Cedar's professional acting career did not begin until shortly after his admission to Hastings Law School when, on an impulse, he decided to audition for, and was accepted into the MFA Theater program at UCLA, from which he graduated in 1978.
[1] While there, he won the Hugh O'Brian Acting Competition award for Best Actor, resulting in a one-year artist development contract with Universal Studios.
He went on to star in various television films, and numerous episodics and feature films, including a starring role opposite Rebecca De Mornay in the Ivan Reitman-produced Feds, and an appearance as The Creature on the Wing, opposite John Lithgow, in the Steven Spielberg remake, Twilight Zone: The Movie, directed by George Miller.
He has been nominated for two Los Angeles Theater Alliance Ovation awards for his performances in Anything Goes (as Lord Oakley) opposite Rachel York, and in She Loves Me (as Sipos, for which he won Best Featured Actor in a Musical).
He co-starred opposite Adrien Brody as the demented Chester Sinclair in the Ben Affleck/Diane Lane noir feature film Hollywoodland, directed by Allen Coulter, and recurred for three seasons as Leon, the opium-addicted card dealer and thief, in the David Milch helmed HBO series Deadwood opposite Powers Boothe and Ian McShane.