Biography
Erland van Lidth, also credited as Erland Van Lidth De Jeude, was a Dutch-American actor, opera singer and amateur wrestler. Born in Hilversum, Netherlands, he moved to the United States with his family as a child and grew up in New Jersey, Connecticut and New Hampshire. He studied computer science and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also competed in wrestling and appeared in student theatre productions.
After graduation he worked in information technology in New York while pursuing amateur wrestling, serving as the heavyweight alternate for the United States at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. A casting director discovered him at the New York Athletic Club, leading to his film debut as Terror in The Wanderers (1979). He went on to play Grossberger in Stir Crazy (1980), Ronald 'Fatty' Elster in Alone in the Dark (1982) and Dynamo in The Running Man (1987). He also performed regularly with the Amato Opera in New York as a bass-baritone studying the Heldenbaritone repertoire. Van Lidth died of heart failure in Manhattan on 23 September 1987, aged 34.
