Robert Lansing (June 5, 1928—October 23, 1994) was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Born in San Diego, California, as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan but was told he would first have to join the Actors Equity Association. Equity would not allow him to join as "Robert Brown" because another actor was using that name. Because the stock company was based in Lansing, this became the actor's new surname.
In the 1961–1962 television season, Lansing was cast as Detective Steve Carella on NBC's 87th Precinct series based on the Ed McBain detective novels. His costars were Gena Rowlands, Ron Harper, Gregory Walcott, and Norman Fell. In 1961, he played theoutlaw Frank Dalton in a two-part episode of NBC's The Outlaws with Barton MacLane. He played the frontier dentist, gambler, and gunfighter Doc Holliday in an episode of NBC's The Tall Man, with Barry Sullivan and Clu Gulager.
On film, Lansing starred in the late-1950s science fiction film 4D Man; the cast also included a young Patty Duke.
Other notable television roles include portrayals of an alcoholic college professor in ABC's drama Channing, as General George Custeron Chuck Connors's NBC series Branded, as Gil Green in the 1963 episode "Fear Begins at Forty" on the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour, as General Frank Savage for the first season in 1965 of Twelve O'Clock High , as a bounty hunter on Gunsmoke, as a parole officer in a 1968 episode (A Time to Love - A Time to Cry) of The Mod Squad, and as interstellar secret agent Gary Seven in a 1968 episode "Assignment: Earth" on Star Trek. This Star Trek episode launched several novels and an entire comic book series, and Lansing's likeness alongside Terri Garr became the artwork of many science fiction artists (including drawings on trading cards, novels, and Star Trek episode guides). The last Star Trek episode of season two, it was intended to inspire a new weekly series; it was hampered, however, with writing and production problems, and the resulting mediocrity of the episode led NBC executives to reject it as a spinoff.
Lansing played an international secret agent in The Man Who Never Was, as Lt. Jack Curtis on Automan, and as Control on The Equalizer. He guest starred in The Twilight Zone episode "The Long Morrow" and in the Thriller episode "Fatal Impulse." He also guest starred on other television productions such as NBC's Law & Order. His final role was that of Paul Blaisdell on Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.
Personal life
Lansing had a son, Robert Frederick Orin Lansing, with his first wife, actress Emily McLaughlin; that marriage ended in divorce. About a year and a half later, he married Gari Hardy, but this marriage also ended in divorce. The couple had a daughter, Alice Lucille Lansing. His last wife was Anne Pivar, with whom he remained until his death from cancer in 1994, aged 66. He was buried at Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens. According to a website devoted to Mr. Lansing (Robert Lansing Fan Page), Robert Frederick Orin Lansing, who was born in 1957, died in 2009 of pneumonia.
Source: Wikipedia