Bill Erwin Biography

William Lindsey "Bill" Erwin (December 2, 1914 " December 29, 2010) was an American film, stage and television actor with over 250 television and film credits. As a veteran character actor, he was widely known for his role of Sid Fields, an embittered, irascible man on Seinfeld – for which he received an Emmy nomination – as well his appearances on shows such as I Love Lucy and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Erwin was a self-taught cartoonist, published in The New Yorker, Playboy and Los Angeles. He won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, four Drama-Logue Awards, Gilmore Brown Award for Career Achievement, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters' Diamond Circle Award, and Distinguished Alumnus Award from Angelo State University.

Background and personal life

Erwin was born in Honey Grove, Texas. He attended San Angelo College before graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 1935, earning a Bachelors degree in Journalism. He completed a Masters of Theater Arts degree in California at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1941. After serving as a Captain in the Army Air Force in World War II, Erwin returned to Hollywood to resume his acting career. His first film role was in 1942 in "You're in the Army Now", with Phil Silvers.

Career

Film

In the late 1950s, Erwin was in such films as A Streetcar Named Desire, Man From Del Rio, The Night Runner and The Cry Baby Killer. He played Jack Nicholson's father in Cry Baby Killer, Nicholson's first starring role in 1958. The long out-of-print film was released on DVD on November 22, 2006. He would later co-star alongside Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour in the 1980 romantic fantasy Somewhere in Time – as Arthur Biehl, the Grand Hotel's venerable bellman – and attend annual reunions of cast, crew, and fans of the film at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Erwin has appeared in a number of films directed by John Hughes, with cameos in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, Home Alone, and Dennis the Menace. Hughes often paired him with Billie Bird as his wife.

Television

His television credits were far more numerous in the 1950s, having appeared in such television series as I Love Lucy, Crusader, Trackdown, Colgate Theatre, Perry Mason and The Rifleman. In the 1960s, Erwin appeared in television series such as: The Andy Griffith Show, Mister Ed, Maverick, The Twilight Zone, 87th Precinct, The Fugitive, and Mannix.

In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, he appeared in Barnaby Jones, Cannon, Gunsmoke, E/R, Highway to Heaven, Who's The Boss?, Growing Pains, Full House, The Golden Girls, Moonlighting, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Erwin played Dr. Dalen Quaice, a friend and mentor of Dr. Beverly Crusher. He was the first character to disappear in the episode "Remember Me".

In the Seinfeld episode ("The Old Man"), for which Erwin received an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actor, he played Sid Fields, who participates in the Foster-A-Grandpa Program, which pairs him with Jerry Seinfeld. Erwin's crochety, aggressive, foul-mouthed character ensures that the relationship is doomed from the beginning. Erwin later reunited with Michael Richards when he guest-starred on the short-lived The Michael Richards Show. In the 2000s, Erwin appeared on Monk, The West Wing, King of Queens, Everwood and My Name Is Earl.

Other media

Erwin began his theatrical career as ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's stage manager for Bergen's 1941 tour of the country. Erwin dryly recalled, "I was in charge of the dummies."

Family and death

He lived in the Hollywood Hills with his wife, actress and journalist Fran MacLachlan Erwin (who predeceased her husband). The couple had two sons, Michael and Timothy, and two daughters, Lindsey Thomas Erwin and Kelly Erwin. He also has a sister, Mary Gene Cosper. Erwin died at his home on December 29, 2010, in Studio City, Los Angeles from natural causes, near the production lot where Seinfeld was filmed.