Sadly, the Legion of "Hey, It's That Guy!" Character Actors loses another one.
From People: "Seinfeld Actor Charles Levin, 70, Believed Dead as Police Find Remains in Oregon"
As noted on Levin's Wikipedia page, "He was best known for the role of Elliot Novak on the series Alice having become a regular in the show's 9th season and the recurring role of Eddie Gregg on Hill Street Blues from 1982 to 1986."
If you remember Hill Street Blues -- and I do, I remember it well -- Detective Belker had a habit of befriending off-kilter misfits who would go on to die painful deaths several episodes later.
There was the guy in a wheelchair Belker met while working undercover as, well, a guy in a wheelchair. The guy berated Belker for faking it, because he saw Belker get out of the chair every time he came across a curb, move the chair onto the sidewalk and get back in. This guy got hit by a car, refused to go to the hospital, and died from internal injuries.
There was Captain Freedom, a demented neighborhood vigilante who wore a homemade superhero costume. He met his end when shotgun-wielding bandits robbed a saloon the cops had set up in a sting operation, and got shot full of holes.
As for Levin's character, Eddie Gregg, he was a gay male prostitute, but since this was network television, such was never said in so many words. Eddie volunteered to be a snitch for Belker, but made the mistake of telling on the wrong guy. Belker had to give Eddie a bus ticket and some cash so he could get out of town, fast. Eddie came back three years later just long enough to die from HIV.
Levin also was a regular in the final season of Alice as a police officer who marries Vera. In the series finale, he and Vera learn they are expecting a baby.
Replies
I read all the stuff when this guy died, because the usual sources thought he was important. But he wasn't a perennial (my family's equivalent of "It's that guy!"), because we hadn't seen him in anything, or at least, not enough to earn pereninal status. We never watched Hill Street Blues enough to recognize him, for example. (Although the guy who played Belker has earned perennial status in our family.)
But my soul still recoils at the loss of another "Hey! It's that guy!" You and I share a lot of pop culture experiences, CK, and your loss is my loss, O my brother.
Captain Comics said:
Charles Levin, not important!
Well, yeah, he was busiest in the 1980s and '90s. His IMDb page doesn't even list any credits for him after 1998. In my mind, Levin had slipped from "The Legion of 'Hey, It's That Guy!' Character Actors" to "Where Are They Now?"
Sadly, now we know.
I appreciate the commiseration.