'Saboteur,' '~St. Elsewhere' star Norman Lloyd dies at 106

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Norman Lloyd, whose role as kindly Dr. Daniel Auschlander on TV's 'œSt. Elsewhere'ť was a single chapter in a distinguished stage and screen career that put him in the company of Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin and other greats, has died. He was 106.

Lloyd's son, Michael Lloyd, said his father died Tuesday at his home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

His credits stretch from the earliest known U.S. TV drama, 1939'²s 'œOn the Streets of New York'ť on the nascent NBC network, to 21st-century projects including 'œModern Family'ť and 'œThe Practice.'ť

'œIf modern film history has a voice, it is Norman Lloyd's,'ť reviewer Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 2012 after Lloyd regaled a Cannes Film Festival crowd with anecdotes about rarified friends and colleagues including Charlie Chaplin and Jean Renoir.

The wiry, 5-foot-5 Lloyd, whose energy was boundless off-screen as well, continued to play tennis into his 90s. In 2015, he appeared in the Amy Schumer comedy 'œTrainwreck.'ť

His most notable film part was as the villain who plummets off the Statue of Liberty in 1942'²s 'œSaboteur,'ť directed by Hitchcock, who also cast Lloyd in the classic thriller 1945's 'œSpellbound.'ť

His other movie credits include Jean Renoir's 'œThe Southerner,'ť Charlie Chaplin's 'œLimelight,'ť 'œDead Poets Society'ť with Robin Williams, 'œIn Her Shoes'ť with Cameron Diaz and 'œGangs of New York'ť with Daniel Day-Lewis.

On Broadway, Lloyd played the Fool opposite Louis Calhern's King Lear in 1950, co-starred with Jessica Tandy in the comedy 'œMadam, Will You Walk'ť and directed Jerry Stiller in 'œThe Taming of the Shrew'ť in 1957.

He was also part of Welles' 1937 modern-dress fascist-era production of 'œJulius Caesar'ť that has gone down in history as one of the landmark stage pieces in the American theater. Norman played the small but key role of Cinna the Poet, opposite Welles' Brutus. Stage magazine put Welles on its June cover and proclaimed the production 'œone of the most exciting dramatic events of our time.'ť

Born Nov. 8, 1914, in Jersey City, New Jersey, Lloyd jumped into acting as a youngster in the 1920s. On stage, he was a regular with Welles' Mercury Theater, the groundbreaking 1930s troupe that also featured Joseph Cotton and Agnes Moorehead and formed the basis of Welles' classic film debut, 'œCitizen Kane.'ť

His other plays included 'œCrime,'ť directed by Elia Kazan and featuring his future wife, Peggy Craven. The couple were married for 75 years, until Peggy Lloyd's death in 2011 at age 98.

TV viewers knew him best as the memorable calm center of St. Eligius hospital on the 1982-88 NBC drama series 'œSt. Elsewhere.'ť His Dr. Daniel Auschlander was originally only supposed to appear in a few episodes, but Lloyd became a series regular and stayed with the show for the entire run. The series would inspire such shows as 'œE.R.'ť and 'œGrey's Anatomy.'ť

Lloyd worked steadily as a TV actor and director in the early 1950s, but the political liberal found his career in jeopardy during the Hollywood blacklist period aimed at communists or their sympathizers.

In 1957, Hitchcock came to his rescue, Lloyd told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. When the famed director sought to hire Lloyd as associate producer on his series 'œAlfred Hitchcock Presents'ť but was told 'œThere is a problem with Norman Lloyd,'ť Hitchcock didn't back down, Lloyd recalled.

'œHe said three words: '~I want him,''ť Lloyd said. He was immediately hired and eventually worked as executive producer on another series, 'œThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour.'ť

His other TV credits include roles in 'œStar Trek: The Next Generation,'ť 'œMurder, She Wrote,'ť 'œThe Paper Chase,'ť 'œQuincy M.E.,'ť 'œKojak'ť and 'œThe Practice.'ť

In 2014, in recognition of his 82 years in show business, and reaching the age of 100, the Los Angeles City Council proclaimed that his birthday of Nov. 8, would be honored as 'œNorman Lloyd Day.'ť

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Kennedy reported from New York. AP Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. contributed to this report.