Steve Landesberg

Steve Landesberg (born November 23, 1936, died December 20, 2010) was an American actor, comedian and voice actor best known for his role of Arthur P. Dietrich on the ABC sitcom Barney Miller.

Landesberg was born in New York City, New York to a milliner mother and a grocery store-owner father. He was part of improv group New York Stickball Team, which performed several shows that were aired on cable television shortly after Barney Miller went off the air.

He was credited with the quote "Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense." In addition to his extensive television and voiceover work, Landesberg also appeared in the motion pictures Wild Hogs, Leader of the Band and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Landesberg had made guest appearances on the TV shows The Rockford Files, Law & Order, Ghost Whisperer, Saturday Night Live, The Golden Girls, and Everybody Hates Chris.

He starred in Starz's original show Head Case, playing Dr. Myron Finkelstein.

Death
Landesberg died from colon cancer on December 20, 2010, aged 74. He was cremated.

AgeEdit
Throughout his career, Landesberg was noncommittal about his age and year of birth. At the time of his death, many news outlets mistakenly reported his age as 65; some never corrected that story. In acknowledging that he was actually nine years older than he had long claimed, his daughter Elizabeth said he had provided varying birth dates over the years. "He got kind of a late start in show business," she explained, "so he tried to straddle the generations. He fooled the whole world. People were surprised to think he was even 65." Landesberg commented on the issue in a 1979 Washington Postprofile for which he refused to give his age:""