‘Saboteur,’ ‘St. Elsewhere’ star
LOS ANGELES
Norman Lloyd, whose role as kindly Dr. Daniel Auschlander on TV’s “St. Elsewhere” was a single chapter in a distinguished stage and screen career that put him in the company of Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin and other greats, has died. He was 106.
Lloyd’s son, Michael, said his father died Tuesday at his home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
His credits stretch from the earliest known U.S. TV drama, 1939’s “On the Streets of New York” on the nascent NBC network, to 21st-century projects including “Modern Family” and “The Practice.”
The wiry, 5-foot-5 Lloyd, whose energy was boundless off-screen as well, continued to play tennis into his 90s. In 2015, he appeared in the Amy Schumer comedy “Trainwreck.”
His most notable film part was as the villain who plummets off the Statue of Liberty in 1942’s “Saboteur,” directed by Hitchcock, who also cast Lloyd in the classic thriller 1945’s “Spellbound.”
His other movie credits include Jean Renoir’s “The Southerner,” Charlie Chaplin’s “Limelight,” “Dead Poets Society” with Robin Williams, “In Her Shoes” with Cameron Diaz and “Gangs of New York” with Daniel Day-Lewis.
TV viewers knew him best as the memorable calm center of St. Eligius hospital on the 1982-88 NBC drama series “St. Elsewhere.” His character r
was originally only supposed to appear in a few episodes, but Lloyd became a series regular and stayed with the show for the entire run. The series would inspire such shows as “E.R.” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
His other TV credits include roles in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Murder, She Wrote,”
“The Paper Chase,” “Quincy M.E.,” “Kojak” and
“The Practice.”