, Edelman and
Joyce Van Patten Edelman was born in
Brooklyn, New York, on November 5, 1933. His parents, Jennie ( Greenberg) and Mayer "Mike" Edelman, were
Jewish immigrants from
Poland and
Ukraine, respectively. Before becoming an actor, Edelman studied to become a
veterinarian at
Cornell University but left during his first year. After serving in the
U.S. Army as an announcer for
Armed Forces Radio, he enrolled in
Brooklyn College as a theater student, but eventually dropped out. He later worked as a hotel manager and as a
taxicab driver. One of his fares was director
Mike Nichols, who in 1963 cast Edelman in his breakthrough Broadway role, as the bewildered telephone repairman in
Neil Simon's
Barefoot in the Park. Edelman reprised his role in the
1967 film version (starring
Robert Redford and
Jane Fonda). He appeared as Murray the Cop in the movie version of Simon's
The Odd Couple (1968) and later appeared in Simon's
California Suite (1978). In 1976, in an episode of The Love Boat entitled “Daredevil / Picture Me Spy”, Edelman portrayed a Russian professor at Stanford University. He also had a role in
The Way We Were (1973) and in an installment of the
Japanese movie series
Otoko wa Tsurai yo in 1979. He remains best known for his three decades in television, usually as a co-star, recurring character, or guest star on
CHIPS,
The Golden Girls,
That Girl,
Love, American Style,
The Streets of San Francisco,
Maude,
Cannon,
Happy Days,
Welcome Back, Kotter,
Highway to Heaven,
Kojak,
Fantasy Island,
Cagney & Lacey, and
MacGyver, but occasionally in a lead role. In 1976, he starred in the Saturday morning children's series
Big John, Little John, as well as
The Good Guys with
Bob Denver (in what was Denver's first series after ''
Gilligan's Island'') from 1968 to 1970. He also appeared with
Bill Bixby and
Valerie Perrine in
Bruce Jay Friedman's
Steambath, a controversial PBS
dramedy during 1973. From 1984 to 1988, he had a recurring role on
St. Elsewhere. Edelman also appeared in ten episodes of
Murder, She Wrote between 1984 and 1995, most frequently appearing as
New York Police Department Lieutenant Artie Gelber. His last role was in an episode of ''
Burke's Law''. ==Personal life and death==