Background and career
Lawrence Alan Hankin (born December 7, 1937) is an American character actor. He has had major film roles as Charley Butts in Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Ace in Running Scared (1986), and Carl Alphonse in Billy Madison (1995). He had smaller roles as Doobby in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Sergeant Larry Balzak in Home Alone (1990), Mr. Heckles in Friends, and Joe in Breaking Bad and El Camino.
Hankin was born in New York City on December 7, 1937, and grew up in a Jewish family in the Far Rockaway neighborhood of Queens. He graduated from Far Rockaway High School and Syracuse University, where he befriended screenwriter Carl Gottlieb.
Hankin was an early member of the Second City, training with improvisational theater teachers Viola Spolin and Paul Sills, and in 1963 moved to San Francisco to co-found the improv troupe, The Committee. His first notable supporting role was as Pt. Romero in Viva Max! in 1969. Hankin had roles in TV shows Breaking Bad, Matlock, and Friends (as Mr. Heckles), as well as a major role in Escape from Alcatraz (1979) with Clint Eastwood. He also acted in How Sweet It Is! (1968) with Debbie Reynolds and James Garner and the Adam Sandler movie Billy Madison (1995). He had cameo appearances in three John Hughes films: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), She's Having a Baby (1988), and Home Alone (1990), the latter of which featured Roberts Blossom (playing Old Man Marley), whom he co-starred with in Escape from Alcatraz. He made a brief appearance in Pretty Woman (1990) as the landlord, and had minor roles in Loose Shoes (1980), as "Handicap" in The Sting II (1983), The Sure Thing (1985), and Running Scared (1986). Hankin appeared in Married... with Children, as well as one of the Halloween specials of Home Improvement. Hankin appeared in three episodes of Star Trek: Voyager as Gaunt Gary and one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Hankin and Curtis Armstrong played the hippie entrepreneurs who purchased "Buy the Book", the bookstore where the titular character works at, on Ellen. On Seinfeld, Hankin portrayed Tom Pepper, the actor cast as Kramer on the pilot-within-a-TV-show Jerry. He portrayed a homeless man in season 5 of Malcolm in the Middle. He then appeared again with Bryan Cranston in seasons three and five of Breaking Bad as junkyard owner Old Joe. He reprised his old role from Breaking Bad in the Netflix sequel film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. In 2022, he won the Best Actor awarded at Casablanca Film Factory Awards for his performance in the movie I Hear the Trees Whispering.
One of Hankin's earliest roles was playing the lead character of Farley in the 1964 educational film Too Tough to Care. In 1977, Hankin appeared in the episode "The Bums vs. the Reds" of the situation comedy The San Pedro Beach Bums. He also played Mickey the Bartender in a WKRP in Cincinnati episode called "Hotel Oceanview" that also has a cameo appearance by Dr. Joyce Brothers as "Vicky Von Vicky". In 1982, he played the dog catcher that tries to take Sandy in Annie. In 1980, Hankin's short film Solly's Diner earned him and the film's producers a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Hankin was a founding member of the commedia dell'arte improvisation group The Committee in 1963, located at an indoor bocce ball court in San Francisco's North Beach district. He appeared in the Janet Jackson music video for her 1986 hit single "What Have You Done for Me Lately" as a cook/waiter. In 2021, he appeared in Friends: The Reunion.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
