Steve Landesberg from "Barney Miller" dies

[Robert Howard]

I think I have reason to believe that the person who BECAME Steve Landesburg the ACTOR had PREVIOUSLY been

Steven Landesburg the low level provocateur at an earlier time. Many young political activists from college

campuses were recruited for purposes of infiltration of "subversive" groups. Many of these grew out of their

political activism and became normal citizens. My thought is that the actor WHEN YOUNGER had been involved

in this way. I have forgotten all the evidence that led me to this conclusion...but I remember writing to the

actor, and I received a very strange reply from his AGENT, who could have given me a simple NO COMMENT

or NO, but instead gave me what seemed a form reply to such inquiries and threatened legal action against me,

when all I asked was whether he was the same person in the news clipping.

Jack

December 20, 2010

Steve Landesberg, 'Barney Miller' Actor, Dies at 74

By HAMILTON BOARDMAN

Steve Landesberg, an actor and comedian with a friendly and often deadpan manner who was best known for his role on the long-running sitcom "Barney Miller," died in Los Angeles on Monday. He was 74.

The cause was colon cancer, his daughter, Elizabeth, said.

On "Barney Miller," which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1982, Mr. Landesberg played Sgt. Arthur P. Dietrich, an intellectual detective with a quiet manner who seemed to have an unrivaled knowledge of practically any topic that arose, much to the bewilderment of his fellow detectives.

He was also given to odd, unexpected pronouncements. In one 1980 episode he tells his boss, Captain Miller, played by Hal Linden, that he is working on a case that dates to 1973. Miller says: "That was seven years ago! Nixon was president!" Dietrich's low-key response: "No, he's got an airtight alibi for this one."

Mr. Landesberg received three Emmy Award nominations for that role.

Set in a New York City police station, where most of the action takes place, "Barney Miller" portrayed a group of wisecracking detectives and the oddball characters who ended up there. Some police officers said the show represented the real life of rank-and-file officers better than many television detective dramas.

After "Barney Miller" left the air, Mr. Landesberg appeared on "The Golden Girls," "Law & Order," "That '70s Show" and "Everybody Hates Chris," among other shows. He had a recurring role on the short-lived 1998 sitcom "Conrad Bloom." Most recently he played Dr. Myron Finkelstein, a Freudian therapist, in "Head Case," a comedy on the Starz cable channel.

In 2008 he played a pediatrician whose patient (played by Jason Segel, the film's writer and star) is in his 20s in the hit movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." His other movies include "Wild Hogs" and "Leader of the Band." His distinctively dry, deep voice was also heard in cartoons and commercials.

Stephen Landesberg was born on Nov. 23, 1936, in the Bronx. He began his career as a stand-up comic in the late 1960s and became known for his off-center observations and eccentric delivery. He performed in New York comedy clubs alongside comedians like Freddie Prinze and Jimmie Walker.

Mr. Landesberg appeared on "The Tonight Show" for the first time in 1971 and several times on "The Dean Martin Show" before landing his first recurring role, as a Viennese violinist, on the sitcom "Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers," in 1974.

Besides his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Nancy Ross Landesberg.

Initial reports of Mr. Landesberg's death, relying on numerous biographical sources, said he was 65. In acknowledging that he was actually nine years older, his daughter said he had provided varying birth dates over the years. "He got kind of a late start in show business," she explained, "so he tried to straddle the generations. He fooled the whole world. People were surprised to think he was even 65."

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 21, 2010

An earlier version of this article misstated Mr. Landesberg's age and the year of his birth. He was 74, not 65, and he was born in 1936, not 1945.

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I would also like to make a point about Landesberg's fame, and its effect on JFK researchers perceptions, even if it is already understood.

If Landesberg was a, not so peripheral character in helping create a certain perception in 1963 of Oswald, it is incumbent to remember that he [Landesberg] was not famous in 1963, so the fact that his later fame comes into play in the world of perceptions of "could it really have been him," is for all practical purposes irrelevant, except as far as the masses are concerned. We now know that persons such as Julia Child, for example was with the OSS years before she became famous for her cooking. Hollywood/Famous/People and the JFK assassination are not mutually exclusive.

Zieger's widow's family later knew Paul and Joanne Newman* and such unusual facts are actually practically commonplace.

* Ignacio Zuleta Ambito Financial [Financial Atmosphere] 1995 interviews of Anna Evalinga Zeiger

What is the crux of the issue is Was he the person the FBI could have indicted for making false statements?

I personally believe he either was, or was involved in helping maintain the Chinese Fire Drill of confusion, over the Leandes/Landesberg imbroglio and in much the same way as the Soviet Union always maintained that Raoul Wallenberg died in 1947 in Lubuyanka Prison, despite an extreme amount of evidence that he was alive as late as, at least the 1970's, no-one in a position to prove he was, would ever admit the answer to the question is yes, even if it were so.......

Edited March 26, 2011 by Robert Howard