Dan Frazer makes a fretful police supervisor worth watching without turning him into a rival attraction. His work in Kojak gives Telly Savalas a credible colleague to answer to, and helps the programme feel inhabited beyond its star.
Fi1m perspective
Dan Frazer's captain in Kojak (1973) has to supervise a man whose methods keep giving him reasons to object. He is strait-laced, exasperated and still supportive, a combination that makes the working relationship more interesting than a contest between a clever detective and a tiresome boss. Frazer gives that boss a reasonable claim on our attention without making him the centre of it. We warmed to him because his irritation with Kojak does not rule out loyalty. It matters that somebody beside the leading man seems to take the work seriously.
The earlier parts suggest why this sort of authority suited him. After television work in anthology programmes, comedies and crime dramas from the 1950s, he made his film debut as Father Murphy alongside Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field (1963). Woody Allen then used him as a psychiatrist in Take the Money and Run (1969) and a priest in Bananas (1971). These are people whose occupations give them a claim to be heard before they have said anything. Kojak gave that familiar casting a sustained purpose: someone had to supervise its lieutenant.
Frazer's character is also Kojak's former partner, which gives the loyalty a practical basis. He can understand the man without approving of every method. Alongside Kevin Dobson as Bobby Crocker and George Savalas as Sgt. Stavros, Frazer helps establish a workplace that exists beyond the leading character's immediate needs. Savalas's quiet charisma is still the strongest reason to return to the programme. Frazer's contribution is to make it credible that such a man has colleagues, including one with the awkward duty of supervising him.
There are limits to what this kind of supporting work can do. Some of Kojak's police drama has dated, and a convincing superior officer cannot repair that. Frazer is worth noticing within the programme rather than being offered as a reason to excuse its shortcomings. Start with Kojak for Savalas, and watch how much more convincing his working day becomes when somebody is entitled to be annoyed with him.
Biography
Dan Frazer was an American character actor. He was best known for playing Captain Frank McNeil, the supervisor to Telly Savalas's Lieutenant Theo Kojak, in all five seasons of the CBS series Kojak (1973–1978).
Born in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood, Frazer began acting in local theatre and served in the US Army Special Services during the Second World War. He made his Broadway debut in the 1940s and appeared on television from the 1950s in series including The Phil Silvers Show, Car 54, Where Are You?, Route 66 and The Untouchables. His film debut came in 1963 as Father Murphy in Lilies of the Field.
Frazer appeared in Woody Allen comedies Take the Money and Run (1969) and Bananas (1971), and later guest-starred in episodes of the Law & Order franchise. He died in Manhattan on 16 December 2011.
