Todd Susman

Todd Susman, born January 17, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri, is an American actor whose career spans film, television, stage, and voice work. He graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in 1965 before pursuing a career in entertainment.

Susman accumulated credits across more than one hundred television series and commercials throughout his career. Among his most recognized television work is his role as the unseen P.A. system announcer on 46 episodes of M*A*S*H, a duty he shared with actor Sal Viscuso, who voiced the announcer on 37 episodes. Susman also made a single on-screen appearance on the series in January 1974, playing Private Danny Baker. From 1984 to 1989, he appeared as Officer Shifflett in 20 episodes of Newhart. In 1976, he was a series regular on the six-episode CBS adventure program Spencer's Pilots. He portrayed Ben Braxton in 6 episodes of Empty Nest, Howard Bloom in 5 episodes of Orange Is the New Black, Victor Bevine in 4 episodes of St. Elsewhere, Glen in 4 episodes of Grace Under Fire, Bill in 4 episodes of Coach, and 4 separate characters across 4 episodes of Barney Miller. He played Sergeant Dobbs in the 1986 television miniseries Fresno and appeared as detective Spade Marlow in a 1991 episode of The Golden Girls. Ted Lapinsky was his character in two episodes of The Waltons, appearing in "The Home Front" in 1979 and "The Unthinkable" in 1980. His television appearances since 1971 also include Love, American Style, Room 222, Kojak, Eight Is Enough, The White Shadow, Little House on the Prairie, Lou Grant, Remington Steele, Alice, Hill Street Blues, The Facts of Life, Cagney and Lacey, Night Court, Who's the Boss?, Punky Brewster, Webster, ALF, Highway to Heaven, Murder She Wrote, Blossom, Married with Children, The Commish, ER, Suddenly Susan, Law and Order, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and Bull. His television movie credits include Death Scream (1975), Portrait of an Escort (1980), Thornwell (1981), The Other Victim (1981), City Killer (1984), I Married a Centerfold (1984), The Guardian (1997), The Superagent (2009), and You Don't Know Jack (2010). He also submitted a pilot series to Grant Tinker at MTM Enterprises centered on a young man arriving in New York City to begin his career, and a separate pilot titled Going Places, about an Ohio novelist who relocates to New York expecting his book to be published, aired on NBC on March 19, 1973, but was not picked up by the network.

His film work began in the early 1970s with appearances in Star Spangled Girl (1971), The Loners (1972), Little Cigars (1973), and California Dreaming (1979). He went on to appear in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Coneheads (1993), and The Juror (1996), as well as the 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123. Supporting roles came in Only the Strong (1993), Night of the Running Man (1995), Bodily Harm (1995), Just Write (1997), Blast from the Past (1999), High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story (2003), The A Plate (2011), and The Discoverers (2012). He also appeared in the 2007 independent film The Big Bad Swim and the 2009 comedy The Flying Scissors. In 2002, Susman provided the voice of the lead character in the video game Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix.

On Broadway, Susman appeared in the musical Hairspray, with his run in the production spanning 2002 to 2003. In 2012, he joined the original cast of Old Jews Telling Jokes at the off-Broadway Westside Theatre. The following year, Susman and the Old Jews Telling Jokes cast appeared at Carnegie Deli alongside The Chew personality Carla Hall to unveil the OJTJ sandwich, named for the comedy group.

Susman has one child with his first wife, Judy, who is a working actress. He married Bella Kordonov on November 6, 1982, and they have three children together. In a 1971 news article, Susman noted that he relocated to Los Angeles after a friend told him he could earn $500 a week as a writer, though the arrangement did not materialize as expected and he instead earned $60 a week writing for American International Pictures.