Actor. He was a character actor who was best known for his role of Dr. Hayward on the popular 1990s ABC series "Twin Peaks". He left home at the age of 17 to enlist in the United States Navy during the Second World War and was a part of the Normandy invasion. After his military service, he enrolled as an English major at Middlebury College in Vermont where he also acted in college plays. After college, he obtained a job working behind the scenes at CBS, which led to a three-year stint as floor director and stage manager for the television series "Philco Playhouse", where he worked with such luminaries as Sidney Lumet, John Frankenheimer and George Roy Hill. He resumed his acting career in 1957 when he appeared on the television series "The Gray Ghost". He would go on to appear in such series as "Death Valley Days", "Make Room for Daddy", "Playhouse 90", and "Perry Mason". After earning a master’s degree in theater arts at Occidental College, he moved to Minneapolis to pursue his doctorate. He later joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota and became a regular in the city theater’s scene, directing and appearing in plays including several that he wrote. By 1988 he was back in New York City where he appeared for a year on the CBS daytime soap opera "As the World Turns". His role on the popular series "Twin Peaks" in the early 1990s kicked off a career second act that also saw him in recurring roles as friend Billy Lewis on "Matlock" and the father of George Costanza’s fiancée Susan Ross on "Seinfeld". During his career, he also appeared in such films as "The Mating Game" (1959), "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit" (1993), and "Psycho IV: The Beginning" (1990). He retired from acting in 2000, although he continued to appear on stage in his own one-man shows. He passed away after a long illness.