Robert Lansing

While he played a number of different parts in film and television, some of Robert Lansing's most recognizable roles were as cops or men with military backgrounds. The tough-looking actor--who took his stage name from Michigan's state capital because another thespian was using his birth name--started his career in the 1950s, and established himself as a small-screen leading man by the early '60s. He appeared in the 1961 crime drama "87th Precinct," based on a series of novels by Ed McBain, in which he played the driven Detective Steve Carella. In this program and many others, Lansing's noticeably bushy eyebrows lent him an unkemptness that made him seem more human, and helped set him apart from other star actors on television. Later that decade, he played Brigadier General Frank Savage in "12 O'Clock High," based on the movie of the same name (he reprised the role first played by Gregory Peck), although his participation lasted only one season. An appearance in a '68 episode of "Star Trek" entitled "Assignment: Earth" was intended to lead to a spin-off series for Lansing but unfortunately, the show never aired. During the '70s and early '80s, his most notable work was guest-starring in various series--although he did fight giant mutated insects in the '77 B-film "Empire of the Ants." Then came a supporting part in "The Equalizer," an '80s action series about an urban vigilante. He played Control, the head of a secret agency who provided the main character with assignments.