Robert Lansing's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) The Equalizer Control Automan Lt. Jack Cu… 87th Precinct Det. Steve … Outlaws (1960) Frank Dalton Dateline: Hollywood Robert Lans… Saints and Sinners (1962) Don Colley The Man Who Never Was Mark Wainwr… Peter Murphy

Main Movie Roles

BIOGRAPHY:

Born in San Diego, California, as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan. 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.[citation needed]
In the 1961–1962 television season, Lansing was cast as Detective Steve Carella on NBC's 87th Precinct series based on the Ed McBain detective novels. His costars were Gena Rowlands, Ron Harper, Gregory Walcott, and Norman Fell. In 1961, he played the outlaw Frank Dalton in a two-part episode of NBC's The Outlaws with Barton MacLane. He played the frontier dentist, gambler, and gunfighter Doc Holliday in an episode of NBC's The Tall Man, with Barry Sullivan and Clu Gulager.
On film, Lansing starred in the science fiction film 4D Manb (1959); the cast also included a young Patty Duke. He also starred as marine biologist Hank Donner in the 1966 nature drama film Namu, the Killer Whale, which featured one of the first orcas ever displayed in captivity.



TRIVIA:

• 1991 to 1993: President of The Players, the famous theatrical club in New York City.
• Rugged American leading man of 50s Broadway and 60s standard film and TV action drama -- the star of several TV series (_"12 O'Clock High" (1964)_ (qv) and _"The Man Who Never Was" (1966)_ (qv) among others).
• The "Assignment: Earth" episode of _"Star Trek" (1966)_ (qv), in which Lansing plays a human raised on a distant planet and sent to Earth as a troubleshooter, was written as the springboard for a spin-off series. The new series was to feature more adventures of Gary Seven (Lansing) and Roberta Lincoln ('Teri Garr' (qv)), but it never came about.
• Son with 'Emily McLaughlin (I)' (qv): Robert Frederick Orin Lansing.
• Daughter with Hardy: Alice Lucille (b. 1970) now known as Alyiki
• Borrowed his stage moniker from the capital city of Michigan.