Character actor Bruce Kirby passed away last night. His death was announced on Facebook by his son John. While public records list him as 92, the younger Kirby indicated his father was 95.
Kirby appeared in an array of films and TV shows dating back to the 1950's. He first came to public notice when he played the recurring role of Officer Kissel on Car 54, Where Are You? Other TV credits include The Phil Silvers Show, The Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie, Adam-12, Mission: Impossible, Hogan's Heroes, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ironside, Bonanza, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Room 222, Banacek, McCloud, The Mod Squad, The Bob Newhart Show, M*A*S*H, Harry O, Kolchak, The Rockford Files, Barney Miller, Night Court, L.A. Law, Hunter, Punky Brewster, The Golden Girls, Murphy Brown, Murder, She Wrote, The West Wing, The Sopranos, Numb3rs and Scrubs. That is a lot of TV shows.
Among Kirby's movie appearances include Catch-22, The Muppet Movie, Stand By Me, Throw Momma From The Train and the Oscar winning Crash.
Oh, just one more thing. Kirby also appeared in 9 episodes of Columbo. Six of those were as Sgt. George Kramer beginning with the episode "By Dawn's Early Light" featuring Patrick McGoohan. It is worth noting that Kirby's son Bruno also appeared in this episode. Indeed, on a personal note, I saw this very episode last night.
The younger Kirby would enjoy a nice career on the silver screen in movies such as The Godfather, Part II, Good Morning, Vietnam, When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers. Sadly, he would predecease his father in 2006 succumbing to leukemia at the age of 57.
As Lt. Columbo would say losing your parents is part of the natural order of things. Losing a child is like getting cheated. One can scarcely begin to imagine Bruce Kirby's state of mind concerning the loss of his son.
Whatever his pain, Kirby provided considerable joy in whatever role in which he was cast and will always be an ornament in the Columbo canon.
No comments:
Post a Comment