Robert Trebor obit

Robert Trebor, ‘Hercules: The Legendary Journeys’ Actor, Dies at 71

He played the merchant Salmoneus on that show and on ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ after a turn as the Son of Sam in a TV movie. 

He was not on the list.

Robert Trebor, who portrayed the serial killer known as the Son of Sam in a CBS telefilm and the scheming merchant Salmoneus on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its sister series, Xena: Warrior Princess, has died. He was 71.

Trebor died March 11 at Los Angeles Medical Center of sepsis, his wife, Deirdre Hennings, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 2012 and had a stem-cell transplant a year later, she said.

On the big screen, the clever character actor worked in films including John Frankenheimer’s 52 Pickup (1986), Susan Seidelman’s Making Mr. Right (1987), Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio (1988) and the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar (2016), for which he played a movie producer in his final onscreen role.

In his breakout year of 1985, Trebor appeared as a reporter in Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo, as a copy boy in Bob Clark’s Turk 182 and as the Son of Sam (real name: David Berkowitz) in the TV movie Out of the Darkness.

The telefilm also starred Martin Sheen as Ed Zigo, the detective who helped catch the killer that terrorized New Yorkers in the 1970s.

In a 2003 interview, Trebor said playing Berkowitz was “emotionally and physically draining,” especially since it was his day job; at night, he was doing broad comedy in the off-Broadway play The Crate Those, making for occasional 18-hour workdays.

Trebor portrayed the materialistic Salmoneus in the 1994 syndicated telefilm Hercules and the Lost Kingdom and on 20 episodes over the first five seasons of the Kevin Sorbo-starring series from 1995-99. He also crossed over to Xena, starring Lucy Lawless, for four episodes from 1996-99. (Both shows were shot in New Zealand.)

Trebor said his original deal was for just two episodes before producers decided to keep him around.

“The arc for Salmoneus is to try to be a good person, but his essential mercantile instincts kept interfering with that,” he noted in 2001. “I never saw him as a thief. Autolycus [played by Bruce Campbell] was the thief. I never saw him as a con man either, although I could understand why other people could. He was just a very enthusiastic guy who didn’t read the fine print and needed to make a living when he wasn’t a farmer or fighter. He lived by his glib tongue.”

Trebor, who also directed an installment of Hercules in 1997, appeared at fan conventions all over the world and even had an action figure (less muscular than Sorbo’s) modeled after his character.

One of two kids, Robert Alan Schenkman was born in Philadelphia on June 7, 1953. His father, Gerald, procured supplies for the U.S. Army, and his mother, Edith, was a homemaker. As a kid, he composed music, wrote and directed 8mm and 16mm short films and penned movie and theater reviews for Scholastic magazine.

He graduated from Northwestern University in 1975 and came to New York, where he appeared in plays written by Shel Silverstein at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. He then portrayed a rabbi in his onscreen debut, Gorp (1980), set a Jewish summer camp.

The stage name he chose for himself is a palindrome. (His wife said he changed his name in college to avoid confusion with Robert Schenkkan, a classmate who would go on to write the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Kentucky Cycle.)

Trebor’s résumé also included the films The Shadow (1994) and Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004) and guest shots on Miami Vice, Simon & Simon, Frank’s Place, Murphy Brown, Baywatch, Empty Nest, Night Court, Tales From the Crypt and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

In 2013, he was named one of the first artists-in-residence at Santa Monica’s The Braid (formerly the Jewish Women’s Theatre). In Stories From the Violins of Hope in 2023, he played Israeli luthier Amnon Weinstein, whose restoration of Holocaust-era violins gave voice to hundreds of musicians who had perished. The Zoom show featured live music and played at the United Nations.

He and Hennings started dating after they first met while taking a business class at the New School in New York. They moved to L.A. in 1990 and got married in the hospital in 2012 shortly after he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Donations in his memory may be sent to The Braid, where a scholarship fund is being established in his name, or to the Leukemia Research Foundation.

Trebor also wrote the books Dear Salmoneus: The World’s First Guide to Love and Money, published in 1999, and The Haircut Who Would Be King, a 2019 satirical novel that follows “Donald Rump” and “Vladimir Poutine” from childhood to their presidencies.

As he explained in an interview: “Salmoneus just kind of schmoozed people over and was always trying to scheme and get somebody to do something by showing them the glitter without talking about the substance of the rather shoddy product he was selling. And I think there’s some application to the guy in the White House as far as that’s concerned.

“I believe in many ways, Trump is the intersection of psychopath and salesman. And by having portrayed that as an actor, apparently fairly successfully, I thought about that while I was writing.”

Director

Kevin Sorbo in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995)

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

6.5

TV Series

Director

1997

1 episode

 

Actor

George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, and Jonah Hill in Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Hail, Caesar!

6.3

Producer of 'Hail, Caesar!'

2016

 

JoAnne

Short

Mr. Fairley

2011

 

Hip-Hop Headstrong

Short

Dr. Zillion

2010

 

The Devil's Rejects (2005)

The Devil's Rejects

6.7

Marty Walker (uncredited)

2005

 

Elizabeth Berkley, Krista Allen, Julian McMahon, Missi Pyle, Alan Tudyk, and Aisha Tyler in Meet Market (2004)

Meet Market

3.6

Director Dick

2004

 

Raise Your Voice (2004)

Raise Your Voice

5.8

Mr. Wesson

2004

 

Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004)

Jiminy Glick in Lalawood

5.1

Jay Schiffer

2004

 

Wedding Daze (2004)

Wedding Daze

5.7

TV Movie

Rabbi Feldman

2004

 

Jason Gedrick, Donnie Wahlberg, Gary Basaraba, Neal McDonough, Lana Parrilla, and Mykelti Williamson in Boomtown (2002)

Boomtown

8.1

TV Series

Keith (uncredited)

2003

1 episode

 

Dying on the Edge (2001)

Dying on the Edge

4.4

Mel Weiner

2001

 

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (2002)

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones

7.6

TV Series

Schwarz

1999

1 episode

 

Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess (1995)

Xena: Warrior Princess

6.8

TV Series

Marco

Salmoneus

Lord Seltzer

1996–1999

4 episodes

 

Kevin Sorbo in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995)

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

6.5

TV Series

B.S. Hollingsfoffer, Studio Head

Salmoneus

B.S. Hollinsfoffer ...

1995–1999

22 episodes

 

The Shadow (1994)

The Shadow

6.1

Harried Man in Taxi (uncredited)

1994

 

Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (1994)

Hercules and the Lost Kingdom

6.4

TV Movie

Waylin

1994

 

Sean Patrick Flanery and Corey Carrier in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992)

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

7.3

TV Series

Schwarz

1993

1 episode

 

The Nutt House (1992)

The Nutt House

3.7

Buddy

1992

 

Tales from the Crypt (1989)

Tales from the Crypt

8.0

TV Series

Archie

1992

1 episode

 

Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme in Universal Soldier (1992)

Universal Soldier

6.1

Motel Owner

1992

 

Janet Gunn, Clayton Prince, and Ramy Zada in Dark Justice (1991)

Dark Justice

7.2

TV Series

Howie

1992

1 episode

 

Corin Nemec, Abraham Benrubi, Billy Jayne, and Troy W. Slaten in Parker Lewis Can't Lose (1990)

Parker Lewis Can't Lose

7.8

TV Series

Adrian Lite

1991

1 episode

 

Harry Anderson, Selma Diamond, Ellen Foley, John Larroquette, Charles Robinson, and Richard Moll in Night Court (1984)

Night Court

7.7

TV Series

Zealot #1

1990

1 episode

 

Dinah Manoff, Kristy McNichol, David Leisure, Richard Mulligan, and Park Overall in Empty Nest (1988)

Empty Nest

6.6

TV Series

Andrew

1989

1 episode

 

Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, Alexandra Paul, David Hasselhoff, David Chokachi, Gena Lee Nolin, and Jaason Simmons in Baywatch (1989)

Baywatch

5.5

TV Series

Garth Dickinson (as Robert Alan Trebor)

1989

1 episode

 

Candice Bergen in Murphy Brown (1988)

Murphy Brown

6.9

TV Series

Geoffrey

1989

1 episode

 

Talk Radio (1988)

Talk Radio

7.2

Jeffrey Fisher

Francine

1988

 

Tim Reid and Daphne Reid in Frank's Place (1987)

Frank's Place

8.5

TV Series

Larry

1988

1 episode

 

Michele Little and Scott Valentine in My Demon Lover (1987)

My Demon Lover

4.6

Charles

1987

 

Making Mr. Right (1987)

Making Mr. Right

5.5

Tux Salesman

1987

 

Ann-Margret and Roy Scheider in 52 Pick-Up (1986)

52 Pick-Up

6.4

Leo Franks

1986

 

Peter Boyle and Andrew Rubin in Joe Bash (1986)

Joe Bash

7.0

TV Series

1986

2 episodes

 

Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker in Simon & Simon (1981)

Simon & Simon

7.0

TV Series

Matt Graham

1986

1 episode

 

Out of the Darkness (1985)

Out of the Darkness

6.1

TV Movie

David Berkowitz

1985

 

Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in Miami Vice (1984)

Miami Vice

7.6

TV Series

Maxwell Dierks

1985

1 episode

 

The Sex O'Clock News (1985)

The Sex O'Clock News

4.4

Mr. Rajah

1985

 

Turk 182 (1985)

Turk 182

6.0

Copy Boy

1985

 

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

The Purple Rose of Cairo

7.7

Reporter

1985

 

Tim Choate in The First Time (1981)

The First Time

4.9

Joel

1981

 

Gorp (1980)

Gorp

3.5

Rabbi Blowitz

1980

 

Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (1973)

Magnum Force

7.2

Reporter (uncredited)

1973

 

The Streets of San Francisco (1972)

The Streets of San Francisco

7.3

TV Series

(as Bob Trebor)

1973

3 episodes

 

Face of Fire (1959)

Face of Fire

7.0

Dr. John

1959

 

Archive Footage

Kevin Sorbo in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995)

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

6.5

TV Series

Salmoneus (archive footage)

1996

1 episode

 

Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in Miami Vice (1984)

Miami Vice

7.6

TV Series

Maxwell Dierks (archive footage, uncredited)

1988

1 episode