James Sloyan, the veteran character actor who starred opposite Madeline Kahn on the 1980s sitcom Oh Madeline and appeared in everything from The Sting to Star Trek, has died. He was 85.
Sloyan died July 22 at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif., surrounded by his family, according to an obituary published by his loved ones. His death was announced publicly over the weekend.
During a career that spanned six decades, Sloyan amassed an extensive list of film, television and stage credits, but comedy fans may remember him best as Charlie Wayne, husband to Kahn’s Madeline Wayne, on Oh Madeline.
The ABC sitcom, which premiered in 1983, starred Kahn as a bored suburban housewife whose attempts to inject some excitement into her life regularly created headaches for Charlie. Sloyan’s character was a romance novelist who wrote under the pen name Crystal Love.
The series was the first produced by Carsey-Werner Productions, the company that would soon become one of television’s biggest comedy producers with shows including The Cosby Show, Roseanne and 3rd Rock From the Sun. Oh Madeline lasted just 18 episodes during the 1983-84 season.
Sloyan also had a memorable role in the 1973 Best Picture Oscar winner The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. He played Mottola, a numbers runner whose encounter with Redford’s Johnny Hooker and James Earl Jones’ Luther Coleman helps set the movie’s elaborate con in motion.
Seven years later, he appeared alongside Olivia Newton-John and Michael Beck in the musical fantasy Xanadu, playing Simpson, Sonny Malone’s demanding boss at AirFlow Records.
Sloyan became especially familiar to Star Trek fans during the 1990s, appearing five times across three series and portraying several very different characters and species.
On Star Trek: The Next Generation, he played Romulan Admiral Alidar Jarok in the 1990 episode “The Defector” and Alexander Rozhenko, the adult son of Worf, in the 1994 episode “Firstborn.” He later portrayed Dr. Mora Pol, the Bajoran scientist who studied Odo, in two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and appeared as Ma’Bor Jetrel on Star Trek: Voyager.
His remarkably long television résumé also included appearances on Wonder Woman, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Lou Grant, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing, Cagney & Lacey, Moonlighting, Murder, She Wrote, Quantum Leap, The X-Files and NYPD Blue. He was also a series regular on the 1977 ABC medical drama Westside Medical.
Away from the screen, millions of television viewers heard Sloyan without necessarily knowing his name. Beginning with the launch of Lexus in 1989, he served as the luxury automaker’s commercial voice for 18 years.
Born in Indianapolis on Feb. 24, 1941, Sloyan graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and served three years in the U.S. Army. After returning to New York, he worked as an actor and fight choreographer with Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival and made his Broadway debut in Arthur Kopit’s Indians in 1969.
Sloyan’s family remembered him as “always present, always curious, courageous, inventive, loyal,” as well as “brash, mouthy and very urban.”
“He was one-of-a-kind,” they added.
Sloyan is survived by his wife and partner of more than six decades, actress Deirdre Lenihan, and their children, musician Daniel Sloyan and actress Samantha Sloyan.
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