Daniel von Bargen obit

 

Cincinnati native, 'Seinfeld,' 'Malcolm' actor passes away

He was not on the list.

A Cincinnati native whose acting career spanned more than 30 years has passed away.

Daniel von Bargen, 64, died over the weekend after a long illness, sources confirmed Tuesday.

The actor, active from 1976 to 2009, was best known for TV roles on "Seinfeld" and "Malcolm in the Middle," and movie roles in "Broken Arrow," "Super Troopers" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou."

von Bargen suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Montgomery, Ohio apartment in February 2012. He told a 911 operator he didn't want to go to surgery to have toes removed due to diabetic complications.

The actor's memorial service and burial will be private, sources said.

Von Bargen was born to Juanita J. (née Bustle) and Donald L. von Bargen, and was of German and English descent. He was born in Cincinnati, where he grew up for most of his childhood before moving with his family to Southern California. In 1968, von Bargen graduated from Reading High School. He graduated from Purdue University in Indiana.

In 1974, von Bargen made his television debut in Feasting with Panthers, a play about Oscar Wilde's imprisonment at the Reading Gaol, on PBS's Great Performances anthology series.

Von Bargen's film credits included The Silence of the Lambs, London Betty, RoboCop 3, Basic Instinct, Broken Arrow, Truman, The Majestic, Philadelphia, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Snow Falling on Cedars, Thinner, A Civil Action, Disney's The Kid, Super Troopers and Universal Soldier: The Return.

Von Bargen played the maniacal sorcerer Nix in Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions and the Sheriff in The Postman. He played a terrorist in a season 5 episode of The X-Files. Von Bargen had played Mr. Kruger, George Costanza's boss, in the ninth season of Seinfeld, and also played the recurring antagonist Commandant Edwin Spangler in the FOX comedy Malcolm in the Middle for the first three seasons.

Von Bargen's stage career included a long residency with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island; he made his Off-Broadway debut in 1981 in Missing Persons. He also appeared in the debut of Larry Gelbart's Mastergate and other plays at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He made his Broadway debut when the show went to New York City. In 1990, he won a Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Performer for his role in Mastergate. His last films roles were as Maury in London Betty and as George Burgess in Things That Hang from Trees.

In 1993, von Bargen narrated the unabridged Streets of Laredo audiobook.

Von Bargen was married to actress Margo Skinner, but the two were divorced by the time of her death on April 11, 2005. Skinner died in her sleep of a heart attack in her New York City apartment.

 

Filmography

Television

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1974    Great Performances            Wooldridge            Episode: "Feasting with Panthers"

1976    Visions            Guard            Episode: "Life Among the Lowly"

1979    The Scarlet Letter            Sailor            Unknown episodes

1983    The Dean of Thin Air       George Berkeley            TV movie

1985    Right to Kill?            Detective Roberts            TV movie

1985            American Playhouse            Thomas            Episode: "Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part I"

1985–1986            Spenser: For Hire            Al / Mr. Hurley            2 episodes

1990            H.E.L.P.            Whitehall            Episode: "Are You There, Alpha Centauri?"

1991–2004            Law & Order            Superintendent Cooper / Commander Billings / Lambrusco            3 episodes

1992    Citizen Cohn    Clyde Tolson  TV movie

1993    The Last Hit            Nordlinger       TV movie

1993    The Good Policeman            Frederic LeComte            TV movie

1993    With Hostile Intent            Officer Ted Campbell            TV movie

1993    Scam            Albert Magliocco            TV movie

1993    Guiding Light     Joe Morrison            Unknown episodes

1994    One West Waikiki            Captain Charlie Dalton            Episode: "'Til Death Do Us Part"

1994    The Gift of Love            Mr. Brady   TV movie

1994–1995            All My Children            Lieutenant Cody            Unknown episodes

1995    The Shamrock Conspiracy            Sternhardt        TV movie

1995    Truman            General Douglas MacArthur            TV movie

1995–1997            New York Undercover            Green / Omega Bomber / Duane  2 episodes

1996    The Writing on the Wall            Rockwell         TV movie

1996    NYPD Blue            Sergeant Ray Kahlins            2 episodes

1997–1998            Seinfeld            Mr. Kruger 4 episodes

1998    The Pretender            Captain Prentiss McClaren            Episode: "Collateral Damage"

1998            Significant Others            David Lerner            Episode: "The Plan"

1998    The X-Files     Jacob Steven Haley            Episode: "The Pine Bluff Variant"

1998    Arliss                Episode: "Whatever It Takes"

1998    Party of Five      Dr. Dick Grayson            Episode: "Love and War"

1999    Fantasy Island   District Attorney Flynn            Episode: "Innocent"

1999    The Practice            Detective Smiley            Episode: "Happily Ever After"

2000    City of Angels  Stewart Rafferty            Episode: "Unhand Me"

2000    Time of Your Life            Mr. Halloway            Episode: "The Time They Got E-Rotic"

2000    The Fearing Mind            P.F. O'Horgan            Episode: "Good Harvest"

2000    The West Wing            Air Force General Ken Shannon            2 episodes

2000–02            Malcolm in the Middle            Commandant Edwin Spangler            15 episodes (Seasons 1–3)

2001    Ally McBeal            Judge William Kopesky            Episode: "The Ex-Files"

2001    Judging Amy     Judge            Episode: "Grounded"

2003    Without a Trace Chief Patrick Finn            Episode: "Trip Box"

 

Film

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1991    The Silence of the Lambs  SWAT Communicator 

1991            Company Business            Mike Flinn    

1991            Shadows and Fog            Hacker's Vigilante #4   

1992            Complex World            Malcom        

1992    Basic Instinct            Lieutenant Nilsen        

1993            RoboCop 3            Moreno         

1993    Rising Sun      Chief Olson / Interrogator     

1993    The Saint of Fort Washington            Boat Captain           

1993    Six Degrees of Separation            Detective        

1993            Philadelphia      Jury Foreman          

1994    I.Q.            Secret Service Agent  

1995            Crimson Tide            Vladimir Radchenko    

1995    Lord of Illusions            Nix      

1996            Looking for Richard            Ratcliffe            Documentary

1996    Broken Arrow  Air Force General Creely 

1996    Before and After            Police Chief Fran Conklin           

1996    Thinner            Chief Duncan Hopley

1997    G.I. Jane            Secretary of the Navy Theodore Hayes  

1997    The Real Blonde            Devon 

1997    Trouble on the Corner            Cecil, The butcher     

1997            Amistad            Warden Pendleton     

1997    The Postman            Pineview Sheriff Briscoe

1998    Desert Blue     Sheriff Jackson           

1998    I'm Losing You            Dr. Litvak  

1998    Inferno            General Craig Maxwell 

1998    The Faculty Mr. Tate    

1998    A Civil Action  Mr. Granger           

1999    The General's Daughter            Police Chief Yardley  

1999            Universal Soldier: The Return  General Radford           

1999    Snow Falling on Cedars Carl Heine Sr.         

2000    A Question of Faith     Adrian 

2000    O Brother, Where Art Thou?            Sheriff Cooley

2000    Shaft            Lieutenant Kearney     

2000            Disney's The Kid            Sam Duritz  

2001    Super Troopers            Chief Bruce Grady    

2001    Trigger Happy  Harold 

2001    The Majestic            Federal Agent Ellerby   

2002            Coastlines       Sheriff Tate    

2002            S1m0ne          Chief Detective         

2003            Artworks            Howard Deardorf      

2004    Dead Horse   Stu Conklin           

2005    Drip            Daniel  

2006    Things That Hang from Trees    George Burgess           

2009    London Betty    Maury            (final film role)

 

Stage

Year     Title            Role            Venue

1981    Missing Persons            Tucker

1986    Good by C. P. Taylor            John Halder (lead)            Dallas Theater Three

1987    Uncle Vanya  Vanya             Hasty Pudding Theater

1988            Platonov          Pavel Petrovich Scherbuk

1988    Life is a Dream  King Basilio 

1988            Nobody          Carl     

1989            Mastergate      Maj. Manley Battle            American Repertory Theater

1990            Macbeth          Ross            Joseph Papp Public Theater

1991            Beggars in the House of Plenty            Pop     

1992    Angel of Death            Gunther Ludwig            American Jewish Theater

1993    The Treatment            Andrew         Joseph Papp Public Theater

2003    Secret Order   Robert Brock   Laguna Playhouse

''Tis Pity She's a Whore                      

The Changeling