Actor-director Robert Ellenstein Passes at 87
Over a lengthy career he appeared in dozens of top network series.
Robert Ellenstein, an actor and director known for numerous film and television roles, died October 28, 2010, in Los Angeles. He was 87.
According to news reports, Ellenstein died of natural causes.
Ellenstein co-founded L.A. Rep and Theater West legit companies and was the first assistant director for Company of Angels, which honored him October 17 as part of its 50th anniversary.
Ellenstein’s notable feature film roles included 3:10 to Yuma, North by Northwest, Love at First Bite and Star Trek IV: The Journey Home, in which he played the Federation President.
During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps and earned a Purple Heart. After the war, he studied at NYU and University of Iowa. He then began acting at the Cleveland Play House and directing and teaching in Cleveland during the 1940s and ‘50s.
In the early ’50s, as the Golden Age of Television was taking shape, he moved to Los Angeles. In 1954 he played Quasimodo in a live Robert Montgomery Presents adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. For the next few years he appeared on that shows as well as others such as The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse.
Although he continued to work in theater, television was his mainstay over the next several decades. Series he appeared on included The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible, The Wild Wild West, Perry Mason, Ironside and Moonlighting. His final credit was a 1998 episode of ER.
Survivors include his wife, two sons, a daughter and four grandchildren.