Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow

Robert Alan 'Rob' Morrow: Biography in Details

Who is Rob Morrow?

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow is an award-winning American actor. Rob Morrow is also a director-producer and an author. He wrote, directed and acted among others in ‘Northern Exposure’ as Dr. Joel Fleischman, and won the remote wild Alaskan town of Cecily a place in the hearts of millions of viewers.

Rob Morrow is also an accomplished musician and the Rob Morrow Band performed their second single “Tyranny of Beauty’ featuring Carlos Calvo on 19th May 2019 at the Wild Honey Backyard Amphitheatre in Eagle Rock, California, USA.

Rob is also a teacher at the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica and during the summer off 2019, he played the character, Willy Loman in ‘Death of a Salesman’.

Rob Morrow- Birth Age, Family, Education

Rob Morrow was born Robert Alan Morrow in New Rochelle, New York, to Murray Morrow, an industrial lighting manufacturer and Diane Francis Markowitz, a dental hygienist. His parents are of Russian-American-Jew descent.

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow was nine years old when Murray and Diane Francis divorced. This was the precursor of his delinquency during his formative years, and which popped up time after time.

After his primary education, he first studied at Edgemont High School in nearby Scarsdale, then later to Miami Sunset High School at Miami-Dade County, Florida, only to drop-out and start his professional career.

Rob Morrow- Professional Career

Beginnings

At the start of his movie career, Rob was Johnny Depp’s co-actor in the 1985 comedy ‘Private Resort’, and later on the weekly ‘Saturday Night Live’, he was one of the extras for that show.

Hollywood attracted him and Morrow had a start there in the Robert Redford movie “Quiz Show.”  In 2000, he directed and starred in Maze. In 2002, Morrow played Kevin Hunter on the Showtime television series ‘Street Time’. Rob also appeared in the television movie ‘Custody’, and then in 2007, he was Jack Nicholson’s doctor, Dr. Hollins in ‘The Bucket List’.

Television

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow played the lead role of Fleischman in the award-winning television show ‘Northern Exposure’ from 1990 to 1995.

Then he was Dick Goodwin in the critically acclaimed movie ‘Quiz Show’, and as the sports agent brother of Albert Brooks’ character in ‘Mother’.

From 2005 to 2010, he was the lead actor in ‘Numb3rs’ as FBI Special Agent Don Eppes. The prime-time series ’Numbe3rs’ follows the FBI Special Agent Don Eppes as he hunts down unidentified subjects of complex crimes in the city of Los Angeles, along with Diane Farr-Chung as the FBI Agent Megan Reeves.

Don has a brother Charlie Eppes, who is a mathematics professor at CalSci and also a prodigy, and one that is well executed by David Krumholtz. Don and Charlie’s father Alan Eppes, is a widower and retired city planner and who is characterized by Judd Hirsch.

They are assisted by Peter MacNicol as Larry Fleinhardt and Amita Ramanujan as characterized by Navi Rawat. This drama series examines how Charlie Eppes’ expert mathematical calculations solve even the most bizarre and complex crimes in Los Angeles.

Then on 8th March 2010 Rob signed-up for 13 episodes in Jerry Bruckheimer’s short-running series by ABC, ‘The Whole Truth’. Thereafter in 2017, he had the recurring role of reporter, Abe Leonard in the first season of the ABC political drama ‘Designated Survivor’.

‘Northern Exposure’- The Story

This series was broadcast from 1990 to 1995 and ran 110 episodes. It is the story of a newly- graduated and uptight doctor who must work in Cicely, Wild Alaska in return for his educational expenses that were invested by the estate and underwritten by the state. The story then takes place after his arrival in the small, remote town of Cicely with only 225 or so inhabitants out of which one is recently deceased, and therefore only 224 inhabitants remain.

Dr. Joel Fleischman is Rob’s first lead role on TV and he does it well. The inhabitants there are namely Maggie O’Connell, Chris Stevens, Maurice Minnifield, Ed Chigliak, Holling Vancoeur, Shelly Tambo, Marilyn Whirlwind, Ruth-Anne Miller and State Trooper Barbara among others.

Dr. Joel Fleischman (ROB MORROW)

Joel Fleischman is a neurotic and young Jewish physician from New York City. After his residency in the family medicine university, he has to fulfill his contractual conditions to the state for his student loan and work for four years in the city of Anchorage in Alaska. To his dismay he finds himself assigned to a small town, Cicely. His unfamiliarity with the local tradition adds to his woes but manages to wiggle out of all. Finally, he decides to ‘go native’ to an even more fishing village and embrace Wild Alaska.

Maggie O’Connell (JANINE TURNER)

Maggie O’Connell, a bush pilot, is barely alive emotionally after her fiancé dies in an avalanche but then decides to stay on in Cicely and start a taxi service. Maggie is torn between the affection for her dead boyfriend and the newcomer doctor who does not know what to say around her and who cannot find his feet on dry land, or rather Wild Snowy Alaska.

Chris Stevens (JOHN CORBETT)

Chis Stevens is a criminal who has just been released from jail. He decides to move to Alaska and is the sole operator of the local radio station. He lives, eats, goes to the gym, rounds up the local gossip, takes his Harley Davidson for a ride, and even finds time to invent the human cannonball- all this while living in his trailer. And just like Dr. Fleischman, sometimes the Alaskan weather gets under his skin and he starts acting up.

Maurice Minnifield (LEONARD BARRIE “BARRY” CORBIN)

Maurice Minnifield is a Korean War veteran and takes voluntary retirement from the Army because he has just inherited millions from his father. He goes on to buy more than 15,000 acres of Wild Alaska’s prime property, installs a radio station- where he installs the fugitive Chris Stevens as Radio Cecily radio-jockey with no questions asked, and also opens a newspaper.

Ed Chigliak (DARREN E. BURROWS)

Ed Chigliak is the local hill-billy, knows everything and yet nothing. He plays his role to perfection and conjures up laughter with his native wit and intelligence.

Holling Vincoeur (JOHN CULLUM)

Holling Vincoeur is the local Frenchman and the owner of the local bar and restaurant which is the center of all local gossip.

Shelly Tambo (CYNTHIA GEARY)

Shelly Tambo is a Canadian expatriate who comes to town with Minnifield. She then marries the owner of the village restaurant Holling, who is at least 40 years older than her. Shelly is often thought to be the town’s fool, but the girl hides surprising talents.

Marilyn Whirlwind (ELAINE MILES)

Marilyn Whirlwind works as a receptionist at Joel’s practice, as Dr. Fleishman hands out conventionally prescribed medicine, Marilyn doles out her native remedies on the side.

Peg Phillips (RUTH-ANNE MILLER)

Ruth-Anne Miller is the general storekeeper and the link between the modern American world and the remotely wild Alaska. She is the only one who keeps her wits a-plenty about her.

Sergeant Barbara Semanski (DIANE DELANO)

State Trooper Sergeant Barbara Semanski rounds up the Cicely-zens nice ‘n’ easy. She is the rootin’, tootin,’ shootin’ law and shoots thick and fast. Once she shot nine targets with nine guns and missed but three!! Sergeant Semanski loves to keep the local rabble-rousers on the straight and narrow as she is the intelligence with the intelligence.

“Northern Exposure” received worldwide acclaim international viewership A-Z, along with the Arctic and Antarctica Poles and every remote inhabitation in-between. You really gotta watch the series, ‘Northern Exposure’, seriously!

Facts

The story is well, a story, but does Cecily really exist?

You’ll be surprised! Cicely is really a small town in the Borough of Arrowhead County situated several hundred miles from the city of Anchorage, Alaska. It used to have a population varying between 600 and 800 during the early-to-mid 1950s. The locals love to call their town a county, even though counties do not exist in Alaska, just plain snow and more snow.

The exact date of Cicely’s founding is disputed by the characters in ‘Northern Exposure’- when Maurice and the oldest resident of Cicely, Ned Svenbourg debate over this non-issue.

Cicely, like much of Alaska, experiences extremes of seasonal variation of daylight. The town receives direct sunlight for only 90 minutes or less for 23 days in a year. This town has daylight instead of night in the summer, and in winter there is no daylight at all- it is like one night after another.

And then there is the ‘electronics effect’, really. The amazing natural wonder, the Aurora Borealis or ‘Northern Light’ causes the residents to turn sometimes. In one instance, one resident of Cicely dreamed another resident’s dream. Strangely true.

Cicely has more Native American population than any other town in Alaska and neck-to-neck with Caucasian-American population, the African-Americans of the town come and go as you please and of course, there is a small number of Asian-Americans and Jewish-Americans added to the mix.

And yes,  arctic animals do roam the streets at night, and perhaps howl even. So there you are. Cicely is for real.

Fast Forward

On 20th November 2018, CBS reported that it is developing a reboot of the series ‘Northern Exposure’ with the original cast if available. The reboot will have Rob’s Dr. Joel Fleishman returning from his ‘going native’ state of mind back to Cicely, Alaska for the funeral of an old friend and then reunites with some of his former neighbors while meeting a new set of quirky characters.

Josh Brand is writing the script and will be the executive produce along with Falsey, Rob Morrow and Ben Silverman. John Corbett, who starred with Morrow on the original, will be the producer. Darren E. Burrows, who played Ed Chigliak on the series, is crowd-funding the reboot.

“It sounds like we all want it to happen,” gushed cast member Cynthia Geary, who played Shelly Tambo, said at the time.

News ‘Northern Exposure’

Stars Rob Morrow, Janine Turner, and Cynthia Geary joined co-creator Joshua Brand and producers Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green and Cheryl Bloch to discuss the beloved former CBS series. The cast and creative brains behind the cult-favorite ‘Northern Exposure’ reunited Friday at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the former CBS series’ premiere.

During its five years on the TV screen, it was nominated for 54 awards of which it won 27, a total success.

Screen Writer-Director-Producer

In 1983, Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow became the Assistant to the director for the Los Angeles production of ‘Dreamgirls’.

He then established a production company named Bits and Pieces Pictures Co., and independently produced the 2000 movie ‘Maze’ among others, as a writer and a co-star with Laura Linney.

As a director, Rob debuted with The Silent Alarm in 1993, and that premiered in the 1993 Seattle Film Festival in 1993, and then it was featured at the Hamptons, Boston, Edinburgh, and Sundance Film Festivals, with its television debut on Bravo.

Rob is credited with three episodes of Numb3rs in 2005, an episode of HBO’s crime drama Oz, in 1997, three episodes of Showtime’s series Street Time in 2002, and again three episodes of CBS’s highly lauded drama ‘Joan of Arcadia’ in 2003. Then in 2002, ‘The Guru’, and the ‘The Emperor’s Club’, and then in 2004, ‘Going Shopping’.

Morrow has broadened his experience behind the camera as a director of episodes for Numb3rs, Street Time, the HBO series Oz, and Joan of Arcadia. Other series are…

-2015-2017, The Fosters, TV Series 5 episodes

-2016, NCIS: New Orleans, TV Series episode 6

-2015, Another Day with You, TV Series episode 6

2012-2013, Necessary Roughness, TV Series 2 episodes

-2003 Street Time TV Series 3 episodes

1993, The Silent Alarm, Short.

Theatre

A native New Yorker, Rob started his career in theater career working with Norman Mailer among others. On Broadway, he acted in ‘The Exonerated’, a drama based on the true tales of six innocent death-row inmates, opposite Penn Jillette and Mia Farrow.

He also worked ‘Third Street’, at the Circle Repertory Theatre and in London’s West End production of ‘Birdy’. Other stage appearances on theatre include,

-Escape from Riverdale, Jewish Repertory Theatre, New York, 1984

-I, Shaw, Jewish Repertory Theatre, 1986

-The Return of Pinocchio, 47th Street Theatre, New York, 1986

-The Chosen, Second Avenue Theatre, New York, 1987-88

-The Exonerated, 45 Bleecker, New York, 2002.

Rob Morrow-The Author

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow is the author of ‘The Silent Alarm’, ‘Northern Exposures’ Mizlansky/Zilinsky’, ‘Maze’ and ‘The Actor’s Nightmare’ in 1993, 1994, 1998, and 2000 respectively.

Rob Morrow Rated

-1994, Highest Rated at  96% for movie Quiz Show

-2014, Lowest Rated at 0% Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?

A Few Appreciation, Thank You Documentaries

-2014, Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau

-2009, Adam

-2005, Betting on Love

-2000, Tadpole

The Rob Morrow Band

The Rob Morrow Band was founded in 2017 and is based in Los Angeles, CA.

The band consists of Carlos Calvo on guitar and he is also the co-writer and backing vocals, Sam Aliano on drums, Carlos Costa on bass, and Jason Libs on keys. His band plays the genres Rock and Blues and is a favorite with the listeners of rock bands and rock artists like Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones.

Paula Edelstein in ‘Sounds of Timeless Jazz’ noted that the band uses various textures and tonality that showcases the mastery and skills of the band-members and their instruments’.

Rob Morrow and his Band regularly perform live and the recent was on Sunday, 17th November 2019 at Blue Note Napa, Napa Valley, CA, and before that on Thursday, 6th January 2019 at Bogies’, Westlake Village, in California, US.

On 14th September 2019, he released ‘Tyranny of Beauty’, the second single and the debut single of the Rob Morrow Band, featuring Carlos Calvo. ‘Tyranny of Beauty’ is produced by Steve Postell and David Crosby, and features lead guitarist Carlos Calvo of Adam Levine–David Duchovny fame, bassist Bob Glaub of Steve Nicks, Journey fame, and drummer Steve Ferrone of  Tom Petty and his band The Heartbreaker fame.

The copyright of this single belongs to Rob Morrow & Carlos Calvo Late Start Music.

Rob Morrow- The Actor

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow has been described as a more neurotic and less loveable Woody Allen. In his early days as a struggling actor, he supported himself sometimes as a waiter and sometimes worked as a balloon messenger.

When Rob started working on ‘Northern Exposure’ as a screenwriter, director-actor, his agent warned him that this series will cost him his future on TV. Rob disregarded this caution and went on to achieve international acclaim, Globe awards notwithstanding.

Later he appeared in the persona of the cigar-chewing, Boston-accented, and fiercely moralistic federal attorney Richard Goodwin in ‘Quiz Show’, which was the 1994 re-enactment of the 1958 TV game show ‘Cheating Scandal’.

In this way, Rob keeps struggling to break free of any typecast role and has succeeded so far. Till now he has played the ex-con, a Tourette syndrome patient, criminal detective, to quote in Rob’s words ‘I’m not a gun guy, but I’m really into this and we really get some cool weapons. I love the action scenes’ in an interview with the journalist from The Philadelphia Inquirer, David Hiltbrand.

Honors, Recognition

-As an active stage and theater actor, he co-founded Naked Angels, a non-profit ensemble. Other founding members are Marisa Tomei, Fisher Stevens, Gina Gershon, and Annabella Sciorra.

-Morrow is on the Board of Directors of Project ALS, co-founded by Jenifer Estess who was diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neuromuscular disease in 1997. Jenifer Estess was a New York theater producer and while alive raised millions of dollars to combat A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig’s disease)

Rob Morrow- Awards

The series ‘Northern Exposure’ was nominated for 54 awards out of which it won 27, a total success for its short-run of just five years.

Other awards include Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, and Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series and also the…

2001, Audience Favorite Choice Award – Honorable Mention, Cine-quest San Jose Film Festival

2001, 2 Jury Awards, Newport Beach Film Festival

2000, President Award, Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival

Rob Morrow- The Person

A Better Half

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow and his wife Debbon both love to share a “pun” with names. Her name, Debbon Ayer, is a homophone for the word debonair, which means “suave” and “snazzy” or “carefree.” Their daughter’s name, when spoken without her middle name, is a homophone for the word tomorrow.

As husband and wife, Rob Morrow and Debbon Ayer are seen together at gala events. For instance, during the 11th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, they arrived together at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, the United States for the Red-Carpet event.

A Dad

Rob is a doting father. When asked by a journalist from ‘People’ about being a parent, the once-troubled teenager Rob replied that “It’s freed me up in a certain way. Now nothing matters really except that. And I know that it doesn’t matter even if, you know, I have to go work at Burger King. I’ll do it. It’s someone that you put your life on the line for.”

TSM did dad Rob and mom Debbon proud as a ‘Trophy Presenter’ at the Guild Of Music Supervisor Award in the 8th Annual Awards in 2018.

A Friend

He is an avid skier and skies regularly with Fisher Stevens.

How tall is Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow?

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow has black hair and eyes. He is 5′ 10″ or 1.78m tall.

Net worth, Earnings

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow’s net worth is $10M US as of 2022. His earning as an actor is as follows-

2018, $14,000,000

2017, $10,000,000

2016, $6,666,667

2015, $5,000,000

2014, $3,333,333

2013. $2,500,000

2012, $2,000,000

Movies- Rating, Gross

2012, ‘The Good Doctor’ rated at 66% grossed at $3.7M US.

2007, ‘The Bucket List’ rated at 41%, grossed at $170M US.

2002, ‘The Emperor’s Club’ rated at 50%, grossed at $14M US.

2002, ‘The Guru’ rated 57%, grossed at $2.9M US.

Business Address

Agent —William Morris Agency

151 South El Camino Dr.

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Home—New York, NY, and Santa Monica, CA.

Is Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow active on social media?

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow has more than 7.9k views on his YouTube, 16k on Twitter, and 1.9k on Facebook.

-Check this one out! This is Rob’s opening monologue on Saturday Night Live and has more than 4685 views.

–And then at Rob’s forum you are invited to ‘obey these rules for my robmorrowforum or else…” Hop on board at myrobmorrowforum.proboards.com.

You may also want to read the married and single status and biographies of Jacquelyn Verdon-Frazier, Colin Furze, John William McGraw, Diane Farr-Chung, Peter MacNicol and Lola Grace Consuelos.

Robert Alan ‘Rob’ Morrow's Birthday Dates