Who's Had The Longest Run as a TV Actor? I Think We Have A Candidate...

[Bob1370]

And that candidate is Emmy nominee and veteran TV performer and producer Norman Lloyd, best known for his starring role as Dr. Auschlander in NBC's St. Elsewhere in the 1980s, but with a resume of hundreds of appearances as either a guest performer or series regular. His first TV performance of which there is surviving film (although only a short clip) was in a production of "The Streets of New York" directed by Anthony Mann and telecast on NBC experimental station W2XBS in New York (direct predecessor of today's WNBC Channel 4) from their World's Fair studio and airing live on August 31, 1939 to a few thousand pioneer set owners in the greater New York area. His most recent, a guest shot on ABC's Modern Family, was filmed this fall and aired on November 17 of this year. That's 71 years on the air...and counting. Mr. Lloyd is alive, well and continuing to act on TV and in film at the age of 96.

 

[KeyTimes950]

And you can see a lot of Lloyd's work behind the camera, from his work with Alfred Hitchcock's anthology, on the Retro network.

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear he's still with us.

 

[LKellerIII]

And you can see a lot of Lloyd's work behind the camera, from his work with Alfred Hitchcock's anthology, on the Retro network.

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear he's still with us.

Yes, me too - I saw that episode of Modern Family, and was happy to see Norman Lloyd still going strong. He was also with Orson Welles' Mercury Theater company.

Here's a NY Times article on Lloyd, and a documentary that was made about him in 2007:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/movies/23norm.html

 

[Ultimajock]

And that candidate is Emmy nominee and veteran TV performer and producer Norman Lloyd, best known for his starring role as Dr. Auschlander in NBC's St. Elsewhere in the 1980s

...I'd have to dispute that - I suspect many more people recall seeing his character's "fall" from the Statue of Liberty's right hand in Saboteur than much of St. Elsewhere. But otherwise, the man is to be greatly admired for his talent and longevity; while part of Orson Welles' theater group on Broadway (pre-Mercury, IIRC), Mr. Lloyd played Cinna the Poet in the "Nuremburg Rallies" production of Julius Caesar, long considered the most important production of Shakespeare in American history...

 

[LKellerIII]

It's worth noting that Norman Lloyd was one of the principled Hollywood performers who refused to identify "Communists" among his friends and co-workers during the Joe McCarthy Senate, and House Unamerican Acitivities Committee witch-hunts of the early 1950s. Like others who refused, he was blacklisted, and could not find work for a number of years, until Hitchcock put him to work on his TV show. Fellow Mercury Theatre veteran John Houseman gave Norman and his wife (also still alive) the use of a house rent-free for the duration.

Interesting trivia: In 1940, Orson Welles convinced Norman to move to Hollywood to star in a film he was producing - (Heart of Darkness), but the whole production was a fiasco, and fell apart before filming...Welles became known for being reckless with financing. So when Welles asked him to participate in his next film, Norman refused for fear of being burned twice. That film was Citizen Kane.

 

[easttxtv]

In the case of the longest run in a single TV role, Guinness has acknowledged the now-late Helen Wagner in the role of 'Nancy Hughes' on As the World Turns; she appeared from the opening line in 1956 until May of this year (her passing) with a short break in the early 1980s. It was initially assured that Wagner would have the last words in the show's finale, which aired in September.

I had no idea that Mr. Lloyd had such a long TV career.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

...Helen Wagner in the role of 'Nancy Hughes' on As the World Turns; she appeared from the opening line in 1956 until May of this year (her passing)
with a short break in the early 1980s. It was initially assured that Wagner would have the last words in the show's finale, which aired in September.

She had some famous words one day back in '63.