About this Artist
ALAN RUCK was born in Cleveland where his mother taught school and his father worked for a pharmaceutical company. He first became interested in acting while watching his older sister perform in school plays, inspiring him to become active in high school theatre himself. “I had to do something,” he recalls. “I might not have been the worst athlete in school, but I was the worst who tried out for anything.”
At the University of Illinois Alan majored in theatre, and performed in summer stock in central Illinois. After graduation, he headed for Chicago, where he began working with some of the area’s most prestigious theatre companies, including the Wisdom Bridge Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, and the Apollo Theatre. In Chicago, he starred in numerous stage productions as well as appeared in the feature films, “Class” and “Bad Boy,” and the telefilms, “First Steps” and “Hard Knox.”
He left Chicago for New York, where he appeared on Broadway for nine months, creating the character of Don Carney in Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues.” After director John Hughes came to see star Matthew Broderick in the show, Alan ended up with the second lead in the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
Since then, Alan’s other films have included “Goats,” “Extraordinary Measures,” “I Love You Beth Cooper,” “Ghost Town”, “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “Three for the Road,” “Bloodhounds of Broadway,” “Three Fugitives,” “Young Guns II,” “Star Trek: Generations,” “Speed,“ and “Twister.” His television credits include the ESPN miniseries “Bronx is Burning,” in which he starred with John Turturro and Oliver Platt, the NBC telefilm “Shooter,” the ABC comedy “Going Places,” the Warner Brother’s series “Muscle,” a guest starring role on Showtime’s “Outer Limits,” and a recurring role on NBC’s “Mad About You.” He also co-starred with Michael J. Fox on ABC’s “Spin City.” His most recent television appearances have included “Fringe,” “Justified,” “Cougar Town,” and “Hot in Cleveland.” He appeared in the first national tour production of the Mel Brooks hit musical “The Producers” in 2005. He also appeared in the off-Broadway production “Absurd Person Singular.”
Alan lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Mireille, and he has three children.