Biography
James Karen (born Jacob Karnofsky) was an American character actor known for work on Broadway, in film and on television. Born on 28 November 1923 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York and made his Broadway debut in the original production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Karen appeared in more than 200 film and television roles. He played Mr. Teague in Poltergeist (1982), Frank in The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Lynch in Wall Street (1987) and Wally Brown in Mulholland Drive (2001). He was also a long-running spokesman for the Pathmark supermarket chain and had recurring television roles including on Eight Is Enough. He died on 23 October 2018 in Los Angeles.
