Biography
Ian Abercrombie (11 September 1934 – 26 January 2012) was an English actor. He began his career as a dancer during the Second World War, winning bronze, silver and gold medals in stage dancing, and performed in London, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands. He moved to the United States at the age of seventeen and made his American stage debut in 1955 in a production of Stalag 17. After serving in the British Army in Germany, where he worked in Special Services, he settled in California and began a film and television career that spanned more than five decades.
Abercrombie appeared in films including Young Frankenstein (1974), Army of Darkness (1992), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Wild Wild West (1999). On television he played Justin Pitt in Seinfeld, Alfred Pennyworth in Birds of Prey, a butler in Desperate Housewives and Professor Crumbs in Wizards of Waverly Place. He voiced Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Ambrose in the animated film Rango (2011). He also maintained an active stage career, notably in a one-man show as Jean Cocteau.
