Lloyd Bochner, 81,
Actor Of Stage, Screen and TV, Dies

Lloyd Bochner, a classically trained actor who played suave heroes and villains for more than 50 years in theater, television and film, died Saturday [Oct. 29, 2005] at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 81.

Lloyd Bochner in 1968.

The cause was cancer, his son Paul Bochner said.

Mr. Bochner began working professionally on television and on the stage in his native Canada. He joined the Stratford Festival of Canada in its first season in 1953 and spent six years there, playing Horatio in "Hamlet," Orsino in "Twelfth Night" and Duke Vincentio in "Measure for Measure," opposite James Mason.

In the United States, Mr. Bochner joined the cast of the early television domestic drama "One Man's Family" in 1952. He starred as a police chief, Neil Campbell, opposite Rod Taylor's newspaper journalist in the 1960's mystery series "Hong Kong." He had a leading role in "Dynasty" as Cecil Colby, the hero's rival, in the 1981-82 season.

He made dozens of guest appearances in other television shows and was featured in movies including "The Detective," "Tony Rome," " Point Blank," "Ulzana's Raid," "The Man in the Glass Booth" and the comedy "The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear." His last film credit was "The Commission" (2003).

Mr. Bochner was born in Toronto in 1924. He studied at the University of Toronto, earning a bachelor of arts degree in 1947 from University College.

In addition to his son Paul, of Valley Cottage, N.Y., Mr. Bochner is survived by his wife, Ruth, of Santa Monica; another son, Hart, of Los Angeles, also an actor; and a daughter, Johanna Courtleigh, of Portland, Ore.

In his most memorable television role, Mr. Bochner starred as Michael Chambers in the famous 1962 "Twilight Zone" episode "To Serve Man." Chambers and his assistant are decoding experts in charge of translating a book given to Earth by visiting extraterrestrials. The assistant learns that it is a cookbook, but is too late to save Mr. Bochner's character from boarding a spaceship and heading toward becoming an alien meal. He parodied the episode's climactic scene in "The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear."