Raphel was a veteran of the theater, and had performed with his "Painter" co-star Paul Benedict on stage in Waiting for Godot and other productions. On Broadway, he played Judge Hawthorne in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. He also played a shiftless musician in The Connection, a play about the intersection of jazz and drugs, and reprised the role for the 1962 film version (with Roscoe Lee Browne), earning his screen debut.