Rigor Morty

(Accolades to Monty)
Phil Bruns, Jerry Seinfeld’s first TV father has joined Jerry’s second TV father and sustained the Seinfeld curse, dying of natural causes at the age of 80. A classic ”Hey, it’s That Guy,” Bruns earned day rates on dozens of sitcoms and dramas from the 1960s to the 1990s, including MASH, Hill Street Blues, Kojak, Mr. Belvedere, Ed and Barney Miller. The one show where he appeared more than once as the same character was the 1970s soap-opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, where he played Hartman’s ill-informed, perpetually confused blue collar mechanic father. Looking at the last 15 months, Bruns joins Bill Erwin (The Old Man), Len Lesser (Uncle Leo), and Frances Bay (The Marble Rye) on the Seinfeld In Memoriam reel, while Daniel von Bergen (Mr. Kruger) took a shot at joining the list.