Bruce Kirby, the veteran character actor perhaps best known for portraying the gullible Sgt. George Kramer on the long-running NBC series Columbo, has died. He was 95.
Kirby, who excelled at playing authority figures during his more than five decades in show business, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his son, John, reported.
His older son, actor Bruno Kirby (The Godfather: Part II, When Harry Met Sally …, City Slickers), died in August 2006 from leukemia at age 57.
The elder Kirby also portrayed District Attorney Bruce Rogoff on NBC's L.A. Law, and early in his career he was one of the goofy cops from the fictional 53rd Precinct in the Bronx seen in the early 1960s sitcom Car 54, Where Are You?
In Rob Reiner's Stand by Me (1986), Kirby played the market owner Mr. Quidacioluo, who tells Gordie (Wil Wheaton) that he resembles his older, deceased brother. He also was a detective in Throw Momma From a Train (1987), and in the 2006 Oscar best picture winner Crash, he appeared as Pop Ryan, the father of cop John Ryan (Matt Dillon).
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