Lloyd Wolfe Bochner

Lloyd Wolfe Bochner

Lloyd Wolfe Bochner, actor (b at Toronto 29 July 1924; d at Santa Monica, Ca 29 Oct 2005). Lloyd Bochner worked both sides of the Canada/US border, performing on local radio since the age of 10.

In 1951, Bochner began working in New York in live television (Kraft Television Theatre, an early dramatic anthology series) and in theatre. He was a staple of early Canadian television and joined the STRATFORD FESTIVAL in its first season in 1953. He spent six years there, playing in Hamlet, Twelfth Night and Measure for Measure. In 1960, he went to Hollywood to star in the series Hong Kong (1960-61) with Rod Taylor; Bochner played the chief of the Hong Kong police. In 1962, one of his best-known roles was that of a scientist in the classic Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man." Perhaps his most notable television role in a series was that of Cecil Colby, husband of the character Alexis played by Joan Collins in Dynasty (1981-82). His many guest appearances include The Virginian, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Hogan's Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Charlie's Angels, Hawaii Five-O, Murder She Wrote and Fantasy Island.

In Canada, Lloyd Bochner appeared frequently on the Wayne & Shuster Show and was a guest on Road to Avonlea. He had a featured role in the 1979 CBC-TV historical drama Riel and the tax-shelter bomb Louisiana (1984) starring Margot KIDDER. Some of his more notable films include John Boorman's film noir cult classic Point Blank (1967) with fellow expatriate John VERNON; Tony Rome (1967) and The Detective (1968), both with Frank Sinatra; the comedy Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) with another expatriate, Leslie Nielsen; and American Film Theatre's adaptation of Robert Shaw's controversial stage play, The Man in the Glass Booth (1975), directed by the Edmonton-born Arthur Hiller. Lloyd Bochner and his son Hart Bochner, an actor and director, provided voices for the animated Batman series in the 1990s.

Lloyd Bochner was a founding member of and active in the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists (ACTRA). In 1998 he co-founded the Committee to End Violence, a panel designed to study the impact violent images had on culture.