Herbert Edelman (November 5, 1933 – July 21, 1996) was an American actor of stage, film and television. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for his television work. His best-known role was as Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband of Dorothy Zbornak (played by Bea Arthur) on The Golden Girls. He also had a recurring role on the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere.
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Early life and career
Edelman was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 5, 1933. His parents, Jennie (née Greenberg) and Mayer "Mike" Edelman, were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Ukraine, respectively. Before becoming an actor, Edelman studied to become a veterinarian at Cornell University but left during his first year. After serving in the U.S. Army as an announcer for Armed Forces Radio, he enrolled in Brooklyn College as a theater student, but eventually dropped out. He later worked as a hotel manager and as a taxicab driver. One of his fares was director Mike Nichols, who in 1963 cast Edelman in his breakthrough Broadway role, as the bewildered telephone repairman in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. Edelman reprised his role in the 1967 film version (starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda).
He appeared as Murray the Cop in the movie version of Simon's The Odd Couple (1968) and later appeared in Simon's California Suite (1978). In 1976, in an episode of The Love Boat entitled “Daredevil / Picture Me Spy”, Edelman portrayed a Russian professor at Stanford University. He also had a role in The Way We Were (1973) and in an installment of the Japanese movie series Otoko wa Tsurai yo in 1979.
