Norman Lloyd, Hitchcock and 'St. Elsewhere' actor, has died

Norman Lloyd, who memorably fell to his death from the Statue of Liberty as the villain in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Saboteur” in the 1940s but became best known four decades later as kindly Dr. Daniel Auschlander on TV’s “St. Elswhere.” Lloyd later played Dr. Isaac Mentnor on the 1998-2001 science-fiction TV series “Seven Days.” Film buffs, however, remember him as the furtive villain in Hitchcock’s “Saboteur,” the 1942 wartime thriller starring Robert Cummings as a Los Angeles aircraft worker who evades arrest after he is unjustly accused of sabotage. After making his film debut in “Saboteur” in 1942, Lloyd played character parts in 21 films over the next 10 years, including Hitchcock’s “Spellbound,” Jean Renoir’s “The Southerner,” Losey’s “M,” Charles Chaplin’s “Limelight” and Lewis Milestone’s “A Walk in the Sun.” Norman Lloyd, left, and Robert Cummings fighting on top of the Statue of Liberty in a scene from the film ‘Saboteur,’ 1942. Lincoln,” five half-hour films written by James Agee that aired on the acclaimed cultural series “Omnibus.” But Lloyd discovered he was a victim of the Hollywood blacklist when producer John Houseman tried to cast him in the 1953 film “Julius Caesar.” He returned to the theater until Hitchcock wanted him for a job as associate producer of his TV series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” “The network told Hitch, there’s a problem with Lloyd, and he simply said, ‘I want him.’ They all could have done that,” Lloyd told the New York Post in 2007, his voice rising in anger. “Lloyd’s artistic sensibilities are incredibly sophisticated for a network TV series.” In the 1970s, Lloyd was executive producer — and served as a producer and a director — of PBS’ acclaimed dramatic anthology “Hollywood Television Theater.” He also produced and directed episodes of the 1979-88 TV series “Tales of the Unexpected.” Returning to the big screen as an actor in 1977, Lloyd appeared in “Aubrey Rose” and “FM” a year later.