Tuesday, January 4, 2011

“Seinfeld” Actor Bill Erwin Dies

I knew this fellow was a character actor, but I did not know that Bill Erwin was also a cartoonist whose work appeared in The New Yorker and Playboy.

Via Reuters:

Bill Erwin, a character actor best known for playing an irascible old man on a Seinfeld episode, has died of natural causes aged 96.

He died on December 29 in the Los Angeles suburb of Studio City, coincidentally near the old Seinfeld production lot.

Erwin received an Emmy nomination for his turn as Sid Fields, an embittered man whom Jerry Seinfeld's character volunteers to look after - but then loses - in an episode involving flying dentures, a giant goitre and a Senegalese housekeeper.

He also played Arthur the Bellman in the 1980 film Somewhere In Time, a romantic drama starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

Erwin returned many times to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, the film's setting, to participate in annual fan celebrations.

The Texas native had a long career on stage, working on Broadway and locally in southern California.

He was also a self-taught cartoonist whose work was published in the New Yorker, Playboy and Los Angeles magazine.

He is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.


Bill Erwin's IMDB page

Bill Erwin Web site

If anyone has scans of Bill's cartoons, please come forward. According to the New Yorker librarian, Mr. Erwin is not in their database of cartoonists. Is there a possibility the cartoons appeared under a different name?

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