Conrad Janis Dies: ‘Mork & Mindy’, ‘The Cable Guy’ Actor Was 94
deadline.comConrad Janis, a prolific character actor of TV, film and stage who had already become immediately recognizable even before landing his signature role opposite Robin Williams and Pam Dawber in the hit ’70s sitcom Mork & Mindy, died March 1 in Los Angeles.
He was 94.His death was confirmed by business manager Dean A. Avedon to The New York Times.A son of the noted New York art collectors and gallerists Sidney and Harriet Janis, Janis, who along with his brother took over the family business, the Sidney Janis Gallery, later in life, was also a successful and lifelong jazz trombonist who even at the height of his Mork & Mindy success performed regularly with his group, the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band.Janis launched his acting career in the mid-1940s, appearing in what would be the first of 12 Broadway shows, 1945’s Dark of the Moon and, the same year, in the starring role of a wartime comedy titled Snafu.
In that film, notable for its early, if sanitized, use of the military acronym, Janis played a 14-year-old boy who sneaks into military service.Other movie credits would soon follow (including 1946’s Margie and 1947’s The Hagan Girl starring Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple), and frequent appearances on 1950s omnibus dramas would launch a prolific television career.
By the 1960s Janis was appearing on such popular series as The Untouchables, Stoney Burke, Get Smart and My Favorite Martian.
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