Allan Arbus

Allan Franklin Arbus (February 15, 1918 – April 19, 2013)[1] was an American actor and photographer and the husband of photographer Diane Arbus. He is known for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman (Major) on the CBS television series M*A*S*H.

Allan Arbus
Born	Allan Franklin Arbus (1918-02-15)February 15, 1918 New York City, U.S.
Died	April 19, 2013(2013-04-19) (aged 95) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, photographer
Years active	1961–2000
Spouse(s)	Diane Nemerov ​ ( m. 1941; div. 1969) Mariclare Costello ( m. 1977)
Children	3, including Doon and Amy Arbus

Early life

Arbus was born in New York City, to a Jewish family,[2] the son of stockbroker Harry Arbus and his wife Rose (née Goldberg).[3] He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he first developed an interest in acting while appearing in a student play.[4]

Arbus was also a music lover. Before becoming an actor, he was reportedly so taken by Benny Goodman's recordings that he took up playing the clarinet.[4]

Photography career

During the 1940s, Arbus became a photographer for the United States Army. In 1946, after completing his military service, he and his first wife, photographer Diane Arbus (née Nemerov, whom he had married in 1941), started a photographic advertising business in Manhattan. Arbus was primarily known for advertising photography that appeared in Glamour, Seventeen, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and other magazines, as well as the weekly newspaper advertising photography for Russeks, a Fifth Avenue department store owned by Diane's father.[5] Edward Steichen's noted photo exhibition The Family of Man includes a photograph credited to the couple.[6] The Arbuses' professional partnership ended in 1956, when Diane quit the business; the couple formally separated three years later. Allan Arbus continued on as a solo photographer, but was out of the business by the time the couple divorced in 1969.

Diane and Allan Arbus's studio/living quarters were at one time at 319 East 72nd Street in New York City. Their neighbor and friend was Robert Brown, an actor on the TV show Here Come the Brides.

Acting career

After the breakup of his first marriage and the dissolution of his business, Arbus decided to leave photography behind and pursue a new career in acting. In 1969 he moved to California.[7] His new career took off after he landed the lead role in Robert Downey Sr.'s cult film Greaser's Palace (1972), in which he appears with Robert Downey, Jr. (who would go on to star as Diane Arbus's muse in Fur, a fictional account of the end of the Arbuses' marriage). Arbus also starred opposite Bette Davis in Scream, Pretty Peggy in 1973, and was featured as Gregory LaCava in W.C. Fields and Me in 1976. These roles led to his casting as Maj. Sidney Freedman on M*A*S*H, although in an early episode, "Radar's Report" (1973), he was called "Milton Freedman".

Arbus's work on M*A*S*H helped his career as a character actor, and he eventually appeared in more than 70 TV shows and movies. He appears briefly in the 1973 film Cinderella Liberty as a drunken sailor; another 1973 film, Coffy (starring Pam Grier), features Arbus as a drug dealer with strange sexual needs; in the 1978 movie Damien: Omen II, he plays Pasarian, one of Damien's many victims in The Omen trilogy.

Arbus is far better known for his television work, which includes over 45 titles and works as recent as Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2000. Among Arbus's non-M*A*S*H TV work are guest and recurring roles in such television series as Law & Order, In the Heat of the Night, L.A. Law, Matlock, Starsky and Hutch, and Judging Amy.

Personal life

Allan and Diane Arbus had two children, photographer Amy Arbus, and writer and art director Doon Arbus. The couple separated in 1959 and divorced in 1969, two years before Diane Arbus's suicide in 1971.

Arbus married actress Mariclare Costello in 1977. The couple had one daughter, Arin Arbus, who is the associate artistic director at Theatre for a New Audience.

Arbus died of congestive heart failure on April 19, 2013, in Los Angeles. He was 95.[1] He was cremated and his ashes given to his family.[8]

TV and filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1961	Hey, Let's Twist!	Doctor	Uncredited
1969	Putney Swope	Mr. Bad News
1971	The Christian Licorice Store	Monroe
1972	Cisco Pike	Sim Valensi
1972	Greaser's Palace	Jessy
1973	The Young Nurses	Krebs
1973	Coffy	Arturo Vitroni
1973	Scream, Pretty Peggy	Dr. Saks	TV Movie
1973	Cinderella Liberty	Drunken Sailor
1974	The Odd Couple	Ernie Ferguson (Hypnotist) season 4, episode 15 :	TV Episode: Cleanliness Is Next To Impossible
1974	Law and Disorder	Dr. Richter
1976	Hawaii Five-O	Vince Maynard
1976	W.C. Fields and Me	Gregory LaCava
1977	Raid on Entebbe	Eli Melnick
1978	Damien: Omen II	Pasarian
1978	Wonder Woman	Bleaker	TV Episode: "The Girl from Ilandia"
1979	Americathon	Moishe Weitzman
1979	The Electric Horseman	Danny
1980	The Last Married Couple in America	Al Squib
1981	Gangster Wars	Goodman
1982	Quincy, M.E.	Dr. Ellerick	TV Episode: "For Love of Joshua"
1973– 1983	M*A*S*H	Major Sidney Freedman	12 Episodes
1984	The World of Don Camillo	Christ	Voice
1984	The Four Seasons	Boris Elliot	TV 13 episodes
1985	Cagney & Lacey	Arthur Stacey	TV Episode: "Violation"
1985	Volunteers	Albert Bardenaro
1985	Hardcastle and McCormick	Dr. Friedman	TV Episode: "Do Not Go Gentle"
1986	Crossroads	Dr. Santis
1986	Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color	Dr. Andreas Hellman	TV A Fighting Choice
1987	From the Hip	Phil Ames
1987	Spies	Jano	TV Episode: "Baby"
1987	Daniel and the Towers	Simon 'Sam' Rodia	TV movie
1987	Ohara	Sol Rostoff	TV Episode: "The Intruders"
1987	Duet	Mr. Coleman	TV Episode: "Born, Bred and Buttered in Brooklyn"
1987	Matlock	Peter Leoni	TV Episode: "The Chef"
1989	L.A. Law	Lawrence Stone	TV Episode: "I'm in the Nude for Love"
1989	The Preppie murder	Arnold Domenitz	TV movie
1989	Matlock	Aaron Mitchell	TV Episode: "The Star"
1989	When He's Not a Stranger	Judge Thomas J. Gray	TV movie
1990	Hunter	Norman Tate	TV Episode: "Unfinished Business"
1990	Too Much Sun	Vincent
1991	Stat	Hesh Cooper	TV Episodes: "Safe Smuggling" & "Fantasy"
1991– 1992	Brooklyn Bridge	Dr. Schulman	TV 3 episodes
1993	Law & Order	Dominique Keith	TV Episode: "Animal Instinct"
1993	Josh and S.A.M.	Businessman on plane
1992– 1993	In The Heat of the Night	Dr. Atwill	TV Episodes: "Discovery" & "Little Girl Lost"
1994	Mad About You	Albert	TV Episode: "The Last Scampi"
1997	In Dark Places	Dory
1998	L.A. Doctors	Mr. Mitski	TV Episode: "A Prayer for the living"
1999	Making Contact	Father Time
1999	NYPD Blue	Seymore Epstein	TV Episode: "Don't Meth with Me"
1999	Judging Amy	Judge Fowler	TV 3 episodes
2000	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Uncle Nathan	TV Episode: "The Group"
2016	Chief Zabu	George Dankworth	(final film role)

References

1. "MASH actor Allan Arbus dies at 95". BBC News. April 25, 2013. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
2. Bloom, Nate (May 5, 2005). "Celebrity Jews". The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California. Retrieved December 13, 2006.
3. "Allan Arbus Biography". Filmreference.com.
4. Boehm, Mike (December 3, 2000). "Theater; Lured Back for One Last Great Role; Veteran actor Allan Arbus leaves a fulfilling retirement to take on an Arthur Miller part he found he couldn't resist". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 14, 2009. Arbus says he yearned to be an actor from his early teens, when he had a moment of special clarity while playing in a student production at DeWitt Clinton High School.
5. Lubow, Arthur (September 14, 2003). "Arbus Reconsidered". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
6. Marshall, Peter. "Diane Arbus: Key Facts". About.com. Archived from the original on February 18, 2007. Retrieved December 22, 2006.
7. Trounson, Rebecca (April 23, 2013). "Allan Arbus dies at 95; played psychiatrist on 'MASH'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
8. Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. p. 25.

External links

• Allan Arbus on IMDb
• Allan Arbus at AllMovie