With the revival of "Night Court" on screens everywhere,
there are some characters who unfortunately can't make a return.
From Harry Anderson to Markie Post, here are several actors we've lost.
Actor and magician Harry Anderson played Judge Harry T. Stone,
the goofy and affable star of "Night Court." Appointed to the bench on a fluke,
his use of gags, magic tricks, and silly jokes belied a genuine sense of empathy and
strong moral character. He loved old Hollywood stars like Jean Harlow and
Marilyn Monroe and had a well-documented soft spot for his beloved Mel Tormé.
Anderson's background was in magic, and he downplayed his abilities as an actor. His many
appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and later playing a character on "Cheers" named "Harry the
Hat" revealed a magician with a fast patter who loved hustling marks with acidic comedic timing.
Those were the roles that earned him the chance to have a show built around him, combined with show
creator Reinhold Weege's fascination with the weird world of the New York night court system.
After "Night Court," Anderson's most memorable role was as syndicated newspaper columnist Dave
Barry on "Dave's World." He quit acting after that and went back to magic, opening up a shop in New
Orleans and doing corporate gigs. He died in North Carolina on April 16th, 2018, at the age of 65.
The deadpan, nasal sarcasm of Selma Diamond was a highlight of the first two seasons of "Night
Court." Diamond played bailiff Selma Hacker, and she was part of an odd couple pairing with
Richard Moll's enormous Bull Shannon character. While Bull looked fearsome, he was quite gentle.
However, while Selma looked harmless, her cutting remarks reduced people to ribbons.
"I had a husband just like that."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. I had to shoot him too."
Diamond got her start as a writer, working with the likes of Mel Brooks on "The Milton
Berle Show" and "Caesar's Hour." Diamond appeared in several small roles in film
and TV. A semi-recurring role in "Too Close for Comfort" in the early '80s was the first time
she had any serious traction as an actress. Her role as Selma Hacker was a big breakout,
even if it didn't arrive until the age of 64. She received an Emmy nomination as well as a
Golden Globe nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series.
Diamond died on May 13th, 1985.
Florence Halop replaced Selma Diamond as bailiff for Season 3 of "Night Court," and
won over many fans of her own. Halop had a television career that spanned nearly
50 years. Her early break came while playing Mama Bronson in the early '50s series "Meet
Millie." She spent decades doing guest spots and voice work for cartoons like
"Scooby-Doo" and "Captain Caveman," then became a valued utility player
on "Barney Miller," where she played several different characters during the show's run.
As luck would have it, one of those "Barney Miller" writers turned out
to be "Night Court" creator Weege, and he remembered her when he needed a new
bailiff. Before "Night Court," she was perhaps best known for playing the patient from hell,
Mrs. Hufnagel, on "St. Elsewhere." Halop's Mrs. Hufnagel was abusive, sarcastic, and racist,
then died of a nicked artery after heart surgery, but the final image of her was darkly comedic:
in a malfunctioning hospital bed, "folded up like a clam."
Halop died on July 16, 1985, due to complications from cancer. She was 63 years old.
Actor and dancer Paula Kelly played Liz Williams, the public defender in Season 1 of "Night Court."
In a courtroom filled with eccentrics, Liz represented a calming, serious presence in
the court. Caring and compassionate, Kelly's Liz made an impression in her first season,
being nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series.
Kelly had a long career on Broadway, originating the role of Helene in "Sweet Charity." From there,
she switched from musicals and dancing to drama, appearing in grim early '70s
science-fiction classics like "Soylent Green" and "The Andromeda Strain." Kelly
then moved on to television, guest-starring in several dramatic roles until appearing in
"Night Court." She followed up that show with 24 appearances in the daytime soap
opera "Santa Barbara" and eventually picked up another Emmy nomination
for her role in the 1989 Oprah-produced miniseries "The Women of Brewster Place."
Kelly died on February 8th, 2020, at the age of 77.
Legendary jazz singer Mel Tormé was a favorite of Harry Anderson,
as well as Harry T. Stone. With a photo of "The Velvet Fog" adorning his chambers,
Stone's obsessive love of Tormé became a running joke, which paid off when the
singer finally made an appearance on the show in 1986, but Stone didn't get to meet him.
In a later episode, Tormé played Herb, Stone's guardian angel in an "It's A Wonderful Life"
spoof where Harry was shown what would have happened to everyone if he hadn't become a
judge. In another classic episode called "Melvin and Harold," Stone arranged for
Tormé to play his birthday party, but wound up sending him to jail instead.
Some of Tormé's post "Night Court" credits included an appearance on
Anderson's later show "Dave's World," as well as an appearance on "Seinfeld." Tormé
was good-humored about his career, but most of those appearances were genuinely
reverent toward his legacy. The composer of such classics as "The Christmas Song"
and "Jeepers Creepers" passed away on June 5th, 1999, at the age of 73.
Jack Riley was an instantly recognizable face in multiple decades of television and film,
filling roles with dripping sarcasm for more than 40 years. He played a
few different characters on "Night Court," but perhaps the most memorable was in "Clip Show"
as Beepo the Clown, a sullen defendant who held Judge Stone's staff and a city auditor hostage,
causing them to reminisce about old times while awaiting a resolution.
Riley also played Dr. Flick, a sarcastic surgeon who operated on Dan. The popular,
versatile character actor had become best known for playing Bob Newhart's antisocial,
neurotic patient Elliot Carlin in "The Bob Newhart Show." He later
reprised the character on shows like "St. Elsewhere" and "ALF."
In his later years, he populated such beloved shows as "Punky Brewster,"
"Gimme a Break!" and "Diff'rent Strokes," then won over a new generation of fans
as the voice of Stu Pickles on "The Rugrats." The legendary Jack Riley,
a veteran of nearly 200 film and TV roles, died on August 19, 2016, at the age of 80.
"Night Court" included one of the biggest roles of S. Marc Jordan's long career as a character actor,
who appeared in Season 8 as Jack Griffin, the blind cafeteria concessions man. Though his
screen time was limited, Jack typically got a good wisecrack in every episode,
making him yet another colorful oddball in an unorthodox workplace filled with them.
"Two bucks for a pack of stale licorice. I love guilt."
As time went by, fans began to anticipate him as a welcome presence in each episode.
Jordan got his start in theater, appearing in many Broadway and
off-Broadway productions. Jordan didn't get his first television acting role,
however, until he was 44 years old and didn't start working regularly until he
was nearly 50 when he appeared on shows like "Lou Grant" and "Hill Street Blues."
He worked steadily for nearly 30 years after that, doing voice work, sitcoms,
dramas, and even video games. His second biggest role besides "Night
Court" was on the daytime soap opera "Days of Our Lives," in which he had
38 appearances between 1986 and 1989. He died on July 11, 2014, at the age of 83.
Martin Garner was another character actor with a familiar, friendly face who got a moment to shine
on "Night Court." He played Bernie, the newsstand vendor in the cafeteria who was attracted
to Selma. She was totally uninterested in his advances, but that didn't stop him from trying.
A classic character actor, he was another person on "Night Court" with
a theater background. However, he became best known for his many television appearances,
starting in 1974 and continuing up through 1993. Sitcoms, dramas, action shows,
and cutting-edge television such as "It's Garry Shandling's Show" were all on Garner's resume,
but perhaps his finest moment came when he got to play Russian premier Mikhail Gorbachev
on "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!" Garner died at the age of 74 on September 28th, 2001.
Florence Stanley had a lot in common with the actors who had a few appearances on
"Night Court." She had a career in television and movies that spanned over 50 years. She
had worked with "Night Court" showrunner Reinhold Weege before on "Barney Miller,"
playing the long-suffering Bernice Fish. She continued that role in the spinoff "Fish."
At the same time she appeared on "Night Court" as Judge Margaret W. Wilbur,
she played the same character as a regular on the show "My Two Dads."
Wilbur was the one who awarded custody of a teenage girl to two single men who had
both been romantic interests for her mom before she died. Wilbur also happened to
be their landlady. Richard Moll appeared on the show as Bull Shannon, so Stanley returned
the favor. The no-nonsense Judge Wilbur had zero tolerance for Judge Stone's wackiness.
Stanley appeared in everything from "Dark Shadows" to the video game "Atlantis:
The Lost Empire." She died on October 3, 2003, at the age of 79.
"Night Court" was a character actor's paradise, and Phil Leeds proved that point,
appearing five times in four different roles. Perhaps the most poignant character
Leeds played was a man who claimed to be God, offering a frightened Harry surprisingly good
advice after he received a death threat. Leeds popped up again in another episode,
where the same character had a disagreement with another man who claimed to be God.
Leeds was blacklisted during the McCarthy era in the 1950s and
didn't work on television or film for nearly nine years. Once he returned,
he made good use of his memorable looks. He appeared in "The Patty Duke Show" and
"The Monkees" in the 1960s, and then played the creepy Dr. Shand in "Rosemary's Baby."
Leeds was incredibly active up until his death on August 16,
1998. During "sweeps week" in May of that year, Leeds appeared on no less than four different
shows: "Ally McBeal," "Murphy Brown," "Ellen," and "Everybody Loves Raymond."
Jason Bernard only appeared in two episodes of "Night Court," but they were both very memorable.
As Judge Robert T. Willard, he demanded that new judge Stone join their "fraternity of judges."
Willard soon learned that Stone's methods weren't exactly orthodox. He was so displeased by Stone in
general that he had him hauled before the Judicial Review Board and tried to have him removed.
"Oh by the way, about that club of yours? I don't really think
I'm interested. I mean, you know, no secret handshakes or anything."
Bernard had a serious and authoritative presence. As a result, he often played authority figures
throughout his 30-year career. That included judges, mayors, teachers, lawyers, doctors,
military officers, police officers, and ministers. It also included films like "Liar, Liar" and
"Wargames," as well as a series of memorable appearances on "Cagney and Lacey." Bernard
died on October 16, 1996, of a heart attack. He was 58 years old at the time of his death.
Throughout eight of the show's nine seasons,
Charlie Robinson added a steadying presence as court clerk Macintosh "Mac" Robinson,
whose easygoing demeanor and droll sense of humor allowed him to own some of the funniest
moments in the series simply by exuding an aura of normalcy in a sea of colorful chaos.
At the end of the show, Mac left to go to film school, which is somewhat fitting, since Robinson,
who'd already enjoyed a prolific career before landing the role, continued working steadily
in the decades that followed. Although much of Robinson's resume includes single-episode stints
on various television shows, some of his more memorable roles include an appearance in the
1996 film "Set It Off" and a one-episode stop on "How I Met Your Mother." Robinson's final screen
appearances came in the 2020 Freeform series "Love in the Time of Corona." In July 2021,
he died at the age of 75 from cardiac arrest and organ failure caused by cancer.
If you were any kind of avid television watcher in the '70s and '80s, it was
hard to escape Markie Post. The California native landed a string of guest appearances
on hit shows such as "The Love Boat" and "The A-Team" before achieving her first
major TV breakthrough with the recurring role of Terri Michaels on "The Fall Guy."
After Post's "Fall Guy" tenure ran its course, she segued straight into playing public defender
Christine Sullivan on "Night Court," a character she played for the remainder of the series' run,
serving as half of a long-running love story with Harry Anderson's Judge Harry Stone.
After "Night Court" left the air in 1992, Post found her next series quickly,
co-starring in "Hearts Afire" opposite John Ritter for three seasons. Post also
acted in several films after "Night Court," including playing the mother
of Cameron Diaz's character in the smash 1998 hit "There's Something About Mary."
Post was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, and kept working while undergoing treatment. Unfortunately,
those efforts proved unsuccessful; Post passed away at the age of 70 in August of 2021.