Sandy Baron

Sandy Baron, born Sanford Irving Beresofsky on May 5, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York, was an American actor, comedian, and songwriter who worked across stage, film, and television until his death on January 21, 2001. He is perhaps most widely recognized for his recurring role as Jack Klompus on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld.

Baron grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, the son of Helen Farberman, a waitress, and Max Beresofsky, a house painter. Both parents were Yiddish-speaking Russian Jewish immigrants; his father had been born in Slonim, Belarus. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School in East New York and later enrolled at Brooklyn College on a scholarship. It was during his college years that he adopted the stage name Sandy Baron, drawing inspiration from the nearby Barron's Bookstore. He launched his performing career in the Catskill Mountains resort circuit, working within the tradition of Borscht Belt comedy, before joining the Compass Players improv comedy group in the late 1950s.

Baron made his Broadway debut in Tchin-Tchin in 1962, beginning a stage career that extended through 1971. His additional Broadway credits include Generation, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and Lenny, in which he replaced Cliff Gorman in the lead role of Lenny Bruce. The external biography also references a Los Angeles production of Lenny among his stage work.

Beyond Broadway, Baron built a substantial television profile. In 1964, he appeared regularly on the weekly program That Was The Week That Was and served as the opening act for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme at the Copacabana in New York City. During the 1966–1967 season, he co-starred with Will Hutchins in the NBC sitcom Hey, Landlord, set in a Manhattan brownstone apartment. He later made frequent appearances on talk programs including The Mike Douglas Show, The Merv Griffin Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and served as co-host of The Della Reese Show. He also hosted A.M. New York and Mid-Morning LA, and hosted the pilot episode of Hollywood Squares, on which he also appeared regularly as a celebrity contestant. His television acting credits include a starring role in Law & Order and the part of Grandpa in the 1996 television film The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas.

Baron's film appearances span several decades. His credits include Sweet November (1968), Targets (1968), If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), The Out-of-Towners (1970), and Birdy (1984). In Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Baron played himself alongside several contemporaries and also narrated the film.

Songwriting was another dimension of Baron's career. He began writing music in 1961 at the Brill Building in New York City, contributing songs including "Flying Blue Angels" and Adam Wade's "The Writing on the Wall." In 1971, he co-wrote Lou Rawls' hit "A Natural Man" with Bobby Hebb, known for the song "Sunny." Baron also recorded comedy albums, among them The Race Race and God Save the Queens, the latter co-written with Reverend James R. McGraw, an editor and writer associated with Dick Gregory's books. Throughout his career he opened for performers including Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, The Fifth Dimension, Bobby Vinton, Anthony Newley, and Diana Ross.

Baron was married three times — to model and actress Geraldine Baron, writer and activist Mary Jo Webster Baron, and writer and screenwriter Stephanie Ericsson — with each marriage ending in divorce. He had no children. He died of emphysema in Van Nuys, California, at the age of 64.