Len Lesser, a veteran character actor perhaps best known to modern audiences as Seinfeld’s Uncle Leo, has died of complications from pneumonia. He was 88.
Lesser’s long career in television began in 1949 with a role in Studio One In Hollywood. In the early days, he often found work playing thugs and hoodlums in shows like Dragnet and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and worked on Westerns such as Have Gun Will Travel and Gunsmoke. In fact, Lesser’s résumé reads like a compendium of classic television: He had appearances on Mike Hammer, The Jack Benny Program, Peter Gunn, Bat Masterson, The Untouchables, The Red Skelton Hour, The Outer Limits, The Wild Wild West, My Favorite Martian, That Girl, Get Smart, The Monkees, Green Acres, All In The Family, Bonanza, The Mod Squad, The Bob Newhart Show, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Simon And Simon, Hardcastle And McCormick, Remington Steele, Amazing Stories, Falcon Crest, Thirtysomething, Boy Meets World, Mad About You, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Just Shoot Me, and ER.
In 1970, Lesser starred in the World War II action-comedy Kelly’s Heroes as Sergeant Bellamy, who’s drafted to build a bridge for Clint Eastwood’s band of bank-robbing soldiers by Donald Sutherland’s Oddball. Lesser also had film roles in The Outlaw Josey Wales and Papillon.