From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Robert Lansing June 5 1928 October 23 1994 was an American stage film and television actor Born in San Diego California as Robert Howell Brown he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan As a young actor in New York City he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan but was told he would first have to join Actors Equity Association Equity would not allow him to join as Robert Brown since there was already another actor using that name Since the stock company was based in Lansing this became the actors new surname In the 19611962 television season Lansing appeared as Detective Steve Carella on NBCs 87th Precinct series based on the Ed McBain detective novels His costars were Gena Rowlands Ron Harper Gregory Walcott and Norman Fell In 1961 he played the outlaw Frank Dalton in a twopart episode of NBCs The Outlaws with Barton MacLane On film Lansing starred in the late1950s scifi film 4D Man which included a young Patty Duke Other notable television roles include portrayals of an alcoholic college professor in ABCs drama Channing as General George Custer on Chuck Connorss NBC series Branded as Gil Green in the 1963 episode Fear Begins at Forty on the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour in a 1965 episode of I Spy 1965 Gunsmoke as a bounty hunter as a parole officer in a 1968 episode A Time To Love A Time To Cry of The Mod Squad and as intergalactic secret agent Gary Seven in a 1968 episode Assignment Earth on Star Trek He appeared as General Frank Savage on Twelve OClock High as an international secret agent in The Man Who Never Was as Lt Jack Curtis on Automan and as Control on The Equalizer He made a notable appearance on The Twilight Zone episode The Long Morrow His final role was that of Paul Blaisdell on Kung Fu The Legend Continues Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Lansing actor licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia