Michael Lombard

Michael Lombard, born Michael Labombarda on August 8, 1934, in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across more than five decades. His parents, both natives of Giovinazzo, Bari, Italy, had emigrated to the United States and settled in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. Lombard died on August 13, 2020, five days after his eighty-sixth birthday.

His Broadway career extended from 1964 to 1996 and encompassed a range of productions including Awake and Sing!, Timon of Athens, The Inspector General, Nick & Nora, and Inherit the Wind. In 1977, he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for his work in Otherwise Engaged. Off Broadway, Lombard earned an Obie Award in 1991 for his performance in What's Wrong With This Picture?

On television, Lombard accumulated an extensive list of credits beginning in the mid-1970s. He portrayed Marshall Beck in all fifteen episodes of the series Filthy Rich, which aired from 1982 to 1983. Between 1976 and 2005, he appeared in guest roles on Kojak, The Mary Tyler Moore Hour, The Rockford Files, Three's Company, Riptide, Spenser: For Hire, Miami Vice, The Cosby Show, and four episodes of Law & Order and its spinoffs. He also appeared in four episodes of Barney Miller, playing a different character in each.

Lombard's film work began with Who? in 1974 and grew to include prominent productions across several decades. He appeared in Network (1976), Fatso (1980), So Fine (1981), Garbo Talks (1984), Prizzi's Honor (1985), and Crocodile Dundee (1986). Later film credits include Pet Sematary (1989), Second Sight (1989), The Devil's Advocate (1997), Rounders (1998), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and Dead Canaries (2003). His final film role came in the 2013 French production La Vraie Vie des profs, in which he played Professeur De Dessin.