Longtime television actor dies after battle with cancer-related pneumonia...

Len Lesser, best known for his television roles of Uncle Leo in Seinfeld and Garvin in Everybody Loves Raymond, has passed away in Burbank, California. He was 88.

With over 160 portrayals and 60 years of acting experience under his belt, Lesser first broke into television in the early 1950s, eventually taking on parts in a variety of programs including The Monkees, Get Smart, The Outer Limits, All in the Family, and The Rockford Files.  Although the majority of his acting work was on the small screen, he also co-starred in such classic Hollywood features as The Outlaw Josey Wales, Papillon, and Kelly's Heroes, but it wasn't until landing the role of Jerry Seinfeld's boisterous, overbearing, and enthusiastically-eccentric Uncle Leo in 1991 did Lesser achieve mainstream recognition.

Soon after Seinfeld's run ended in 1998, Lesser took the role of Garvin in Everybody Loves Raymond, playing a boisterous, overbearing, and enthusiastically-eccentric Lodge buddy of Raymond's father, Frank, a tongue-in-cheek nod to his famous Uncle Leo character. Towards the end of his career, the New York native also tried his hand at television advertisement work, including appearing in a commercial for the Stay in School Partnership sponsored by the United States Army. Lesser worked nearly to the very end, his last credit a bit role in US TV series Castle in 2009.

Len Lesser leaves a wife, Janice, and two children. In response to his Uncle Leo's famous greeting of "Jerry, HELLO!", I think we here at Shadowlocked speak for millions of Seinfeld fans across the globe when we say "Uncle Leo, goodbye".

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