Doris Belack

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American actress (1926–2011)

title: "Doris Belack" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1926-births", "2011-deaths", "american-film-actresses", "american-soap-opera-actresses", "american-stage-actresses", "american-television-actresses", "american-voice-actresses", "actresses-from-new-york-city", "jewish-american-actresses", "20th-century-american-actresses", "21st-century-american-actresses", "20th-century-american-jews", "21st-century-american-jews"] description: "American actress (1926–2011)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Belack" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actress (1926–2011) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
image	Doris Belack (1990).jpg
caption	Belack in 1990
birth_date
birth_place	New York City, U.S.
death_date
death_place	New York City, U.S.
occupation	Actress
years_active	1955–2011
spouse
::

Doris Belack (February 26, 1926 – October 4, 2011) was an American character actress of stage, film and television.

Early years

Born on February 26, 1926, Belack was the younger child of Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Isaac and Bertha Belack; she had an older sister.

Life and career

Belack began her acting career immediately after she graduated from high school when she began performing in a summer stock theater company.

She has sometimes been misidentified as the first Bernice Fish, the wife to Abe Vigoda's character Fish on Barney Miller. She was actually only a one-episode replacement for actress Florence Stanley, who played the role. Before that, Belack was seen mainly in soap operas. She originated the role of Anna Wolek Craig for nearly a decade on One Life to Live. She also appeared in Another World (three different roles over several years), The Doctors (1980, as psychiatrist Dr. Claudia Howard), and The Edge of Night (1981, as Beth Bryson). Later in the 1980s, she had the recurring role of Pine Valley's mayor on All My Children.

She played the formidable soap opera producer Rita Marshall in the 1982 comedy film Tootsie, which starred Dustin Hoffman. Her other film credits included roles in Fast Forward (1985), Batteries Not Included (1987), Splash, Too (1988), She-Devil (1989), Opportunity Knocks (1990), What About Bob? (1991), Naked Gun : The Final Insult. (1994), Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), The Odd Couple II (1998) and Fail Safe (2000).

Belack played the lead role in the short-lived television sitcom Baker's Dozen as "Florence Baker", the no-nonsense captain of an undercover anti-crime unit of the NYPD. The show lasted a month on CBS. She guest starred on an episode of The Golden Girls in 1985 as Gloria, the sister of Bea Arthur's character Dorothy Zbornak. From 1990 to 2001, Belack played tough, sharp-tongued Judge Margaret Barry, a recurring role on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She voiced Maureen McReary in Grand Theft Auto IV and provided the voices of Mrs. Dink and Mrs. Wingo in the Nickelodeon show Doug. Her last television appearance was on a 2003 episode of Sex and the City.

Personal life and death

Her husband, producer Philip Rose, died on May 31, 2011, four months before her own death. They were married for 65 years and had no children.

Belack died on October 4, 2011, in New York City, aged 85.

Filmography

Film

Looking Up (1977) - Libby Levine
The Black Marble (1980) - Harried Woman
Hanky Panky (1982) - Building Manager
Tootsie (1982) - Rita Marshall
Fast Forward (1985) - Mrs. Gilroy
Batteries Not Included (1987) - Mrs. Thompson
The Luckiest Man in the World (1989) - Mrs. Posner
She-Devil (1989) - Paula
Opportunity Knocks (1990) - Mona
What About Bob? (1991) - Dr. Catherine Tomsky
** (1994) - Dr. Roberts
What's Your Sign? (1997)
Krippendorf's Tribe (1998) - President Porter
The Odd Couple II (1998) - Blanche Madison Povitch
Doug's 1st Movie (1999) - Mayor Tippi Dink (voice)
Prime (2005) - Blanche
Delirious (2006) - Les's mother
Arranged (2007) - Elona (final film role)

Television

::data[format=table title="{{Screen reader-only|Doris Belack' television credits}} "]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	**
1965
1968–1977
1975
1978		{{sortname	Episode: "When a Body Meets a Body"
1978	{{sortname	Housekeeper	nolink=1}}
1980
1980	{{sortname	Olive	nolink=1}}
1980
1980
1981
1982
1982
1983
1983
1984

1984
1984
1984–1985
1985
1985
1985
1985
1985
1985
1985
1986
1986
1987	{{sortname	Dorian	nolink=1}}	Episode: "High Performance"
1987
1988	{{sortname	Edna	nolink=1}}
1988
1988
1989
1991	{{sortname	Fran	nolink=1}}
1991–1994

1992
1992
1993
1993
1994
1995
1995
1998
2000
2000–2001
::

References

Vitello, Paul. (October 9, 2011). "Doris Belack, Judge on TV's 'Law & Order', Dies at 85". [[The New York Times]].
(October 6, 2011). "Actress Doris Belack dies at 85". [[Variety (magazine).
(June 5, 2011). "Philip Rose dies at age 89". Variety.

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