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Alan Rachins, best known for his role in Dharma & Greg and L.A. Law, passed away on November 2, 2024, at the age of 82. Rachins was married to actress Joanna Frank. His wife confirmed the news of his demise to The Hollywood Reporter, stating that he had been experiencing heart failure and died in his sleep at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Joanna Frank, born on March 7, 1941, in New York City, USA, is an actress known for her role as Sheila Brackman, Rachins' on-screen spouse in L.A. Law, and for appearances in The Outer Limits and Say Anything.... She and Alan Rachins met in an acting class and married in 1978, in their 30s.
The couple shares a son, Robert, and together they founded Allofit Productions, as per Alan's bio. The production company has acquired books and original screenplays to develop them for feature films and television.
"When I met Alan, he said to me, ‘I don’t want any drama in my life"— Alan Rachins' wife recalls in an interview
While Joanna Frank and Alan Rachins haven't made any public appearances or given interviews recently, the couple spoke to The L.A. Times about their marriage and working together on L.A. Law in February 1988. Talking about what Alan said to her when they met, Joanna Frank recalled:
“When I met Alan, he said to me, ‘I don’t want any drama in my life.' We’d already had relationships that had big highs and big lows and a lot of drama in them. I said, ‘Great--I don’t want any drama, either.’”
At the time of the interview, their son Robert was five years old, and the couple resided in a home above Sunset Boulevard. During the conversation, Frank and Alan discussed the characters they played on L.A. Law, where the actress mentioned that her brother, the show’s executive producer, Steven Bochco, warned them that the characters they were playing weren't likable.
Commenting on the same, Alan Rachins told the publication:
“When people say you’re playing the character we love to hate, frankly, I don’t buy it. Maybe last year, but not anymore. Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way."
The late actor said that he feels the writers rounded out his character of Douglas Brackman Jr. to be more "understandably pathetic or sad or locked in." He added that he thinks the writers have made his character more complicated.
Talking about his marriage to Joanna Frank, Alan Rachins described them as "late bloomers" who struggled to find themselves as actors and individuals before finding each other. He said that their relationships with the opposite sex hadn't been successful until they met each other.
Toward the end of the interview, Alan Rachins mentioned that "working together is no different than not working together" because even when he and Frank were unemployed, they were working on their marriage.
The late L.A. Law actor was nominated for a Golden Globe and Emmy in 1988 for his work in the series, however, he did not win either. Additionally, after L.A. Law ended in 1994, Alan starred as Lawrence "Larry" Finkelstein in Dharma & Greg, appearing in all 200 episodes of the show.
