R.I.P. Alan Rachins: ‘L.A. Law’ And ‘Dharma & Greg’ Alum Dead At 82

L.A. Law and Dharma & Greg alum Alan Rachins died on Saturday (Nov. 2), DECIDER can confirm. He was 82.

Mark Teitelbaum, Rachins’ manager, shared a statement from Rachins’ family with DECIDER, which noted that the actor “died peacefully in his sleep this past weekend, due to heart failure.”

Per their statement, “the family thanks everyone for this outpouring of affection” and “they will plan a celebration of life in the next few months.”

Rachins was born Oct. 3, 1942 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, per the New York Times. According to Entertainment Weekly, Rachins began his acting career on stage, appearing in both Broadway and off-Broadway productions.

Rachins’ on-screen career dates back to the 1970s, though his two most iconic roles arrived in the form of lawyer Douglas Brackman Jr. on L.A. Law (1986-1994) and father Larry Finkelstein on Dharma & Greg (1997-2002). Per The Hollywood Reporter, Rachins’ wife Joanna Frank’s brother, Steven Bochco, was one of L.A. Law‘s co-creators. Bochco passed away in 2018, per Deadline.

Over the course of his decades-long career, Rachins also worked on numerous other TV titles, including Dallas, The Golden Girls, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Rizzoli & Isles, General Hospital and Young Sheldon.

Some of Rachins’ most notable film credits include Always (1985), Showgirls (1995), Leave It To Beaver (1997) , and Angels on Tap (2018).

According to IMDb, Rachins earned his most recent film credit in The Lights Above, a 2023 short directed by Luke J. Salewski.

Rachins is survived by his wife and actress Joanna Frank and their son Robert.