David Rasche

David Rasche is an American theater, film, and television actor whose career spans more than four decades, beginning with his first screen appearance in 1977 and continuing robustly to the present day. Born on August 7, 1944, in St. Louis, Missouri, Rasche grew up in a family of ministers and farmers, a background that later informed his ability to portray authority figures with both gravitas and humor. After earning a BA from Elmhurst College in 1966 and a graduate degree in English from the University of Chicago, he studied acting under the legendary Sanford Meisner and honed his improvisational skills with Chicago’s Second City, where he performed for two years before moving to New York. His early stage work included a standout performance in David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago with the Organic Theater, which helped launch his transition to screen roles such as the small part in Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979) and a terrorist in the TV film Special Bulletin (1983). Rasche achieved iconic status as the title character in the satirical 1980s police sitcom Sledge Hammer!, a role that combined exaggerated machismo with slapstick clumsiness and cemented his reputation for playing eccentric authority figures. Following the series, he returned to the stage to receive critical acclaim in Mamet’s Broadway hit Speed-the-Plow and continued to appear in a variety of television dramas, including recurring roles on L.A. Law, The West Wing, Veep, and Ugly Betty. More recently, Rasche has become widely recognized for his portrayal of the cynical corporate executive Karl Muller on HBO’s award‑winning series Succession (2018‑2023) and for his guest appearance as Alden Schmidt on Impastor. In addition to his on‑screen work, he has contributed his voice to NPR’s radio adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, and he remains active in theater, performing in productions such as Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth in 2017. Off the stage, Rasche married actress and acting teacher Heather Lupton in 1980, and together they have three children while maintaining a residence in Santa Barbara, California. His extensive body of work, marked by versatility and a distinctive blend of seriousness and satire, makes him a notable figure in contemporary American entertainment.