Character Actor Edelman Dies At 62

Herb Edelman, a career character actor of stage and screen who played Bea Arthur’s humorously obnoxious ex-husband on “The Golden Girls,” has died. He was 62.

Edelman died Sunday at the Motion Picture Hospital, said family spokesman Roger Burnley. Family members did not wish the cause of death to be disclosed.

Edelman, a tall gregarious bald man, appeared in stage and film productions of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” as one of Oscar’s poker buddies. He also played a friendly telephone installer in the stage and film versions of Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park.”

In “The Golden Girls,” he played Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband who always needed a small loan or a place to stay.