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Character actor Daniel von Bargen has died at the age of 64
He played George's boss Mr. Kruger on "Seinfeld"
He was Commandant Edwin Spangler on "Malcolm in the Middle"
Daniel von Bargen, the talented character actor perhaps best known for playing George Costanza’s imbecilic boss Mr. Kruger during the last season of “Seinfeld,” has died. He was 64.
Von Bargen, who also stood out as Commandant Edwin Spangler on the ABC sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle,” died Sunday after a long illness, his friend, actor Bob Colonna, said. Cincinnati TV station WLWT also reported the news. Other details of his death were not known.
In February 2012, von Bargen was seriously injured when he shot himself in the temple in an apparent suicide attempt, distraught because he had been battling diabetes and was set to have two toes removed.
The versatile von Bargen rose from the dead as the satanic Nix in the Clive Barker horror film “Lord of Illusions” (1995); played a futuristic sheriff in “The Postman” (1997), directed by and starring Kevin Costner; and portrayed a Southern lawman who pursued George Clooney’s character in the Coen brothers’ “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (2000).
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An expert at playing authority figures, von Bargen was a member of the Air Force on NBC’s “The West Wing” and in the 1996 film “Broken Arrow,” a SWAT communicator in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), a cop in “Basic Instinct” (1992) and “Super Troopers” (2001), a secret service agent in “I.Q.” (1994), a warden in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” (1997) and a federal agent in “The Majestic” (2001).
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