It's a Cookbook!

Lloyd Wolfe Bochner was born in Toronto on July 29, 1924.  He was born to a middle-class Jewish family and knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a performer.

By the time he was 11, Bochner was already acting on radio programs in Ontario.  He easily segued to both the theatre and films, for which he'd earn two Liberty Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars.

In 1951, he crossed the border and settled in New York City.  He began appearing on American television, on such series as The Kraft Theatre and Studio One in Hollywood.  For the next decade, he remained a reliable, go-to character actor with scores of guest credits to his name.  

One of the more iconic roles during this period was in an episode of The Twilight Zone entitled "To Serve Man."  Bochner appeared as Michael Chambers, a government official tasked with deciphering an alien artifact.  Only too late does he discover that the seemingly peaceful manual "To Serve Man" is actually a cookbook.  You can watch that revelation here.  Thirty years later, when Bochner played the villain in The Naked Gun 2: The Smell of Fear, producers had him re-create that iconic scene for full comedic effect.  You can watch that version here.

In 1963, Bochner was cast as a regular on another anthology series entitled The Richard Boone Show.  It would only last for one season on NBC.  Here are the opening credits - see if you can spot him.  From there, he continued making guest appearances, on such series as Perry Mason and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Throughout the 1970s, Bochner made the rounds on the decade's biggest primuetime hits, including Gunsmoke, Columbo, and The Six Milliob Dollar Man.  He had a recurring role on the ABC series Battlestar Galactica as a Nazi-esque commander who runs afoul of series lead Lorne Greene.  

Then in the 1980s, Bochner began appearing on primetime soaps.  Most notably, he appeared as Cecil Colby on Dynasty, where he died mere moments after marrying series star Joan Collins.  You can watch that infamous death scene here. 

A few years later, Bochner was cast in the lead role of C.C. Capwell on the daytime soap opera Santa Barbara, but was forced to leave the series before it began after suffering a heart attack.  He was initially replaced by Peter Mark Richman (Reverend Snow on Three's Company), though a total of four different actors would play the Capwell patriarch.

Following his departure from the series, Bochner continued to appear on television and began doing voice-over work as well, most notably as the mayor of Gotham City on Batman: The Animated Series.  Here's a sample of his work.  He continued voicing the character for the next decade in other series and in video games as well.

By the late 1990s, Bochner was diagnosed with cancer.  He semi-retired from show business and began focusing on his health.  His final role was in the 2003 film The Commission, which examined the events of the Kennedy assassination.

On October 29, 2005, Bochner lost his battle with cancer.  He was 81 years old. 

Bochner was cremated and his ashes were interred at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village in Los Angeles. Due to its reflective surface, it is very difficult to get a good picture of his marker.

Location: Garden of Serenity
Inscription: Goodnight Sweet Prince
May Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest

Rest in peace, Mr. Chambers.

Trivia

• The inscription on Bochner's marker is a quote from Hamlet.  Readers of this blog may recall that Robert Reed, star of The Brady Bunch, has the same quote on his headstone.
  
  
  
  
  
• In 1998, Bochner co-founded the Committee to End Violence, who's goal was to study the impact of violent imagery on American culture.
  
  
• Bochner was an enthusiast of amateur radio, earning his license as a ham operator.  He broadcast with the call sign N6CKF.