Allan Arbus


Allan Franklin Arbus was an American actor and photographer. He was the former husband of photographer Diane Arbus. He is known for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman on the CBS television series M*A*S*H.

Early life

Arbus was born in New York City, to a Jewish family, the son of fur retailer Harry Arbus and his wife Rose. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he first developed an interest in acting while appearing in a student play.
Also a music lover, before becoming an actor, he was reportedly so taken by Benny Goodman's recordings that he took up playing the clarinet.

Photography career

During the 1940s, Arbus became a photographer for the United States Army. In 1946, after he completed his military service, he and his first wife, photographer Diane Arbus, started a photographic advertising business in Manhattan. Arbus was primarily known for advertising photography that appeared in Glamour, Seventeen, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and other magazines, as well as the weekly newspaper advertising photography for Russeks, a Fifth Avenue department store in Manhattan co-founded by Diane's grandfather, Frank Russek.
Edward Steichen's noted photo exhibition The Family of Man includes a photograph credited to the couple. The Arbuses' professional partnership ended in 1956, when Diane quit the business; the couple formally separated three years later. Allan Arbus continued on as a solo photographer, but had given up the business to pursue an acting career by the time the couple divorced in 1969.

Acting career

After the breakup of his first marriage and the dissolution of his business, Arbus moved to California in 1969 to pursue a new career in acting. His new career took off after he landed the lead role in Robert Downey Sr.'s 1972 cult film, Greaser's Palace, in which he appears with Robert Downey, Jr., who would go on to star as Diane Arbus's muse in Fur. The 2006 Fur is a fictional account of the end of the Arbuses' marriage. Arbus also starred opposite Bette Davis in Scream, Pretty Peggy, and was featured as Gregory LaCava in W.C. Fields and Me.
These roles led to his casting as Maj. Sidney Freedman on M*A*S*H.
His work on M*A*S*H helped his career as a character actor, and he eventually appeared in more than seventy TV shows and movies. He appeared briefly in the 1973 film Cinderella Liberty as a drunken sailor; another 1973 film, Coffy, featured Arbus as a drug dealer with strange sexual needs; in Damien - Omen II, he played Pasarian, one of Damien's many victims in The Omen trilogy. In 1979, he portrayed a dance choreographer in The Electric Horseman.
Arbus is far better known for his television work, which includes over forty-five titles, with works as recent as Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2000. Among Arbus's non-M*A*S*H work for television are guest and recurring roles in such television series as Law & Order, In the [Heat of the Night (TV series)|In the Heat of the Night], L.A. Law, Matlock, Starsky and Hutch, and Judging Amy.

Personal life and death

Allan and Diane Arbus had two daughters, photographer Amy Arbus, and writer and art director Doon Arbus. The couple separated in 1959 and divorced in 1969, two years before Diane Arbus's suicide in 1971.
Arbus married actress Mariclare Costello in 1977. The couple had one daughter, Arin Arbus, who is the artistic director at Theatre for a New Audience.
Arbus died of congestive heart failure on April 19, 2013, in Los Angeles. He was 95. He was cremated and his ashes given to his family.

Selected filmography

YearTitleRoleTypeNotes
1961Hey, Let's Twist!The doctorFilm
1969Putney SwopeMr. Bad NewsFilm
1971The Christian Licorice StoreMonroe Film
1972Cisco PikeSim ValensiFilm
1972Greaser's PalaceJessyFilm
1973The Young NursesKrebsFilm
1973CoffyArturo VitroniFilm
1973Scream, Pretty PeggyDr. SaksTV movie
1973Cinderella LibertyDrunken sailorFilm
1974The Odd CoupleErnie Ferguson / Mr. Lennox TVEpisodes: "Cleanliness Is Next To Impossible", "The Hollywood Story"
1974Law and DisorderDr. Richter
1976Hawaii Five-OVince MaynardTVSeason 8
1976W.C. Fields and MeGregory LaCavaFilm
1977Raid on EntebbeEli MelnickTV movie
1978Damien - Omen IIPasarian
1978TaxiJerry MartinTVEpisode: "One-Punch Banta"
1978The Rockford FilesMyron KatzinTVEpisode: "Black Mirror"
1978Wonder WomanBleakerTVEpisode: "The Girl from Ilandia"
1979AmericathonMoishe Weitzman, the 2nd HebrabFilm
1979The Electric HorsemanDannyFilm
1980The Last Married Couple in AmericaAl SquibFilm
1981Gangster WarsGoodmanTV movieAlso, as a TV miniseries, known as The Gangster Chronicles
1982Quincy, M.E.Dr. EllerickTVEpisode: "For Love of Joshua"
1973–1983M*A*S*HMajor Sidney FreedmanTV12 Episodes
1984The World of Don CamilloChrist FilmIn Italian and English
1985Cagney & LaceyArthur StaceyTVEpisode: List of [Cagney & Lacey episodes|"Violation"]
1985VolunteersAlbert BardenaroFilm
1985Hardcastle and McCormickDr. FriedmanTVEpisode: "Do Not Go Gentle"
1986CrossroadsDr. SantisFilm
1986Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color Dr. Andreas HellmanTV movieA Fighting Choice
1987From the HipPhil AmesFilm
1987SpiesJanoTVEpisode: "Baby"
1987Daniel and the TowersSimon 'Sam' Rodia
1987OharaSol RostoffTVEpisode: "The Intruders"
1987DuetMr. ColemanTVEpisode: "Born, Bred and Buttered in Brooklyn"
1987MatlockPeter LeoniTVEpisode: "The Chef"
1989L.A. LawLawrence StoneTVEpisode: I'm in the Nude for Love
1989MatlockAaron MitchellTVEpisode: "The Star"
1989When He's Not a StrangerJudge Thomas J. GrayTV movie
1990HunterNorman TateTVEpisode: "Unfinished Business"
1991StatHesh CooperTVEpisodes: "Safe Smuggling" & "Fantasy"
1991–1992Brooklyn BridgeDr. SchulmanTV3 episodes
1993Law & OrderDominique KeithTVEpisode: "Animal Instinct"
1993Josh and S.A.M.Businessman on planeFilm
1992–1993In the Heat [of the Night (TV series)|In The Heat of the Night]Dr. AtwillTVEpisodes: "Discovery" & "Little Girl Lost"
1994Mad About YouAlbertTVEpisode: List of [Mad About You episodes|"The Last Scampi"]
1997In Dark PlacesDory
1998L.A. DoctorsMr. MitskiTVEpisode: "A Prayer for the living"
1999NYPD BlueSeymore EpsteinTVEpisode: "Don't Meth with Me"
1999Judging AmyJudge FowlerTV3 episodes
2000Curb Your EnthusiasmUncle NathanTVEpisode: List of [Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes|"The Group"]
2016Chief ZabuGeorge DankworthFilm