Robert Lansing

 

"People don't want to mess with success.  If you do one thing well, then that's all they want you to do.  Very often if you're not careful it just gets narrower and narrower."
  -- Robert Lansing, on being typecast

Robert Lansing, while not exactly a household name, was born Robert Howell Brown in San Diego on June 5, 1928.  He knew from a young age that he wanted to be an actor and was intent on making it on the Broadway stage.  

After completing his education, Lansing enlisted in the Army and went to serve his country during World War 2.  He was stationed in Osaka, Japan, where he worked for Armed Forces Radio.

After the war, he relocated to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he continued working in radio.  He served as an announcer on WANE-AM, where he used his real name of Bob Brown.

In the early 1950s, Lansing settled in New York City.  There he was hired as an actor by a stock company based in Michigan.  The position required that he first join a union, but when he attempted to do so, he was told he would have to change his name, as there was already one Bob Brown.  As the stock company was located in Michigan, he adopted its capital city, Lansing, as his official stage moniker.  He'd use it for the rest of his life.

After Michigan, Lansing returned to New York.  He made his Broadway debut in a 1951 production of Stalag 17.  The play was directed by Broadway legend Jose Ferrer, who was impressed by Lansing's commanding presence.  He cast him in a number of follow-up productions, including Cyrano de Bergerac and Richard III.

Lansing made his television debut in 1956, appearing on Kraft Television Theatre.  A film career followed.  He starred in the 1959 science fiction film 4D Man, in which his character had the ability to walk through walls.  Here's the theatrical trailer.  He later starred in the classic B movie Namu, The Killer Whale, a film imfamous for featuring one of the first orcas ever displayed in captivity.  At some point or another, MGM decided to change the film's title to Namu, My Best Friend.  That's like a complete 180.  You can watch the film in its entirety here.

Lansing returned to television in 1961, when he was cast as Detective Steve Carella on the NBC series 87th Precinct. His co-stars included Norman Fell and Ron Harper.  Here's an episode in its entirety.  He'd continue to act on television throughout the 1960s, appearing on a number of popular series, including The Twilight Zone, The Mod Squad, and as was required by law of all actors at the time, Gunsmoke.

The guest role Lansing is best associated with however, was as Gary Seven on Star Trek.  The episode entitled "Assignment: Earth" was actually created as a backdoor pilot for a new series, which would have seen Lansing in the starring role alongside a still-unknown Teri Garr (left).  Here's the trailer for the episode.  NBC decided to pass on the new series, but fortunately for creator Gene Roddenberry, they picked up Star Trek for one more season.

Although the series wasn't picked up, Lansing never hurt for work.  He continued acting on television, most notably in a recurring role on the CBS series The Equalizer.  He also had a supporting role on one of the most infamous television bombs of the 1980s, Automan, which looked a lot like the Disney movie Tron.  Here's the series intro.

In 1993, Lansing was cast on the television revival series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.  He was hired by Executive Producer Michael Sloan, who had worked with Lansing on The Equalizer.  In fact, Lansing's character of Police Captain Paul Blaisdell was written specifically for him.  Here's a scene in which he blows his top at series lead Chris Potter.

Although the series would run for four seasons, Lansing only appeared in the first two.  As his health began to decline, his character was written out of the series, with the hope that he'd one day return.  Sadly, it would never happen. 

Lansing was a lifelong smoker and by all accounts, a heavy one at that.  It ultimately took his life on October 23, 1994.  He was just 66 years old.  His final episode of Kung Fu aired one month later and was dedicated to his memory.

He was buried at Union Field Cemetery in Queens, New York.

Rest in peace, Mister Seven.

Trivia

• Union Field Cemetery is also the final resting place of Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. 
  
  
• Lansing did a lot of commercial work as well.  Here's a spot for the 1974 Mercury Marquis with actress Jennifer O'Neill.  Here's another for Eckerd Drugs.  Finally, here's one for Giant Eagle grocery stores.
  
  
• Lansing appeared as a special guest on the 1960s game show What's My Line.  Were celebrity panelists Soupy Sales and Charles Nelson Reilly able to correctly guess his identity?  Find out here.
  
  
• Lansing was president of The Players Club, a New York social club for actors, in the early 1990s.  It was founded in the 1880s by Edwin Booth, brother of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. 

Wayne Rogers

 

"If I had known that the show was gonna run that long, I probably would have kept my mouth shut and stayed put."
  --Wayne Rogers

William Wayne McMillan Rogers III was born in Birmingham, Alabama on April 7, 1933.  A gifted student, he graduated from Princeton University in 1954 with a degree in history, intent on becoming a lawyer.  Before applying to law school however, Rogers enlisted in the Navy and served as navigator on a cargo ship.

After his discharge from the service, Rogers went to visit a friend in Brooklyn who was rehearsing for a local stage production.  In that moment, he began having reservations about a future in law, believing a career in show business was a much better fit.

His first major role was on the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow in 1959.  This led to a variety of primetime guest star roles in the 1960s, on such series as The Fugitive, Gunsmoke and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.  But his big break came in 1967 with a supporting role in the Paul Newman classic Cool Hand Luke.  Here's the scene you probably best remember him from.

In 1972, Rogers was asked to audition for a new television series called M*A*S*H, based on the feature film of the same name (right).  He was initially drawn to the role of Hawkeye Pierce, but ultimately found the character to be too cynical, opting to play the more light-hearted Trapper John McIntyre instead.

When the series went into production, Rogers became close friends with co-star Alan Alda.  Initially, neither of their characters was any more important to the show than the other.  But as the series progressed, Alda's Hawkeye became the central focus, both with the writers and the fans, a fact that did not sit well with Rogers. 

He spent the next three years fighting for a bigger role, but saw little in the way of character development, and he ultimately left the series in 1975.  As a result, the producers sued Rogers for breach of contract, but the case was ultimately thrown out of court, as Rogers, in fact, had no contract.

After his departure from the series, Rogers continued working in television.  He had a starring role in the 1975 made-for-TV movie Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan.  Then in 1976, he had a short-lived detective series called City of Angels, which only lasted for one season.  You can watch an episode in its entirety on YouTube.

The post-M*A*S*H series that Rogers is best remembered for however, was the medical sit-com House Calls, which lasted for three seasons on CBS.  For this role, Rogers was nominated for an Emmy Award for best actor in a comedy series, while his co-star Lynn Redgrave received a best actress nomination.

He continued acting throughout the 1980s and 90s, including a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote.  He also assumed the role of Major Tony Nelson alongside Barbara Eden in the TV reunion movie I Dream of Jeannie....15 Years Later (left).  Larry Hagman, who had created the role for television, was unavailable for some reason or another.  Then in 1990, he co-starred with Connie Selleca in the made-for-TV movie Miracle Landing, the true story of an airliner that made it to safety after the cabin depressurized.

Rogers was simultaneously building an impressive resume in the world of personal finance.  He was president of his own stock market investment company and testified as an expert on Capitol Hill before the House Committee on the Judiciary.  He also appeared as a spokesman for Senior Home Loans, one of the early reverse mortgage firms.  You can watch his commercial on YouTube.

By the early 2000s, he was appearing regularly on the FOX Business Channel and was a regular panelist on the news program Cashin' In.  This was his last television role however, as soon he'd be Cashin' Out.

Wayne Rogers died of pneumonia on December 31, 2015.  He was 82 years old.  He was entombed at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village in Los Angeles.   I'm sure the name is a total coincidence.

Indeed it was.  Rest in peace, Trapper.

Trivia

• This blog is coincidentally posting on Rogers' 88th birthday.
  
  
• Rogers died exactly one year before his M*A*S*H co-star William Christopher, aka Father Mulcahy.
  
  
• One of Rogers' co-stars on House Calls was actor Roger Bowen, a M*A*S*H veteran himself, having originated the role of Henry Blake in the 1970 feature film.
  
  
• During the early days of their respective careers, Rogers and Peter Falk were roommates in New York City.  Today, they are both laid to rest in the same Los Angeles cemetery, only a short distance apart from one another.
  
  
• Rogers wore a number of different hats following his departure from Hollywood.  He was co-owner of a string of bridal boutiques called Kleinfeld Bridal and was managing director of the Stop-N-Save convenience store chain in Tallahassee, Florida.  
  
  
• In 2011, Rogers co-authored a book on achieving financial success.  You can pick up a copy of Make Your Own Rules: A Renegade Guide to Unconventional Success from Amazon.
  
  
• Rogers' crypt is beneath that of actor Les Tremayne, best remembered for his role of "Mentor" on Shazam.
  
  
• Rogers has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7018 Hollywood Boulevard.

The Hidden Grave of Fred Gwynne

 

"Funny thing, yesterday morning I found my youngest son and daughter watching the rerun of an old (Munsters) episode and I said, "My God, THAT's not still on, is it?"
  --Fred Gwynne

Frederick Hubbard Gwynne was born in New York City on July 10, 1926.  His father was partner in the family business, the securities firm Gwynne Brothers.  His mother was a successful artist, known for an advertising mascot named "Sunny Jim," which she created to sell cereal.  The more you know.

As a child, Gwynne was often traveling with his family, as his father's business took them all over the country.  He'd live in Colorado, Florida, South Carolina and ultimately back in New York, settling in the Manhattan suburb of Tuxedo Park.

Gwynne attended the Groton School, a private, Episcopalian boarding school in Massachussets.  Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Navy and served as a radio operator during World War 2.  After his tour of duty, he returned to the U.S., enrolling at Harvard University under the G.I. Bill.  He graduated in 1951 with a degree in Art.

After graduation, Gwynne moved to New York City, intent on becoming a Broadway star.  He wouldn't have long to wait, earning his first role in a 1952 comedy called Mrs. McThing, starring Helen Hayes.  Two years later, he'd make his big screen debut, in the Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront, opposite Superman's dad, Marlon Brando. 

Gwynne with Al Lewis on Car 54.....

In 1955, Gwynne made his television debut on The Phil Silvers Show, recruited by the star himself.  Silvers, having seen a stage production of Mrs. McThing, was so impressed with Gwynne's comedic timing that he offered him a guest-star spot on the show.  Entitled "The Eating Contest," it remains one of the series most popular episodes.  You can watch him as "The Stomach" on YouTube.

After appearing on the series, Gwynne was offered one of his own, a sitcom titled Car 54, Where Are You?  He portrayed New York City police officer Francis Muldoon, opposite comic legend Joe E. Ross.  The series was a moderate success, running for two seasons. 

During the run of Car 54, Gwynne met actor Al Lewis.  The two would later co-star on the series Gwynne is most famously known for, The Munsters.  On this series, Gwynne portrayed Herman Munster, a parody of the Frankenstein monster.  Like Car 54, the series was a moderate success, lasting for two seasons on CBS.  It is often compared to The Addams Family, a series that premiered one week earlier on rival network ABC, which also lasted a mere two seasons.  Both shows however have survived in endless syndication.  Although it made him a household name, Gwynne was never fond of the series, refusing to discuss it in interviews.  

....and on The Munsters.

As often happens to actors, Gwynne found himself typecast following the series' cancellation.  Movie roles were hard to come by, but he had great success performing in regional stage productions, including a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

During the 1980s, Gwynne made a modest return to the silver screen, with small roles in a number of popular films, including The Cotton Club, Fatal Attraction and Pet Sematary (actual spelling).  These were all leading up to the movie role for which he is most famously known, that of Judge Chamberlain Haller in the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny.  You can watch one of his more famous scenes here.  As successful as the film was, it would prove to be the last major role of Gwynne's career.

By the early 1990s, Gwynne and his second wife were living in a Maryland community called Taneytown, just outside of Baltimore.  His health was starting to decline, and by 1993, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  It would ultimately take his life on July 2, 1993, just one week shy of his 67th birthday.

Fred Gwynne was buried at Sandy Mount United Methodist Church in Finksburg, Maryland.  To this day, there is no headstone commemorating this Hollywood heavyweight.  The best way to find him is to look for the gray headstone (top left) that reads "Shannon."  Gwynne is buried in front of it.

Rest in peace, Mr. Gwynne.

Trivia

• In his later years, Gwynne wrote a series of children's books, with such delightful titles as The King Who Rained, A Little Pigeon Toad, and A Chocolate Moose for Dinner.  He also drew the illustrations for his works, which, as the titles suggest, are a collection of humorous homonyms.  You can peruse his collection on Amazon.  Wanna hear a creepy fan read one?  Check it out on YouTube.
  
  
  
  
  
• Gwynne was the original choice to play Henry Warnimont on the NBC sit-com Punky Brewster, until a dimwitted casting agent referred to the actor as Herman Munster.  Upon hearing that name, Gwynne withdrew from the role, which was ultimately given to George Gaynes.
  
  
• Super fans Sandra and Charles McKee have painstakingly re-created the Munsters mansion in Waxahachie, Texas.  Their stated goal is to "spread the passion with the general public of the Munster television series" and they do just that.  Visit their web site for information on tours, which this blogger highly recommends.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Whitman Mayo

 

"I've always played older parts.  When I was 19, I played 60.  When I was a kid I got pleasure out of studying old people.  I took joy in their idiosyncrasies.  Older folk are like children.  They can do and say what they want and get away with it."

Whitman Blount Mayo, Jr., while not exactly a household name, was born in New York City on November 15, 1930.  He spent his early years growing up in Harlem before his family moved to Los Angeles in the late 1940s.  There he completed high school before enlisting in the Army.

In 1951, Mayo was stationed in Korea, where he served a two-year tour of duty in the Korean War.  Upon his discharge in 1953, he returned to Los Angeles, where he continued his education.

Mayo attended UCLA, where he majored in theatre.  He paid his way through college through a variety of odd jobs, serving as a waiter, a vintner and a probation officer.  He also served as a youth counselor, mentoring delinquent boys.  When he wasn't studying or working, he began acting in small, local productions.

In the early 1970s, producer Norman Lear was casting his latest sit-com Sanford and Son (right), an American adaptation of the British series Steptoe and Son.  Lear recruited Mayo from the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem and offered him a recurring role on the series.

Mayo played Grady Wilson, best friend and constant irritant to Fred Sanford.  Although he'd play the role throughout the series' six-year run, Mayo only appeared in roughly one-fourth of all episodes.

Despite this, Lear found the character popular enough to offer him a spin-off in 1976.  The aptly titled Grady was not as successful however, and it was canceled after just ten episodes.  You can watch that series intro here.  Upon its cancellation, Mayo returned to the original series.

Sanford and Son left the airwaves in 1977, after stars Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson left for other projects.  Hoping to salvage something from the successful franchise, NBC created a new series called Sanford Arms, which saw Good Times star Teddy Wilson (Sweet Daddy) opening up a hotel at the former junkyard of Fred G. Sanford.  No, I am not making this up.  Mayo, along with Lawanda Page (Aunt Esther) and Don Bexley (Bubba) were invited back to continue their supporting roles, but it wouldn't be for long.  The new series was canceled after just eight episodes, only four of which aired on television.

Incredibly, audiences had still not seen the last of Grady.  The character was revived once again in 1981 when NBC debuted Sanford, a new series that saw Redd Foxx back in the title role.  It would only last for two short seasons however and would undergo several cast changes.  You can watch that series intro here.

At the same time he was playing Grady, Mayo was also appearing on a locally produced children's show in Los Angeles called That's Cat, with cat being another word for "cool."  Mayo played the role of Grandpa, a kindly gentleman who offered sage advice to the show's other main characters.  It ran for three seasons before being canceled.

Mayo continued acting throughout the 1980s, including a small role in the film DC Cab (left), starring Mr. T.  Mayo played a street philosopher named "Mr. Rhythm," offering up sage advice (again) to the film's main players.  Here's a sample of his work.

By the 1990s, Mayo and his wife moved to Atlanta, where he taught drama at Clark Atlanta University.  Although he had retired from the spotlight, he would never be forgotten by his fans, chief among them being Conan O'Brien.  The Late Night host was interested in having Mayo appear on the program, but producers were unable to locate him. 

In response, O'Brien spent several weeks on the air asking viewers to send in any information on Mayo sightings, even going so far as to set up a 1-800 number where viewers could call in their tips.  Again, I'm not kidding.  They even got Robert Stack, who at the time was hosting Unsolved Mysteries, to produce a "Where's Grady?" parody segment for the show.  I'm still not kidding.  You can watch that segment here.  Mayo eventually appeared on the program, ending the mystery once and for all.

On May 22, 2001, Whitman Mayo died of a heart attack.  He was 70 years old.  He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in College Park, Georgia.

Location: Garden of the Saints

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Ironically, Mayo died at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
  
  
• Grady's name was an homage to series star Demond Wilson, who's birth name was Grady. 
  
  
• Mayo's son Rahn is a former politician, who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2009 until 2017.  You can follow his current activities on Twitter.
  
  
• Mayo's "Sanford and Son" co-stars Lawanda Page and Redd Foxx have both been profiled here at Six Feet Under Hollywood.

Judge Wapner

Joseph Albert Wapner was born in Los Angeles on November 15, 1919.  His parents immigrated to America from Romania, where his father, like Wapner would himself one day, served as an attorney.

In 1941, Wapner graduated from the University of Southern California.  He had his sights set on law school, but decided to join the Army and serve his country during World War 2.  As a lieutenant stationed in the Philippines, Wapner was awarded both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star before being honorably discharged.  Upon his return, he attended USC Law School.

Upon graduation, Wapner went into private practice as an attorney for the next ten years.  Then in 1959, he was appointed by California Governor Pat Brown to the Los Angeles Municipal Court.  He'd hold that position for two years before being elevated to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, where he served as a judge until 1979.  During this time period, he also served as president of the California Judges Association from 1975 to 1976.

Rusty Burrell, Joseph Wapner and Doug Llewelyn.

In 1981, Wapner would achieve
international recognition when he was cast on the syndicated series The People's Court.  It was the first courtroom-based reality series and would set the tone for dozens that would follow.  Wapner presided as judge in a small claims court setting, where parties represented themselves without the aid of legal counsel.

In 1993, after having presided over 2,340 half-hour episodes (figure about twice as many cases), Wapner was released from
the series (i.e. fired).  His departure was
due to a ratings decline at the end of the show's 12-year run.  The series was canceled in 1993, and although it would return just four years later, Wapner would
not return with it.

"What you are seeing is real. 
The participants are not actors."

  In 1998, Wapner returned to television
  with a new type of legal drama, Judge
  Wapner's Animal Court.   The
  series, which lasted for two
  seasons on Animal Planet, saw
  Wapner presiding over cases
  involving animals in one form or
  another. 

  Joining him from The
  People's Court was his long-time
  bailiff and friend Rusty Burrell. 
  Here's a promo for the series. 

 


When the series was canceled, Wapner remained active in Jewish causes and served on the board of a Jewish school.  He took bit parts in Hollywood, and appeared as an alternate-universe version of himself on the TV series Sliders. 

Joseph Wapner died of respiratory failure on February 26, 2017.  He was 97 years old.

He was buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery Memorial Park Cemetery.  Note the tire tracks.

Location: Gardens of Ramah, Map #8, Lot #4066, Space #2
Inscription #1: Beloved Husband, Father, Grandfather and Great-Grandfather
Inscription #2: Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court 
Judge of The People's Court 
President of Brandeis Bardin Institute

The Court rests, Your Honor.

Trivia

• You're humming the theme song right now, aren't you?
  
  
• Wapner had his own brand of soft drinks produced by soda company Rocket Fizz.  I absolutely love this label.
  
  
  
  
  
• In 1987, Wapner released A View From the Bench, a first-person narrative of his most unforgettable cases.  You can pick up a copy from Amazon.
  
  
• As a student at Hollywood High School, Wapner dated future screen legend Lana Turner.
  
  
• Wanna see the most ridiculous case that Wapner ever presided over?  Check out the case of the $3 pizza here.
  
  
• On November 12, 2009, Wapner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, right outside Hooters.  Here's amateur video of the event.

Toto

Humans aren't the only ones to get the spotlight on this blog.  Every so often, I find the final resting place of a famous animal star, Mr. Ed being the most memorable.  Strangely enough, these screen legends often have mysteries surrounding their final arrangements, and the subject of this week's blog is certainly no exception.

Terry was born In Chicago, Illinois on November 17, 1933.  Or so the Internet claims.  How the hell anyone would know that date all these years later seems somewhat suspicious to me, but for purposes of this blog, we'll just go with it. 

She was a Cairn Terrier owned by trainer Carl Spitz, a German immigrant who came to America following World War I. During the war, Spitz trained military and police dogs using a system of hand signals he created.  He expanded upon this technique in 1926 when he opened the Hollywood Dog Training School, which is still in operation today.  Terry was its most famous graduate.

In 1934, Terry made her first appearance in the film Ready for Love, starring Ida Lupino.  She'd follow it up that same year, appearing as "Rags" in the film Bright Eyes, starring Shirley Temple (below right).

Terry stayed relatively busy for the next few years, earning a wide variety of screen roles.  The most famous of these, and probably the reason you're reading this, was as Toto in The Wizard of Oz (1939).  Terry earned an astronomical $125 per week ($2,300 today), more than many of her human counterparts in the film.  Not bad work if you can get it.  

As successful as the film was, it was almost the end of Terry's career, and reportedly her life as well.  During production, one of the film's extras stepped on Terry's foot.  It was a clean break, and Terry spent two weeks recuperating at the home of Dorothy herself, Judy Garland.  Garland became so attached to Terry that she offered to buy her from Spitz, but he was not interested in selling.  

By the time the film was completed, Terry had fully recuperated and was able to attend the world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater.  The film became such a runaway success that Spitz officially changed her name to Toto in 1942.

After Oz, Toto stayed busy in Hollywood, racking up sixteen additional credits to her name.  One of her last films was Tortilla Flat in 1942, which served as a reunion of sorts, allowing Toto to once again work with Oz director Victor Fleming and the Wizard himself, Frank Morgan.

On September 1, 1945, Toto passed away.  She was 11 years old.  Spitz buried her at his ranch in Studio City.  Thirteen years later, both the ranch and the grave were destroyed during construction of the Ventura Freeway.  Toto's remains were lost forever.

In 2011, a memorial for Toto was dedicated at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  

Rest in peace, little dog.

Trivia

• Toto's life was chronicled by author Willard Carroll in the 2013 biography I, Toto: The Autobiography of Terry, the Dog Who Was Toto.  Really.  You can buy a copy from Amazon.
  
  
• The dedication ceremony for Toto's memorial was greeted with great pomp and circumstance, and included celebrity guests, including the great grand-children of Oz author Frank L. Baum.  The Hollywoodland blog filed this exclusive report.
  
  
• Toto also has her own page on the Internet Movie Database.  Check it out here.
  
  
• Toto performed her own stunts.  I can't believe I just wrote that.
  
  
• Following in her mother's legacy, Toto's daughter Rommy appeared in the films Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and Air Force (1943).

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.