St. Elsewhere actor born in NJ dies at 106

One of my favorite TV shows in the 80’s was St. Elsewhere. The hospital drama catapulted Howie Mandel and Denzel Washington to fame and starred Ed Begley Jr., David Morse and others. One of those others was the guy who played Daniel Auschlander, an actor by the name of Norman Lloyd. He was part of the very final scene of the series finale where he turned out to be not a doctor after all but the grandfather of a boy with autism and the entire six seasons of storylines merely the imagination of an autistic mind.

Well Norman Lloyd just passed away at the age of 106. He was born Nov. 8, 1914 in Jersey City. Imagine that. 106 years. He was three years old when the Spanish Flu hit. Five years old when it finally ended. He lived through two pandemics.

Diminutive at only 5’ 5’’ they say he was an amazingly energetic person. He still played tennis into his 90’s. Heck, he was still acting at 100, appearing in his last film, Trainwreck, with Amy Shumer, Bill Hader and Colin Quinn in 2015.

Talk about an impressive and long career. According to nj.com, he was in the earliest known television drama On The Streets Of New York in 1939 and appeared on The Practice and Modern Family. He starred in everything from Limelight with Charlie Chaplin to Dead Poet’s Society with Robin Williams.

He had dozens of theater credits too. He was in Taming Of The Shrew, King Lear, Julius Caesar and many others productions.

He married only once in his very early 20’s. Peggy Craven stayed his wife for 75 years until her death at 98 in 2011. They had two children.

Norman Lloyd died at his home on Tuesday in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.