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Ron Rifkin
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Arvin Sloane
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The Basics: Born October 31, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York, Rifkin is a Tony Award-winning
actor (for the 1998 production of "Cabaret") whose career has taken many turns. He spent the
majority of his career in the 1970s in supporting roles in movies and TV series, making an
occasional foray into theater. Frustrated with playing what he felt was the same role over
and over, Rifkin quit acting entirely in 1983 and entered the fashion industry. For seven years,
he designed women's coats and regained his creative inspiration. Rifkin re-entered the
acting profession full-time in 1990, when a young playwright wrote a play with Rifkin in mind for
the lead. The acclaim for the play, "The Substance of Fire," led to a movie adaptation, and Rifkin
has been starring in movies, plays, television series ever since.
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The Basics: Arvin Sloane gives new meaning to the term "criminal mastermind."
In the past two years, he's headed up rogue intelligence agency SD-6 (where
all his lower-level employees were told they were working for the CIA), engineered
a scheme to "kill" his wife so he could become full partner in The Alliance,
tricked basically everyone in the world so he could go truly freelance and
destroy The Alliance, and gathered enough Rambaldi artifacts to assemble a
fearsome device called The Telling, which does...something big and scary.
And those are just the highlights. Along the way he's maimed, murdered, and
ordered hits on too many people to count, most notably Sydney's fiancé,
Francie, and Dixon's wife.
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Personal: His father was a successful furrier in New York, which provided the background for
Rifkin's fascination with the garment industry. His younger brother Arnold is a Hollywood executive.
Rifkin has been married to Iva March since 1967, and they have no children.
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Personal: Sloane's one saving grace was his love for his wife Emily. Their
devotion to each other was so great that, while she was playing dead so Sloane could
gain power in the Alliance and then flee it altogether, she actually mailed
him her finger. He was about ten seconds away from giving up his life of crime
to settle down with Emily in Italy when Dixon accidentally shot her. Now he has nothing
stopping him from becoming pure evil.
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Work History: Rifkin has appeared in films such as "Silent Running," "The Sunshine Boys," "LA Confidential,"
"Tadpole," and "The Sum of All Fears." He's also appeared in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives" and "Manhattan Murder Mystery." In addition to "Alias," his TV credits
include "Hill Street Blues," "One Day at a Time," "The Outer Limits," and "ER."
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Work History: Sloane was one of a team of CIA agents that broke with
the agency to "go freelance." The Alliance of Twelve was formed, with Sloane
as a member, but he didn't become full partner until he exposed turncoat
member Edward Poole and faked Emily's death. Then he got both voting rights and his own chair.
But status symbols weren't enough for our Uncle Arvin, who figured out that his most valuable
players at SD-6 were double agents. He orchestrated a grand plan to get the
Bristows and the CIA to take down the Alliance, and he fled with all the
Rambaldi artifacts in pursuit of what we can only assume is world
domination. Now that looks much more impressive on your résumé than
a measly little chair in England.
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Trivia: Rifkin earned a degree in psychology from NYU, and he believes the time he spent in
the field made him a more sensitive person in several ways. He is a connoisseur of wines and once
took part in a kind of "wine taster's circuit." He is also skilled at needlepointing.
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Trivia: He possesses a high threshold of pain, as evidenced by his refusal to scream when being
needlepointed and/or having his index finger severed from his hand. His obsession in life is deciphering
the prophecies of Milo Rambaldi. He's all about the inappropriate touching
and the suggestions that he and Sydney may be more than boss/employee and
fugitive/pursuer. He's not above being seen by his co-workers
in a bathrobe, or by his security cameras in a loose-fitting towel. This character
trait may actually upset us more than the murdering.
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Information was gathered from the Internet Movie Database, Newsday and the Washington Times.
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