Steve Landesberg, comedian and actor

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on December 21st, 2010

AP is reporting that Steve Landesberg died at age 65.

A lot of folks knew him as Det. Arthur Dietrich, a character on the long-running sitcom Barney Miller.

We thought of him primarily as a standup comic. A quirky, inventive, risk-taking comedian who incorporated characters and accents and dialects into his act and who did all the talk shows.

Check out this appearance on The Mike Douglas Show.

A comment, from 11 minutes ago, says, “After watching this clip, it’s clear that Landesberg was only funny on Miller because of his writers. This bit is beyond lame.” Of course, the commenter has no idea of context or how the passage of time might blunt the impact of a bit. The clip has gotta be 40 years old! Landesberg was always interesting. He was among a cadre of comedians (like David Brenner who sits to his left in the above clip) who were the bridge between the old guard and the new.

Landesberg’s character was, according to Wikipedia, “An intellectual detective, with a calm unflappable nature, and a seemingly endless supply of knowledge on a wide array of subjects.”

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