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Bill Erwin

Bill Erwin built a long career out of the kind of character work that gives a movie or television episode extra texture. Born in Honey Grove, Texas, on December 2, 1914, he first earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, followed by a master’s in theater arts from the Pasadena Playhouse. He later served as a captain in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Erwin’s theatrical career began in 1940, and he performed at the Pasadena Playhouse, Laguna Beach Playhouse and La Jolla Playhouse, among other Los Angeles-area venues. That stage grounding carried into a screen career defined less by leading-man display than by precise, memorable supporting turns. His early films included Man from Del Rio and The Night Runner, followed by a role as Jack Nicholson’s father in The Cry Baby Killer. Later, Erwin found one of his best-known movie parts in Somewhere in Time, playing Arthur Biehl, the Grand Hotel’s venerable bellman, opposite Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. He remained connected to the film by attending annual cast, crew and fan reunions at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Erwin also became a recurring presence in John Hughes movies, appearing in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby, Home Alone and Dennis the Menace. His wider film work ranged from The Land Before Time and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult to Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead and Forces of Nature. Television gave Erwin even more room to work. His credits stretched from I Love Lucy, Perry Mason and The Twilight Zone to The Golden Girls, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Monk and The West Wing. His sharpest late-career showcase came on Seinfeld as Sid Fields, the hostile participant in a Foster-a-Grandpa pairing with Jerry. The performance earned Erwin an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series and neatly captured his gift for making a brief appearance feel like a fully formed character.