Richard Roat, a personality actor with 130-plus credit spanning practically a half-century who appeared in lots of TV’s greatest exhibits together with Seinfeld, Mates, Cheers, Murphy Brown, Dallas, Hawaii 5-O and Blissful Days, has died. He was 89.
Roat died August 5 in Orange County, CA, in accordance with his household. No different particulars had been accessible.
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Born on July 3, 1933, in Hartford, CT, Roat had a few bit TV roles earlier than being solid as Dr. Jerry Chandler within the 1962 pilot of NBC cleaning soap opera The Docs. He appeared in additional than 170 episodes through the first 12 months of the which, would go on to air for 20 years.
He guested on a 1965 episode of The Fugitive and have become a busy character actor throughout the next decade. Roat appeared in memorable Nineteen Seventies comedies and dramas as Hawaii 5-O, The Mary Tyler Moore Present, Columbo, Cannon, Kojak, The Bob Newhart Present, Police Story, Vega$, Fantasy Island, Blissful Days, Charlie’s Angeles and Dallas.
Roat additionally had small roles within the Nineteen Seventies options Westworld, American Scorching Wax and Corvette Summer time.
He continued to be an in-demand TV character actor all through the Eighties and ’90s, showing on such hits as seventh Heaven, Cybill, The Observe, Ellen, Coach, third Rock from the Solar, Murphy Brown, The Nanny, Melrose Place, Blossom, Grace Beneath Hearth, Residing Single, Mad About You, Lois & Clark, The Contemporary Prince of Bel-Air, Night time Courtroom, Baywatch, Murphy’s Legislation, Simon & Simon, L.A. Legislation, Matlock, ALF, St. Elsewhere, Hart to Hart and others.
He additionally co-starred with Eva Gabor, Robert Hays and a younger Jay Leno within the 1978 telefilm Virtually Heaven.
Roat is remembered by Seinfeld followers as one of many medical doctors who discovered Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine Benes to be a “tough affected person” within the Season 8 episode “The Package deal” in 1998. He additionally appeared as a professor colleague who busts Ross (David Schwimmer) for relationship a pupil in a 2000 episode of Mates.
Farther again, he appeared in two episodes of The Golden Women, together with a Season 1 position as a person who dies whereas having intercourse with Rose (Betty White). Roat additionally recurred as Farnsworth on a number of Hill Avenue Blues episodes from 1982-85 and as a writer on Dynasty in 1986.
In a 1985 episode of Cheers, Roat performed Norm’s (George Wendt) boss Mr. Hecht, who promotes him to company killer — chargeable for firing individuals within the workplace.
About that point, he returned to his cleaning soap opera roots to play Professor Henry Moore in a few dozen episodes of NBC’s Days of Our Lives from 1985-91. His closing credit score was a 2009 episode of 24.
Roat additionally appeared briefly on Broadway and onstage at The Public Theatre in Central Park, The Huntington Hartford Theatre in Los Angeles and the Pasadena Playhouse. Alongside along with his lengthy appearing profession, he had a profitable follow as an leisure tax preparer for greater than 50 years.
Survivors embrace his spouse of greater than 40 12 months, Kathy.
