Richard Stahl, 74; Actor Known for Sitcom Roles

Richard Stahl, an actor whose more than 40-year career stretched from New York theater to film but who was perhaps best known for his roles in television comedies such as “Laverne and Shirley,” has died.

He was 74.

Stahl died Sunday at the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s health center in Woodland Hills after a 10-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, his wife, actress Kathryn Ish, said Wednesday.

“He had been declining for some time now,” she said.

Born in Detroit, Stahl did magic tricks as a boy and moved to California as a performer at age 15, Ish said.

He served in the Army during the Korean War, later graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

Ish and Stahl were off-Broadway actors when they met in 1959. They married later that year.

In the 1960s, the couple moved to San Francisco and joined the Committee, an improv comedy group, Ish said.

They settled in Santa Barbara in 1975.

Stahl’s film credits include 1970’s “Five Easy Pieces,” Mel Brooks’ 1977 spoof “High Anxiety,” 1980’s “Nine to Five” and 1996’s “Ghosts of Mississippi.”

He appeared on such TV shows as “Laverne and Shirley,” “The Odd Couple” and “Barney Miller,” and had a regular stint on the 1980s sitcom “It’s a Living.”

Stahl is survived by Ish; their daughter, Allegra; and a son, Oliver.

Services are pending.