration to wake the dead. But the kids barely h...
The Whereabouts of Jenny
1991
as Vinnie
Jimmy O'Meara loves his daughter more than anything in the world. But when his ex-wife gets involved with a man who's involved with criminals, his wor...

Tune in Tomorrow...
1990
as Robert Quince
Martin works at the local radio station, which just hired a new scriptwriter with a reputation for great drama, Pedro Carmichael. Martin’s aunt Julia,...

Pacific Heights
1990
as Loan Officer
A couple works hard to renovate their dream house and become landlords to pay for it. Unfortunately one of their tenants has plans of his own.

Joe Versus the Volcano
1990
as Frank Waturi
Hypochondriac Joe Banks finds out he has six months to live, quits his dead end job, musters the courage to ask his co-worker out on a date, and is th...

Double Your Pleasure
1989
as John
A television movie about an FBI agent (Jackée) who breaks her leg while trying to capture drug runners, and her identical twin sister (also portrayed ...

A Smoky Mountain Christmas
1986
as Harry
A country-western singer on a trip through the Tennessee mountains runs into a reclusive backwoodsman — and a witch.

That Secret Sunday
1986
A police cover-up of the murder of two young women at a wild party is complicated by the possible faking of a story by an overzealous young reporter s...

Courage
1986
as John Fosh
A mother in Queens, New York, outraged when she discovers that her son is a drug addict, becomes an undercover agent for the DEA to clean up the drug ...

Slow Burn
1986
as Simon Fleischer
Jacob Asch is hired by Gerald McMurty to find his ex-wife Laine and their son in Palm Springs. Jacob finds Laine and a teenager named Donnie who may o...

Running Scared
1986
as Captain Logan
Two street-wise Chicago cops have to shake off some rust after returning from a Key West vacation to pursue a drug dealer that nearly killed them in t...

Wise Guys
1986
as Anthony Castelo
Harry Valentini and Moe Dickstein are both errand boys for the Mob. When they lose $250,000, they are set up to kill each other. But they run off to A...

Commando
1985
as Arius
John Matrix, the former leader of a special commando strike force that always got the toughest jobs done, is forced back into action when his young da...

Tightrope
1984
as Det. Molinari
Wes Block is a detective who's put on the case of a serial killer whose victims are young and pretty women. The murders are getting personal when the ...

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
1984
as John Gomez
Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.

The Dollmaker
1984
as Skyros
During World War II, hard-luck farmer Colvis Nevels leaves his rural Kentucky home to take a factory job in bustling Detroit. Reluctantly accompanying...

Blood Simple
1984
as Julian Marty
The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings,...

Reckless
1984
as Peter Daniels
Teenager Johnny Rourke is reckless. Born on the wrong side of the tracks, he breaks the law and girls' hearts with equal cool. Cheerleader Tracey Pres...

The Hunger
1983
as Lieutenant Allegrezza
Five-thousand-year-old vampire Miriam promises her lovers the gift of eternal life. When John, her cellist companion for centuries, discovers that he ...

Endangered Species
1982
as Peck
A retired New York cop on vacation in America's West is drawn into a sheriff's investigation of a mysterious series of cattle killings.

I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
1982
as Dr. Klein
An adaptation of Barbara Gordon's nonfiction account of her addiction to Valium.

True Confessions
1981
as Howard Terkel
A cop clashes with his priest brother while investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute.

Night of the Juggler
1980
as Sgt. Otis Barnes
An ex New York cop is desperate to find his kidnapped daughter.

Death Penalty
1980
as Detective Ralph Corso
A strong-willed psychologist tries to rehabilitate a member of a Pittsburgh street gang who has been found guilty of the murder of two other teenagers...

The Seduction of Joe Tynan
1979
as Alex Heller
Respected liberal Senator Joe Tynan is asked to to lead the opposition to a Supreme Court appointment. It means losing an old friend and fudging princ...

The Last Tenant
1978
as Gabe
Family members face hard decisions about the care of their elderly father who needs constant care and can no longer safely live alone, which particula...
The Prince of Central Park
1977
as Hot Dog Vendor
A lonely widow who frequents Central Park becomes emotionally involved with two orphaned youngsters who have built an oasis for themselves there after...

The Passover Plot
1976
as Yaacov
Yeshua of Nazareth carefully plans his own crucifixion — and subsequent resurrection — to strengthen his political position against the Roman occupati...