Robert Lansing (; born Robert Howell Brown, June 5, 1928 – October 23, 1994) was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Lansing is probably best remembered as the authoritarian Brigadier General Frank Savage in 12 O'Clock High (1964), the television drama series about American bomber pilots during World War II. During his career, which spanned five decades, Lansing appeared in 245 episodes of 73 television series, 11 TV movies, and 19 motion pictures. His other notable television roles included 87th Precinct (1961–62), the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" (1968), Automan (1983–1984), and The Equalizer (1985–1989).
Early life
While living in Los Angeles, California, he attended University High School. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan, but was told he would first have to join the Actors' Equity Association. Equity would not allow him to join as "Robert Brown" because another actor was using that name. Because the stock company was based in Lansing, this became the actor's new surname.
Lansing served two years in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Osaka, Japan, where he worked at Armed Forces Radio. He gained early acting experience at the Actors Studio.
He played the lead in the 1973 Roundabout Theater production of August Strindberg's The Father, staged by Gene Feist. New York Times critic Clive Barnes praised Lansing's "mannered, tortured, and racked portrait of the Captain" as "superlative," comparing it favorably with a Michael Redgrave performance years earlier. Also that year he starred with Barbara Bel Geddes in the Broadway production of Jean Kerr's comedy Finishing Touches. In 1977, Lansing appeared in a one-man show as coal miner union leader John L. Lewis.
Lansing appeared in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer and Eugene O'Neill's The Great God Brown in the title role. His other stage performances included roles in Charley's Aunt, Elmer Rice's Cue for Passion, The Lovers, and The Cut of the Axe. Off-Broadway, his work included The Father, the "Sea Plays" of Eugene O'Neill, and two one-man shows, Damien and The Disciple of Discontent.
Film
On film, Lansing starred in the 1959 science-fiction film 4D Man. He also starred as marine biologist Hank Donner in the 1966 nature drama film Namu, the Killer Whale. His other films included Under the Yum Yum Tree, A Gathering of Eagles, The Grissom Gang, Bittersweet Love, False Face, Empire of the Ants, and The Nest.
Television
Lansing first appeared on TV on Kraft Television Theatre in 1956.
Lansing played an international secret agent in The Man Who Never Was, and Lt. Jack Curtis on Automan. He also played a recurring role, known only as "Control", on 29 episodes of The Equalizer between 1985 and 1989, which then was spun-off into the TV movie Memories of Manon, which aired on February 13, 1989. He guest-starred in The Twilight Zone episode "The Long Morrow" and in the Thriller episode "Fatal Impulse". He also guest-starred on other television productions such as NBC's Law & Order.
In the 1980s, he did a series of television commercials for Liberty National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, and for the popular supermarket chain Giant Eagle.
Lansing's final television role was that of Police Captain Paul Blaisdell on the series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. The role was written specifically for Lansing by series writer and executive producer Michael Sloan, who had worked with Lansing on the series The Equalizer in the 1980s, although Lansing had already been diagnosed with cancer. Despite continuing health problems, Lansing performed in 24 episodes in the first and second seasons. In the final episode of season two, titled "Retribution", Lansing's character of Blaisdell was written out, with the possibility of the character returning if the actor's health improved. The episode, filmed in February 1994, was Lansing's final acting performance. It aired on November 28, 1994, a month after the actor died, and was dedicated to his memory.
Personal life and death
Lansing had a son, Robert Frederick Orin Lansing, with his first wife, actress Emily McLaughlin whom he married in 1956; they divorced in 1968. The following year, Lansing married Gari Hardy, but this marriage also ended in divorce. The couple had a daughter, Alice Lucille Lansing. His last marriage was to Anne Pivar, with whom he remained until his death in 1994. From 1991 to 1993, he was president of The Players Club, a theatrical fraternal organization founded by Edwin Booth in 1888.