Actor David Lander, who played the role of The Bold and the Beautiful's Dr. Martin "Marty" Guthrie in the late 90s, died of complications from multiple sclerosis on December 4. The New York native was 73.
Born in Brooklyn in 1947, Lander decided to become an actor when he was ten years old. He attended NY's High School for the Performing Arts and then went to New York University and Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. It was at the latter that he met fellow actor Michael McKean -- with whom he partnered for several projects, including the 1979 Steven Spielberg comedy 1941, the 1980 Kurt Russell film Used Cars, the animated series Oswald, and -- most famously -- the 1976 Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley (Lander as Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman and McKean as Lenny Kosnowski).
As soap fans may remember, The Bold and the Beautiful called on Lander in 1997 to play the role of Dr. Martin "Marty" Guthrie, the brother of Mike Guthrie (Ken Hanes), who was cohort to devious Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown). One major storyline from his two years on the CBS soap featured Mike and Martin kidnapping Sheila and keeping her tied up at the Psycho house, which you can view in the YouTube clip below.
Some of Lander's other TV credits include Twin Peaks, Barney Miller, The Love Boat, On the Air, Married... With Children, Family Matters, Pacific Blue, and Love, American Style. His film credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Pandemonium, A League of Their Own, A Bug's Life, and Scary Movie.
Lander was officially diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1984 but didn't come public with his illness until 1999. In 2002, he released an autobiography called Fall Down Laughing: How Squiggy Caught Multiple Sclerosis and Didn't Tell Nobody, written with Lee Montgomery.
Lander is survived by his wife of 41 years, Kathy, their daughter, Natalie, and her husband.
What do you remember from David Lander's time as The Bold and the Beautiful's Martin Guthrie? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
