Robert Lansing (actor)
Encyclopedia
Robert Lansing was an American stage, film and television actor
.
Born in San Diego, California
as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan
. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan, but was told he would first have to join Actors Equity Association. Equity would not allow him to join as "Robert Brown" since there was already another actor using that name. Since the stock company was based in Lansing, this became the actor's new surname.
In the 1961–1962 television season, Lansing appeared as Detective Steve Carella on NBC
's 87th Precinct
series based on the Ed McBain detective novel
s. His costars were Gena Rowlands
, Ron Harper
, Gregory Walcott
, and Norman Fell
. In 1961, he played the outlaw
Frank Dalton
in a two-part episode of NBC's The Outlaws
with Barton MacLane
. On film, Lansing starred in the late-1950s sci-fi film 4D Man
(which included a young Patty Duke
).
Other notable television roles include portrayals of an alcoholic college professor in ABC
's drama
Channing
, as General
George Custer on Chuck Connors
's NBC
series Branded, as Gil Green in the 1963 episode "Fear Begins at Forty" on the NBC medical drama
The Eleventh Hour
, in a 1965 episode of I Spy, 1965 Gunsmoke as a bounty hunter, as a parole officer in a 1968 episode (A Time to Love - A Time to Cry) of The Mod Squad
, and as interstellar secret agent Gary Seven
in a 1968 episode "Assignment: Earth" on Star Trek
. He starred as General Frank Savage in the first season of Twelve O'Clock High
. He also played an international secret agent in The Man Who Never Was
, as Lt. Jack Curtis on Automan
and as Control on The Equalizer
. He starred in The Twilight Zone
episode "The Long Morrow
," and in the Thriller episode "Fatal Impulse." His final role was that of Paul Blaisdell on Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
.
; that marriage ended in divorce. About a year and a half later, he married Gari Hardy, but this marriage ended in divorce as well. They had a daughter, Alice Lucille Lansing. His last wife was Anne Pivar; they remained together until Lansing's death from cancer in 1994, aged 66. He was buried at Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens
. According to a website devoted to Mr. Lansing (Robert Lansing Fan Page) Robert Frederick Orin Lansing, who was born in 1957, died in 2009 of pneumonia.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Born in San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan
Lansing, Michigan
Lansing is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located mostly in Ingham County, although small portions of the city extend into Eaton County. The 2010 Census places the city's population at 114,297, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan...
. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan, but was told he would first have to join Actors Equity Association. Equity would not allow him to join as "Robert Brown" since there was already another actor using that name. Since the stock company was based in Lansing, this became the actor's new surname.
In the 1961–1962 television season, Lansing appeared as Detective Steve Carella on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's 87th Precinct
87th Precinct (TV series)
87th Precinct is an American crime drama starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, and Ron Harper, which aired on NBC on Monday evenings during the 1961–1962 television season.-Synopsis:...
series based on the Ed McBain detective novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s. His costars were Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy...
, Ron Harper
Ron Harper (actor)
Ronald Robert "Ron" Harper is an American television and film actor.- Biography :Harper was born in Turtle Creek in Allegheny County near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Mabel Grace Champion and George Harper...
, Gregory Walcott
Gregory Walcott
Gregory Walcott is an American television and film actor. He is perhaps best known for having appeared in the 1959 Ed Wood film, the cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space.-Early life and career:...
, and Norman Fell
Norman Fell
Norman Fell , born Norman Noah Feld, was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.-Early life:...
. In 1961, he played the outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
Frank Dalton
Frank Dalton
Frank Dalton was a Deputy US Marshal of the Old West under Judge Isaac Parker, for Oklahoma Territory, as well as the older brother to the members of the Dalton Gang, in addition to being the brother to William M. Dalton, once a member of California legislature, and later an outlaw and leader of...
in a two-part episode of NBC's The Outlaws
The Outlaws (1960 TV series)
Outlaws is an NBC Western television series, starring Barton MacLane as U.S. marshal Frank Caine, who operated in a lawless section of Oklahoma Territory about Stillwater. The program aired 50 one-hour episodes from September 29, 1960, to May 10, 1962. The first season was shot in black-and-white,...
with Barton MacLane
Barton MacLane
Barton MacLane was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. Although he has appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s, he was known for his role as Gen...
. On film, Lansing starred in the late-1950s sci-fi film 4D Man
4D Man
4D Man is a 1959 American science fiction independent film, produced by Jack H. Harris from his own original screenplay and directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.-Plot:...
(which included a young Patty Duke
Patty Duke
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke is an American actress of stage, film, and television. First becoming famous as a child star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, and later starring in her eponymous sitcom for three years, she progressed to more mature roles upon playing Neely...
).
Other notable television roles include portrayals of an alcoholic college professor in ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
Channing
Channing (TV series)
Channing is an American drama series that aired on American Broadcasting Company from September 18, 1963 to April 8, 1964...
, as General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
George Custer on Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....
's NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
series Branded, as Gil Green in the 1963 episode "Fear Begins at Forty" on the NBC medical drama
Medical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...
, in a 1965 episode of I Spy, 1965 Gunsmoke as a bounty hunter, as a parole officer in a 1968 episode (A Time to Love - A Time to Cry) of The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews...
, and as interstellar secret agent Gary Seven
Gary Seven
Gary Seven is the major character in the last episode of the second season of the original Star Trek television series, "Assignment: Earth". He is portrayed by Robert Lansing.-Assignment: Earth:...
in a 1968 episode "Assignment: Earth" on Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
. He starred as General Frank Savage in the first season of Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High (TV series)
Twelve O'Clock High or 12 O'Clock High is an American drama series set in World War II. This TV series originally broadcasted on ABC-TV for two-and-one-half TV seasons from September 18, 1964, through January 13, 1967; was based on the motion picture Twelve O'Clock High...
. He also played an international secret agent in The Man Who Never Was
The Man Who Never Was (TV series)
The Man Who Never Was is a 1966 ABC-TV television series starring Robert Lansing and Dana Wynter. It has no connection with the more well known earlier book and film of the same name, and ran for only one season of 18 episodes between September 7, 1966, and January 4, 1967...
, as Lt. Jack Curtis on Automan
Automan
Automan is an American science fiction superhero television series produced by Glen A. Larson. It aired for only 12 episodes on ABC between 1983 and 1984.-Synopsis:...
and as Control on The Equalizer
The Equalizer
The Equalizer is an American television series that ran for four seasons, initially on CBS, between 1985 and 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as an aging New York vigilante with a mysterious past...
. He starred in The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
episode "The Long Morrow
The Long Morrow
"The Long Morrow" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Commander Douglas Stansfield an astronaut in the year 1987, is sent to a planetary system 141 light-years from Earth. The trip will take 20 years each way...
," and in the Thriller episode "Fatal Impulse." His final role was that of Paul Blaisdell on Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues is a spin-off of the 1972-1975 television series Kung Fu. David Carradine and Chris Potter starred as a father and son trained in kung fu - Carradine playing a Shaolin monk, Potter a police detective. This series aired in syndication for four seasons, from January 27,...
.
Personal life
Lansing had a son, Robert Frederick Orin Lansing, with his actress wife Emily McLaughlinEmily McLaughlin
Emily McLaughlin was an American soap opera actress.-Biography:She was born in White Plains, New York, where her father was mayor. She was educated at Middlebury College.-Marriages:...
; that marriage ended in divorce. About a year and a half later, he married Gari Hardy, but this marriage ended in divorce as well. They had a daughter, Alice Lucille Lansing. His last wife was Anne Pivar; they remained together until Lansing's death from cancer in 1994, aged 66. He was buried at Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens
Ridgewood, Queens
Ridgewood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It borders the neighborhoods of Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. Historically, the neighborhood straddled the Queens-Brooklyn boundary. The neighborhood is part of Queens...
. According to a website devoted to Mr. Lansing (Robert Lansing Fan Page) Robert Frederick Orin Lansing, who was born in 1957, died in 2009 of pneumonia.