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Meet David Lander!

I, and probably most others, remember David Lander as “Squiggy” on the show Laverne and Shirley. He was the other half of the Lenny and Squiggy team on the popular sitcom back in the 70's and early 80's. I couldn't wait to see the funny antics of Andrew Squiggman and Lenny his sidekick.

David Lander's early years

He was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 22, 1947 to parents who were schoolteachers. They named their youngest son David Leonard Landau. When he was 10 years old, he decided he would be an actor. He was 4 when he began attending the High School of Performing Arts in New York City.

He also studied at Carnegie Tech and NYU during his college years. To further his acting career, he moved to Hollywood. There he found a job writing for a variety TV show called Romp! He ended up being discovered by a radio producer while working at a telephone answering service. The producer liked the way he did voice imitations.

From radio to tv

After an on-the-air radio audition with The Credibility Gap, he landed another job which would eventually lead him to TV. It was a comedic satire based on current news. This was the show on which the characters Lenny and Squiggy were first performed by David Lander and Micheal McKean. Penny Marshall was in the live audience during one of the shows and asked them to perform at her party. Her brother, Garry Marshall, saw the act and asked them to perform on his sister's new show, Laverne and Shirley.

The show started in 1976 and ran for seven year's through 1983. Lenny and Squiggy were in more than 200 of those episodes. From there, David's acting career continued on and he appeared in many of the TV shows of the day, likeThe Simpsons, The Nanny, Family Matters, Dream On, Saturday Night Live, Matlock, Head of the Class, Highway to Heaven, Father Dowling, Simon and Simon, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Married with Children, and L.A. Heat He's also been in movies, done voice-overs for radio, TV, and on animated series, like the popular kids shows. One of these was Oswald, where he was the voice of “Henry the Penguin” from 2001 till 2004, and another, 101 Dalmations.

Besides his acting career, David Lander was also a musician. The band, “Lenny and the Squigtones”, was a fictional musical group on the series. They released an album - Lenny and Squiggy Present Lenny and the Squigtones in 1980 on the Casablanca label. It was performed live in front of an audience. They only made the one album; it is now a collectors item.

David is also a baseball fan and is part owner of the Portland Beavers. His favorite team is the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has also worked since 1997 as a baseball talent scout for the Anaheim Angels and now for the Seattle Mariners.

He now lives in Thousand Oaks, California with his wife Kathy Fields. They were married on March 10, 1979. Their daughter, Natalie, is following in her fathers footsteps as an actress and voice actress.

Go to from David Lander, Part 1, to Part 2 

Go to the Famous People with MS A-B 

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