David Lander, the classically trained dramatic Shakespearian actor of stage and screen, has died. The thespian who portrayed such unforgettable Shakespearian characters as Squiggy, the greasy haired roommate of Lenny in Othello, Squiggy, the half-wit friend of Laverne, in The Merchant of Venice and Squiggy, the nasally voiced nitwit in Romeo and Juliet was 73. "No one I know could play a role better than David", said his longtime friend and fellow actor, Penny Marshall, who played opposite him as Shirley, the pea brain brewery worker, in Antony and Cleopatra. "He poured an enormous amount of research into every character he played", she said. "Like that time when he played Squiggy, the unemployed looser in Richard the III where he was trying to open a bottle of beer with his teeth and in the process, actually broke off two of his molars. That wasn't an act", she said. "that really happened''. Or the time when he played Squiggy, the klutzy would-be electrician in The Taming of the Shrew, when he was going to kiss Laverne and the lights when out and he tried to fix the switch with a butter knife and electrocuted himself and burned off the soles of his shoes. "That was no act", she said.
He won the prestigious Tory Spelling Award for Fine Acting in 1988.
Lander died on Saturday, December 5th of complications related to the many mishaps he had during his long and illustrious career. "He was always falling down stairs, getting his fingers caught in the blender, setting his hair on fire or getting beat up by nuns", said a spokesman for Variety Magazine. He will be buried in Milwaukee the fictitious city where he was from. Well-wishers are urged not to bring matches, scissors or other sharp objects to the funeral service.
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