Larry Cedar

Larry Frank Cedar (born March 6, 1955) is an American voice, film and television actor, best known as one of the players of the Children's Television Workshop mathematics show '' Square One TV'' on PBS from 1987 to 1994. He played Max, Alex the Butcher's assistant, in a series of commercials for Kroger in 1989. He is also known for playing Leon, the opium-addicted thief and faro dealer, in the acclaimed HBO series '' Deadwood''.

Life and career

Cedar's professional acting career did not begin until shortly after his admission to Hastings Law School when, on an impulse, he decided to audition for, and was accepted into the MFA Theater program at UCLA, from which he graduated in 1978. While there, he won the Hugh O'Brian Acting Competition award for Best Actor, resulting in a one-year artist development contract with Universal Studios. He went on to star in various television films, and numerous episodics and feature films, including a starring role opposite Rebecca De Mornay in the Ivan Reitman-produced ''Feds'', and an appearance as The Creature on the Wing, opposite John Lithgow, in the Steven Spielberg remake, '' Twilight Zone: The Movie'', directed by George Miller. He has also won an L.A. Theater Alliance Ovation Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Other actors in Cedar's family include Jon Cedar and George Cedar.

Cedar spent six seasons in New York starring in the award-winning PBS series '' Square One TV,'' and later starred in 40 episodes of the Fox television series '' A.J.'s Time Travelers''. A veteran stage performer, he appeared in the one-man play ''Billy Bishop Goes to War'' at the Colony Theatre. He has been nominated for two Los Angeles Theater Alliance Ovation awards for his performances in ''Anything Goes'' (as Lord Oakley) opposite Rachel York, and in ''She Loves Me'' (as Sipos, for which he won Best Featured Actor in a Musical). His other stage work includes portraying Hoagy Carmichael in ''Hoagy, Bix, and Wolfgang Beethoven Bunkhaus'' at L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum; as Vernon opposite Lea Thompson in ''They're Playing Our Song;'' and as Secretary Thompson in ''1776'' opposite Roger Rees.

In August 2008, Cedar appeared in '' Towelhead'', the directorial debut of Alan Ball (creator of '' Six Feet Under''). He co-starred opposite Adrien Brody as the demented Chester Sinclair in the Ben Affleck/Diane Lane noir feature film ''Hollywoodland'', directed by Allen Coulter, and recurred for three seasons as Leon, the opium-addicted card dealer and thief, in the David Milch helmed HBO series '' Deadwood'' opposite Powers Boothe and Ian McShane. His independent film work includes the award-winning short ''Tel Aviv'', the science fiction thriller ''Forecast'', and the full-length horror film ''Midnight Son''. He has also done voice-over work for hundreds of commercials, cartoon series, and video games.

In 2010, Cedar had a role in '' The Crazies'', playing Principal Ben Sandborn. From 2011 to 2012 he portrayed Cornelius Hawthorne, father of Chevy Chase's character Pierce Hawthorne, on 2 episodes of ''Community''.

Cedar is active in the Los Angeles theatre community. In 2013 he starred in ''King Lear'' with The Porters of Hellsgate. For the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival, he developed the script for ''Orwellian: Rants, Recollections, and Cautionary Tales From The Works of Eric Arthur Blair,'' which is a one-hour adaptation of three works by George Orwell: ''Down and Out in Paris and London'', ''Animal Farm'', and ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. The play was produced by The Porters of Hellsgate in conjunction with the Orwell estate. Hollywood Fringe Festival

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

References

External links

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Larry Cedar's website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cedar, Larry
1955 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
Living people
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Male actors from California
Place of birth missing (living people)
UCLA Film School alumni