Morte Seinfeld

Barney Martin, who went from joke-telling NYPD detective to Jerry Seinfeld’s trench coat-designing, penny-pinching TV dad, has died at 82. Martin parlayed the jokes he wrote for deputy commissioners into a job writing for Name that Tune and The Steve Allen Show and a gig as Jackie Gleason’s stand-in. But his rumpled mug was meant to be seen, and he was the original Mr. Cellophane as Amos Hart in Chicago – the second original cast member from Chicago to die in 3 months after Jerry Orbach. Other roles included Liza Minelli’s bum father in Arthur, the grown-up Kevin Arnold on the Wonder Years and Frank Fontana’s father on Murphy Brown.