Stephen Mendel - Actor

Stephen C Mendel (born Jan. 26, 1953) is a Canadian/American actor. He is known primarily for his roles on the CBS television series “Night Heat” in which he played the role of Detective Freddie Carson in 96 episodes and the A&E series “Mad Men” in which he played the recurring role of Holocaust survivor Morris Ginsberg. He is also known for voicing the role of Splinter in the Fox television version of “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Early Life

Mendel was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to American parents, Leonard, a businessman and Pearl, a homemaker. He grew up in the suburb of Côte-Saint-Luc and attended Wagar High School, where he acted in the annual school productions. He then attended Vanier College where he took all the theater and music courses available. He graduated from Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec with a BA in Drama. He began acting professionally in 1976. After working for several years in Canada on stage, in film, television and commercials he departed Canada for Los Angeles. In 1999 Mendel was accepted into the graduate theater program at California State University, Long Beach and graduated magna cum laude with a Master of Fine Arts in Performance.

Career

Mendel began his professional career in Montreal, Canada on stage at the Saidye Bronfman Center in the English language world premiere of Zone by Marcel Dube. He also worked at the Centaur Theater in the revival of David Fennario’s On The Job. His first on camera roles were in Claude Chabrol’s Blood Relatives, Tomorrow Never Comes directed by Peter Collinson and a series regular role on a short lived Canadian series, Police Dog. He continued to work at various theaters in Montreal, in television episodes, films, industrial and training films. At the same time he was voicing television and radio commercials (Molson Beer, Sun Life Insurance, Voyageur Bus Lines, and local businesses) narrating documentaries and performing in radio dramas.

In 1981 Mendel left Canada for Los Angeles. He found work in commercials (GMC Trucks, Dial Soap, Pizza Hut) soap operas, (General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless) and TV series (Hart to Hart) as well as voicing the role of Prince Nekron in Ralph Bakshi’s animated feature Fire and Ice.

On what was supposed to be a short visit to Canada to attend his youngest brother’s wedding in 1984, Mendel was cast in the pilot episode of the CBS police series Night Heat (produced and created by Sonny Grosso of French Connection fame) as Detective Freddie Carson. The series ran 96 episodes from 1985 to 1990 on CBS in the US and CTV in Canada. Mendel lived in Toronto, Canada during the filming of Night Heat.

While in Canada Mendel also appeared in the mini-series: An Inconvenient Woman and Echoes in the Darkness, the short films: The Enigma of Bobby Bittman and On Tidy Endings. He also had a lead role in an episode of the re-boot of Alfred Hitchcock Presents playing opposite Kathleen Quinlan. He played husband to Stockard Channing in Tidy Endings and Echoes in the Darkness and boyfriend to Tovah Feldshuh in the TV series Maria.

Mendel returned to Los Angeles in 1990 and continued to work in film and television with appearances on such shows as Murder She Wrote, Dallas, The Father Dowling Mysteries, Beverly Hills 90210, Sisters, LA Law, and Equal Justice. He played the role of Rosanne Barr’s first husband in the mini-series Tom and Rosanne: Behind the Scenes and in such movies as: Final Round, Midnight Heat, Scanner Cop II among others.

Mendel continued to work through the 90’s and early 2000’s on various television shows. He was cast by Steven Spielberg in The Terminal. He voiced documentaries for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, video games, anime and audio books.

In 2012 he was cast on Mad Men in the role of Holocaust survivor Morris Ginsberg playing father to Michael Ginsberg played by Ben Feldman, the first Jewish writer hired by the ad agency. The following year he was cast as General Dark Onward in the cult movie: The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie. In 2013 he was invited to play Thomas Putnam in the Antaeus Theater Company’s production of The Crucible. More recently he has guest starred on: Revenge, Allegiance, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Criminal Minds, American Woman and You’re The Worst

Mendel continues to work in film, television, voice and on stage.

Music

Early in his adult life, after graduation from college, Mendel played acoustic folk music at various venues in Montreal as well as Edmonton, Alberta. He began playing acoustic folk music again in California in the 2000’s and recently recorded an album entitled “Sing Me A Story” which may be found on Spotify, ITunes, Google Music/Youtube Music and other streaming sites.

Personal Life

Mendel is the eldest of four children, he has two brothers both businessmen and a sister who is a lawyer. His parents are still alive as of this writing (2019) He was married and divorced, has one adult daughter and continues to live and work in the Southern California area.

References

The Toronto Sun, Nov. 18, 1985 “Hollywood Thrives” by Sylvia Train
The Toronto Sun April 16, 1986 “Cop on the Beat” by Sylvia Train
The Toronto Sun April 22, 1987 “In the ‘Heat of the Night” by Marion Kane
The Montreal Gazette, May 23, 1987 “Night Heat Cruises On” by Mike Boone
TV Guide, August 8, 1987 “The Heat is On” by Bill Brioux
The Humane Viewpoint, Fall 1987 “A Starring Role” by Susan Doran
The Charlottetown Guardian, Aug. 27, 1988 “TV Detectives in Town” by Tom Killorn
Broadcast Week, June 4-10 1988, “TV Detective Cozy in Role” by Carole Gault
Toronto Star, Nov. 11, 1988 “Last Man Out” by Jim Bawden
Daily News, Sept. 21, 1993 “Foreigner Wins Audience” by Daryl H. Miller
Los Angeles Times Sept. 21, 1993 “Foreigner Hits Nerves, by Richard Stayton
Daily Variety, Sept. 23, 1993 “The Foreigner” by Todd Everett
Los Angeles Reader Sept. 24, 1993 “The Farce Side” by Michael Frym
LA Weekly Sept. 24, 1993 “Theater New Reviews” by Martin Mernandez
Entertainment Today Sept. 24, 1993
Los Padres Sun, Nov. 23, 1993 Reviews by Patricia Greschner-Nedry
Santa Barbara News-Press Nov. 24, 1993 “Cast With No Weak Links” by Philip Brandes
TV Guide Oct. 31, 1994, Roseann and Time” Behind the Scenes”
Skin Diver Magazine, Feb. 1995 “I Learned about Diving From That” by Stephen Mendel
Long Beach Press-Telegram, Sept. 24, 1999, “Masterfully Chilling” by Shirle Gottlieb
Long Beach Press-Telegram, Nov. 6, 1999 “Well-crafted Techno Thriller by Shirle Gottlieb
Grunion Gazette, Mar. 2, 2000, “Cal Rep Knights Timeless” by Robert S. Telford
Long Beach Press-Telegram, Sept. 30, 2000, “Magical Journey to Greece” by Shirle Gottlieb

External Links www.stephenmendel.com www.imdb.com http://avgn.wikia.com/wiki/Stephen_Mendel

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