Herb Edelman
Encyclopedia
Herbert "Herb" Edelman was an American actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 of stage, film and television. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 for his television work. One of his best remembered roles was as Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband of Dorothy Zbornak
Dorothy Zbornak
Dorothy Hollingsworth , is a fictional character from the TV series The Golden Girls, portrayed by Bea Arthur for 7 years and 183 episodes. Dorothy was the strong, sarcastic, sometimes intimidating, and arguably most grounded of the four women in the house...

 (played by Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice "Bea" Arthur was an American actress, comedienne and singer whose career spanned seven decades. Arthur achieved fame as the character Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family and Maude, and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, winning Emmy Awards for both...

) on the long-running situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

, The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...

. He also had a recurring role on the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...

.

Early life and career

Before becoming an actor, Edelman studied to become a veterinarian
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....

 at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, but left during his first year. After serving in the US Army as an announcer for Armed Forces Radio, he enrolled in Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...

 as a Theater student, but eventually dropped out. He later worked as a hotel manager and as a taxicab
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...

 driver. One of his fares was director Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...

, who in 1963 cast Edelman in his breakthrough Broadway role, as the bewildered telephone repairman in Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...

's Barefoot in the Park
Barefoot in the Park
This article is about the Broadway production. For the film adaptation see Barefoot in the Park .Barefoot in the Park is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The original Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, opened October 23, 1963, with the four lead roles taken by actors Elizabeth Ashley ,...

.

Edelman reprised his role in the 1967 film version
Barefoot in the Park (film)
Barefoot in the Park is a 1967 American comedy film.Based on Neil Simon's 1963 play of the same title, it focuses on newlyweds Corie and Paul Bratter and their adventures living in a minuscule sixth floor walk-up apartment in a Greenwich Village brownstone...

 (starring Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

 and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

), and appeared in the movie versions of Simon's The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple (film)
The Odd Couple is a 1968 comedy film written by Neil Simon, based on his play The Odd Couple, directed by Gene Saks, and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau...

(1968) and California Suite
California Suite (film)
California Suite is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Herbert Ross. The screenplay by Neil Simon is based on his play of the same title...

(1978). He also appeared in an installment of the Japanese movie series Otoko wa Tsurai yo
Otoko wa Tsurai yo
Otoko wa tsurai yo is a Japanese film series starring Kiyoshi Atsumi as "Tora-san" , a kind-hearted vagabond who is always unlucky in love. The series itself is often referred to as "Tora-san" by its fans...

in 1979.

He remains best known for his three decades in television, usually as a co-star, recurring character, or guest star (That Girl
That Girl
That Girl is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. It stars Marlo Thomas as the title character, Ann Marie, an aspiring actress, who had moved from her hometown of Brewster, New York to make it big in New York City...

, Love, American Style
Love, American Style
Love, American Style is an hour-long TV anthology produced by Paramount Television and originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974...

, The Streets of San Francisco
The Streets of San Francisco
The Streets of San Francisco is a 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros...

, Maude
Maude (TV series)
Maude was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972 until April 22, 1978.Maude starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York with...

, Cannon
Cannon (TV series)
Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976.The primary protagonist was the title character, Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad....

, Welcome Back, Kotter
Welcome Back, Kotter
Welcome Back, Kotter was an American television sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan and featuring a young John Travolta.It originally aired on the ABC network from September 9, 1975 to June 8, 1979.-Premise:...

, Kojak, Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...

, Cagney & Lacey
Cagney & Lacey
Cagney & Lacey is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from October 8, 1981 to May 16, 1988...

, and MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...

), but occasionally in a lead role. He starred in the 1976 children's series Big John, Little John
Big John, Little John
Big John, Little John is an American Saturday morning sitcom produced by Sherwood Schwartz which stars Robbie Rist as Little John, and Herb Edelman as Big John. The show first aired on September 11, 1976 on NBC, and ran for one season of 13 episodes...

, as well as The Good Guys with Bob Denver
Bob Denver
Robert Osbourne "Bob" Denver was an American comedic actor known for his roles as Gilligan on the television series Gilligan's Island and the beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.-Early life:Denver was born in New Rochelle, New York, and raised in...

 (Denver's first series after Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island is an American television series created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz and originally produced by United Artists Television. The situation comedy series featured Bob Denver; Alan Hale, Jr.; Jim Backus; Natalie Schafer; Tina Louise; Russell Johnson; and Dawn Wells. It aired for...

), in 1969. He also appeared with Bill Bixby
Bill Bixby
Wilfred Bailey Everett “Bill” Bixby III was an American film and television actor, director, and frequent game show panelist.His career spanned over three decades; he appeared on stage, in motion pictures and TV series...

 and Valerie Perrine
Valerie Perrine
- Life and career :Perrine was born in Galveston, Texas, the daughter of Winifred , a dancer who appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities, and Kenneth Perrine, a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army. Owing to her father's career, Perrine lived in many locations as the family moved to different...

 in Bruce Jay Friedman
Bruce Jay Friedman
Bruce Jay Friedman is an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.Raised in the Bronx by Irving and Mollie Friedman, Bruce Jay Friedman graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School. He then attended the University of Missouri as a journalism major, then served as a First Lieutenant in...

's Steambath, a controversial PBS dramedy, during 1973. From 1984 to 1988, he had a recurring role on St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...

. Edelman also appeared in ten episodes of Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...

between 1984 and 1995; most frequently appearing as NYPD Lieutenant Artie Gelber. His last role was on an episode of Burke's Law.

Personal life and death

Edelman was married to soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 actress Louise Sorel from 1964 to 1970. He was romantically linked with actress Christina Pickles
Christina Pickles
Christina Pickles is an English actress, best known for her long-running role of Nurse Helen Rosenthal in the hospital drama St. Elsewhere, for which she was nominated for four Emmys.-Life and career:...

 (his co-star on St. Elsewhere), from the mid-1980s until his death.

Edelman died at age 62 of Emphysema.

Selected filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1967 In Like Flint
In Like Flint
In Like Flint is a 1967 film directed by Gordon Douglas, the sequel to the parody spy film Our Man Flint . It posits an international feminist conspiracy to depose the ruling American patriarchy with a feminist matriarchy. To achieve and establish it, they kidnap and replace the U.S. President,...

Russian Premier
1968 I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas is a 1968 comedy film starring Peter Sellers, directed by Hy Averback and featuring music by Harpers Bizarre. The film is set in the counterculture of the 1960s. The addition cast includes David Arkin, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young, in her film debut, and a cameo by...

Murray Alternative title: Kiss My Butterfly
1968 Murray
1972 Howard Mann
1973 Bill Verso
1974 Schwartz Credited as Herbert Edelman
1974 Wheat Alternative title: Brotherhood of the Yakuza
1979 Goin' Coconuts
Goin' Coconuts
Goin' Coconuts is a musical comedy film, directed by Howard Morris and featuring Donny and Marie Osmond. The feature film was released in October 1978. It was both a critical and commercial failure, resulting in the decline in the popularity of Donny and Marie Osmond....

Sid
1979 Tora-san's Dream of Spring
Tora-san's Dream of Spring
aka Torasan Dreams Springtime is a 1979 Japanese comedy film directed by Yoji Yamada. It stars Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō Kuruma , and Kyōko Kagawa as his love interest or "Madonna"...

Michael Jordan 24th entry in the Japanese Otoko wa Tsurai yo
Otoko wa Tsurai yo
Otoko wa tsurai yo is a Japanese film series starring Kiyoshi Atsumi as "Tora-san" , a kind-hearted vagabond who is always unlucky in love. The series itself is often referred to as "Tora-san" by its fans...

series
1981 On the Right Track
On the Right Track
On the Right Track is a 1981 comedy film that was the first feature film starring Gary Coleman. It was directed by Lee Philips, produced by Ronald Jacobs, and released to theaters by 20th Century Fox in the spring of 1981.-Background:...

Sam
1984 Wheels on Meals
Wheels on Meals
Wheels on Meals is a 1984 Hong Kong martial arts action film written and directed by Sammo Hung. Starring in the film are Hung, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao...

Matt Henry
1992 Rupert Hess Credited as Herbert Edelman
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1964 Benny 1 episode
1965 Marco 1 episode
1965 Honey West
Honey West (TV series)
Honey West is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC during the 1965-1966 television season. The series stars Anne Francis as female private detective Honey West and John Ericson as her partner Sam Bolt....

Moody 1 episode
1966 Hey, Landlord
Hey, Landlord
Hey, Landlord is an American sitcom appearing on NBC during the 1966-1967 season, sponsored by Procter & Gamble in the 8:30-9pm Eastern time period on Sunday nights.-Plot, cast, and characters:...

Garvin 1 episode
1966 Occasional Wife
Occasional Wife
Occasional Wife is an American sitcom that aired on NBC on September 13, 1966, and ran until May 9, 1967 . It was originally on NBC's Tuesday night schedule; in the Eastern Time Zone it aired from 8:30-9:00 p.m...

Uncle Harry 1 episode
1967 Mr. Asterick 1 episode
1967 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an anthology television series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967...

Seth Swine 1 episode
1967 Accidental Family
Accidental Family
Accidental Family is an American sitcom broadcast on NBC during the first part of the 1967-68 U.S. television season.-Synopsis:The series stars Jerry Van Dyke as a widowed comedian, Jerry Webster, who bought a farm in the San Fernando Valley to serve as a place for him to raise his son, Sandy, when...

Howard 1 episode
1967 Albion "Al" Caine 1 episode
1971 Mr. Maher 1 episode
1971 Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...

Col. Bringham 1 episode
1971 McMillan & Wife Gregory Constantine 1 episode
1971 Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...

Frank Mason 1 episode
1972 Banacek
Banacek
Banacek is a short-lived, light-hearted detective TV series starring George Peppard on NBC from 1972 to 1974. It alternated in its timeslot with several other shows but was the only one to last beyond its first season...

Joe Taddenhurst 1 episode
1972 Howard Feinstein 1 episode
1972 Temperatures Rising
Temperatures Rising
Temperatures Rising is an American television situation comedy that ran from September 12, 1972 to August 29, 1974 on the ABC network.The network had a good deal of faith in the low-rated series, which went through three cast changes, two different formats, and two time slots during its...

Dr. Patterson 1 episode
1973 Ironside
Ironside (TV series)
Ironside is a Universal television series which ran on NBC from September 14, 1967 to January 16, 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-using Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside. The character's debut was in a TV-movie on March 28, 1967. The original title of the show in the...

David Wollens 1 episode
1973 George Benson 1 episode
1973 Darby Willis 1 episode
1974 Hawkins
Hawkins (TV series)
Hawkins is a television series which aired for one season on CBS between 1973 and 1974. The mystery, created by Robert Hamner and David Karp, starred James Stewart as rural-bred lawyer Billy Jim Hawkins, who investigated the cases he was involved in...

Lt. Horowitz 1 episode
1975 Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....

Burglar 1 episode
1975 Barney Miller
Barney Miller
Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...

Alan Schuster 1 episode
1975 Medical Center
Medical Center (TV series)
Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976.-Synopsis:The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett as Dr. Joe Gannon, surgeons working in an otherwise unnamed university hospital in Los Angeles. The show focused both on the lives of the doctors...

Brannigan 1 episode
1976 Jigsaw John Lieutenant Hill 1 episode
1976 Big John Little John Big John Martin 13 episodes
1977 Blansky's Beauties
Blansky's Beauties
Blansky's Beauties is an American sitcom which aired on the ABC network in 1977. The main character of the series was introduced in an episode of Happy Days.-Synopsis:...

Sindu 1 episode
1978 CHiPs
CHiPs
CHiPs is an American television drama series produced by MGM Studios that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to July 17, 1983. CHiPs followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol...

Sanders 1 episode
1978 Chico and the Man
Chico and the Man
Chico and the Man is an American sitcom which ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974 to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown , the cantankerous owner of a run down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and Freddie Prinze as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic Chicano...

Doctor 1 episode
1978 Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...

Joey January 1 episode
1981–82 Strike Force Commissioner Herb Klein 19 episodes
1982–83 Nine to Five
Nine to Five (TV series)
9 to 5 is an American situation comedy based on the 1980 film of the same name. The series aired on ABC from 1982 to 1983, and in first-run syndication from 1986 to 1988....

Harry Nussbaum 7 episodes
1984 Trapper John, M.D.
Trapper John, M.D.
Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable surgeon who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986....

Dr. Haller 1 episode
1984–95 Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...

Lieutenant Artie Gelber, and others 10 episodes
1985 Vargas 1 episode
1985 Dr. Arnie Samuels 1 episode
1985 Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven is an American television drama series which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.- Season 1 :- Season 2 :- Season 3 :- Season 4 :- Season 5 :...

Dr. Cohn 1 episode
1985 Hardcastle and McCormick
Hardcastle and McCormick
Hardcastle and McCormick is a 1980s action/drama television series from Stephen J. Cannell Productions, shown on ABC from 1983–1986, starring Brian Keith as Judge Milton C. Hardcastle and Daniel Hugh Kelly as ex-con and race car driver Mark "Skid" McCormick.The show's premise involves the...

Harry Baxter 1 episode
1985–92 Stan Zbornak 26 episodes
1987 Matlock
Matlock (TV series)
Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of attorney Ben Matlock. The show originally aired from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC, where it replaced The A-Team, then from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC.The show's format was similar...

Arthur Rydell 1 episode
1988 Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (TV series)
Beauty and the Beast is an American drama series which first aired on CBS in 1987. Creator Ron Koslow's updated version of the fairy tale has a double focus: the relationship between Vincent , a mythic, noble man-beast, and his Catherine , a savvy assistant District attorney in New York; and a...

Harold Levinson 1 episode
1989 Lassister Fogel 1 episode
1989 Out of This World
Out of This World (TV series)
Out Of This World is an American fantasy sitcom about a teenage girl who is half alien, which gives her unique supernatural powers. It first aired in U.S. syndication on September 17, 1987 and ended on May 25, 1991. It was first broadcast in the UK on the ITV network on April 9, 1990, usually at...

Stanley Mansfield 1 episode
1989–90 thirtysomething Murray Steadman 2 episodes
1990 Gene Dickinson 2 episodes
1990 Knots Landing
Knots Landing
Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle...

Sergeant Levine 3 episodes
1992 Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...

Stern 2 episodes
1993 Stanley Zbornak 1 episode
1994 Therapist 1 episode

Award nominations

Year Award Result Category Film or series
1987 Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...

Nominated Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series The Golden Girls
(For episode: "The Stan Who Came To Dinner")
1988 The Golden Girls
(For episode: "The Audit")

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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