Character actor Alan North, who appeared in film, TV and onstage, including Off-Broadway's Lake Hollywood, died Jan. 19 in a hospital in Port Jefferson, NY, The New York Times reported. The cause of death was kidney and lung cancer.

An actor for five decades, Mr. North, 79, was a veteran of live TV, sitcoms, films and appeared on stage as recently as 1999, in Signature Theatre Company's Lake Hollywood, by John Guare, in Manhattan. In that play, he played a crusty old New Englander who wished to rename a local pond "Lake Hollywood," capitalizing on the fact that Spencer Tracy once holed up in a lakeside shack to escape the world and go on a two week bender.

He made his Broadway debut in the musical, Plain and Fancy, and also acted in Conversations With My Father, Dylan, The American Clock, Mornings at Seven, Spofford, Requiem for a Nun, Summer of the 17th Doll, and the City Center revival of South Pacific, among others. He played an old fisherman in the Bay Street Theater of Sag Harbor, Long Island's initial offering, Mens' Lives.

He was known as the hangdog partner of Leslie Nielsen in the cult TV comedy, "Police Squad!" and appeared in many movies, including "The Long Kiss Goodnight," "Lean On Me," " I'm Not Rappaport," "Serpico," "...And Justice for All" and the recent "I'll Take You There" and "Abilene."

His 1999 bio stated, "Mr. North is one of a handful of people in the world today who make their own shoes."

He is survived by a wife, June, two daughters and three grandchildren.

-- By Kenneth Jones
and Robert Simonson