James Rebhorn

James Rebhorn is one of those actors whose name you might not instantly recall, but whose face you absolutely know — and that gap between anonymity and ubiquity was essentially his superpower. The Philadelphia-born Columbia grad spent decades as one of Hollywood's most reliable character actors, the kind of guy directors called when they needed a bureaucrat, an antagonist, or an authority figure who felt genuinely threatening rather than cartoonish. I love that he showed up in everything from My Cousin Vinny to Basic Instinct to Independence Day and Scent of a Woman, always grounded, always specific, never once phoning it in. His stage roots gave him a precision that screen-only actors often lack. He passed away in March 2014 from melanoma, and honestly the industry lost a quiet cornerstone — the sort of performer who makes every scene around him sturdier just by being there.

Name (English)

James Rebhorn

Name (Japanese)

ジェームズ・レブホーン

Reading

じぇーむず・れぶほーん

Born

September 1, 1948 – March 21, 2014

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Rat

Origin

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Occupation

stage actor / film actor / television actor / actor

University

Columbia University

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%20Rebhorn
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%82%BA%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AC%E3%83%96%E3%83%9B%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q726140

Tags

• Pennsylvania
• stage actor
• film actor
• television actor

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.