Charles Siebert

Charles Alan Siebert (March 9, 1938 – May 1, 2022) was an American actor and television director born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He trained at Marquette University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He is best known for portraying Dr. Stanley Riverside II on the television series Trapper John, M.D. from 1979 to 1986, and for frequent appearances on game shows including various incarnations of Pyramid, Match Game, Super Password, and Blackout.

Before establishing himself on screen, Siebert built an extensive stage career during the 1960s through regional theater engagements across the United States. His affiliations included Shakespeare in the Park in New York City, the Lincoln Center Repertory Company, the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut, the Guthrie Theater, the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and Center Stage in Baltimore. He spent seven summers at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and was a charter member of the American Conservatory Theater.

Siebert made his Broadway debut in 1967 in Bertolt Brecht's Life of Galileo. The following year he played Michael Leon in the 1968 musical Jimmy Shine, written by John Sebastian and Murray Schisgal, which starred Dustin Hoffman in the title role. He subsequently appeared in Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady alongside Maureen Stapleton, David Rabe's Sticks and Bones, and David Storey's The Changing Room. His final Broadway credit during this period was the 1974 revival of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which starred Elizabeth Ashley, Fred Gwynne, and Keir Dullea. His Off-Broadway work included Colette starring Zoe Caldwell and Rubbers, directed by Alan Arkin.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Siebert appeared regularly on New York television, primarily in soap operas including Another World, As the World Turns, Search for Tomorrow, The Nurses, and One Life to Live. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1976, he made his feature film debut in the horror film Blue Sunshine and went on to appear in several prominent films, including Michael Crichton's Coma, ...And Justice for All with Al Pacino, All Night Long with Barbra Streisand and Gene Hackman, and White Water Summer with Kevin Bacon and Sean Astin. His television guest appearances during this period included The Rockford Files, One Day at a Time, The Blue Knight, Murder, She Wrote, and Mancuso, F.B.I. starring Robert Loggia. He was also a series regular on the comedy program Husbands, Wives & Lovers. In 1987, he was cast as Hayley Mills's husband in the NBC pilot Good Morning, Miss Bliss; NBC declined the project, and when the Disney Channel picked it up, Siebert's role was among the casting changes made before the program evolved into the Saturday morning series Saved by the Bell.

Siebert's casting as Dr. Stanley Riverside II on Trapper John, M.D. in 1979 marked the beginning of both his most prominent acting role and his directing career. He directed seven episodes of that series before going on to direct episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Silk Stalkings, Renegade, Pacific Blue, Vanishing Son, Knots Landing, The Pretender, Lifestories, Palace Guard, and Jack's Place. He also played the role of Los Angeles mayor Frank Baldwin in the 1990 television miniseries The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake.

Siebert died on May 1, 2022, from COVID-19-related pneumonia at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco. He was 84 years old.