He was innate in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn in 1936 and attended Abraham Lincoln High School where he wwhen class president and an faculty member besides as athletic success. The sports injury left him with there is no guide however to require an acting class, & at Sixteen he mass produced his stage debut in the school's production of ''You Can't Take It With You.

When school, he attended New York University, where he became the star cager & was chosen to play for the New York Knicks. Still, his avowedly vocation was acting & he took the large step into the world of cinema in the Sidney Poitier vehicle A Raisin in the Sun.

Since so he has never to return around to star in many film productions like The Deep, Jaws 3-D (as Sea Globe manager Calvin Bouchard), Enemy Mine, Iron Eagle, Toy Soldiers and The Punisher to name however two or three & TV. He is as well a voice of the Vortigaunts within Half-Life 2. His role inside Enemy Mine resulted inside the number 1: he portrayed the foremost male to exist as shown returning birth in screen, whilst he played the pregnant alien of a a single-gendered coinage.

It wwhen his role as Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman'' (playing paired Richard Gere) which showcased his enormous talent & garnered him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.