Lionel Stander

Biography: Lionel Stander began his acting career in stage plays at age 19. Five years later he began appearing in film shorts, and he made his feature film debut in 1935. Aside from a break during World War II, he remained a busy screen actor until the late '40s, specializing in eccentric, somewhat threatening character roles. In the early '50s he became yet another victim of the McCarthy Era when he was blacklisted after being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He continued to act for a while in summer stock, then had a stint as a Wall Street broker. He returned to films in the mid '60s; a few years later he costarred in several "spaghetti Westerns" which won him new popularity. His screen career continued into the late '70s, after which his film work was minimal. He was a regular on the TV series "Hart to Hart" from 1979-84.