Engaging character actor Cliff Emmich first began acting on stage. Veteran character actor Keenan Wynn advised Emmich to enroll at the Pasadena Playhouse. He studied at the Pasadena Playhouse for eight months. Emmich then toured the country with the American Repertory Players and spent a summer performing in summer stock at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He made his film debut in Gaily, Gaily (1969).

Later memorable roles were as a coroner in Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973), as sexist jerk business executive who insults Yvette Mimieux at the beginning of Jackson County Jail (1976), as a bumbling small town deputy in Barracuda (1978), as the ill-fated hospital security guard Mr. Garrett in Halloween II (1981), as an asylum doctor in the trashy Hellhole (1985), and as a small town sheriff in Digital Man (1995). He has appeared in such television shows as Crossing Jordan (2001), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), Nash Bridges (1996), Coach (1989), Baywatch (1989), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Knots Landing (1979), Night Court (1984), Hunter (1984), Riptide (1984), Simon & Simon (1981), CHiPs (1977), Knight Rider (1982), The Incredible Hulk (1977), Vega$ (1978), Fantasy Island (1977), Happy Days (1974), Little House on the Prairie (1974) (this is one of Emmich's favorite parts), Charlie's Angels (1976), Baretta (1975), Police Woman (1974), and Starsky and Hutch (1975). He is a member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.