Ron Rifkin
American actor (born 1938)
Ron Rifkin (born Saul M. Rifkin; October 31, 1938) is an American actor best known for his roles as Arvin Sloane on the spy drama Alias, Saul Holden on the drama Brothers & Sisters, and District Attorney Ellis Loew in L.A. Confidential. He received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Herr Schultz in the 1998 revival of Cabaret.
Personal life
Saul M. Rifkin was born in New York City in 1938 to Miriam and Herman Rifkin, who was born in Russia. He is the oldest of three children. He was raised as an Orthodox Jew and remains Jewish, though he left Orthodoxy at age 32.
His wife, Iva March Rifkin, owned a fashion design business. She died in 2023.
Career
In 2001, Rifkin's association with Touchstone Television began when he played intelligence agent Arvin Sloane in Alias, opposite Jennifer Garner. From 2006 to 2011, he played second-in-command businessman Saul Holden on Brothers & Sisters, opposite Sally Field as his sister Nora Walker. He also played Ann Romano-Royer (Bonnie Franklin)'s boyfriend Nick on One Day at a Time.
“Ron Rifkin” enters the record as american actor (born 1938). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rifkin, American and actor can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ron Rifkin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Rifkin, American and actor provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q352547. VIAF identifies the subject as 96947724. The Library of Congress control number is no98094340. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1998, 2023 and 2001.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ron Rifkin”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ron Rifkin primary sources, Ron Rifkin archive and Rifkin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ron Rifkin”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ron Rifkin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.