Biography
Michael Rothhaar has been a professional actor since 1975 and a professional theatre director since 1985. He won the 1997 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the 1997 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in Ardèle, as well as the 1997 Drama Logue Award in Direction for Mrs. Warren's Profession. Both productions were for Pacific Resident Theatre. As an actor, he appeared on Broadway in The Front Page and The Corn Is Green, in such feature films as The Nutty Professor and Space Jam, Off-Broadway in Frankenstein and Brand, in the San Francisco company of The Foreigner, the Los Angeles company of Shear Madness, in the Geffen's production of Uncle Vanya, and the American premiere of Dog Days, (written and directed by Simon Gray)...as well as working at The Mark Taper Forum...covering in Expecting Isabel. He has worked on various television series such as Family Law, (recurring as Judge Prentiss), Ally Mc Beal, Arliss, NYPD Blue, The X-Files, Murder One, Star Trek-The Next Generation, Murphy Brown, Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, L.A. Law, Civil Wars, Picket Fences, Step By Step, Hudson Street, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Married ...With Children, Snoops and Love And War. His credits also include numerous appearances in regional theatre, notably: Sleuth and Charley's Aunt at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,The Tempest and The Andersonville Trial at Michigan's Meadow Brook Theatre, Terra Nova at the Washington Stage Guild in Washington, D.C., Candida and Bedroom Farce at Maryland's Olney Theatre, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award-winning production of The Visit at the Pacific Resident Theatre. In the course of his acting career, Michael has worked with such notable and talented individuals as Tony Award-winning directors Jerry Zaks and Vivian Matalon, acclaimed director Michael Langham, the distinguished English playwright Simon Gray, as well as such accomplished performers as John Lithgow, Richard Thomas, Imogene Coca, Wallace Shawn, René Auberjonois, Dennis Franz, Kathleen Quinlan, Eddie Murphy, Robert Foxworth, Dixie Carter, Peter Donat, Ray Walston, Peter Gallagher, Brent Spiner, Cecily Tyson, Orson Bean, Alley Mills, Tony Danza, Mariel Hemingway, Alan King, John Astin, Louie Anderson and Michael Jordan,. Michael served as the Artistic Director of Pennsylvania's Allenberry Playhouse from 1987 to 1992. For Allenberry, he has directed 40 productions, notably: Lettice And Lovage, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Agnes Of God, The Foreigner, Blithe Spirit, Driving Miss Daisy, The Miracle Worker, Steel Magnolias, Broadway Bound, The Diary Of Anne Frank, Lend Me A Tenor, Cabaret, Guys And Dolls and My Fair Lady. He has directed Otherwise Engaged, Candida, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Waiting For Godot, The Private Ear And Macbeth ....According To The Fifth Grade for Pacific Resident Theatre. In Washington, D.C., he directed Mrs. Warren's Profession and The Millionairess at the Washington Stage Guild. In 1994, he directed Sleuth, which toured southern California. Michael is the father of Will Rothhaar, an accomplished actor in his own right, and the step-father of Charles F. Linehan, recently engaged to be an Assistant D.A. in Manhattan.
