Daniel von Bargen

Daniel von Bargen (June 5, 1950 – March 1, 2015) was an American character actor of film, stage and television.

He was known for his roles as Mr. Kruger on Seinfeld, Commandant Edwin Spangler on Malcolm in the Middle, and Chief Grady in Super Troopers.

Von Bargen was born to Juanita J. (née Bustle) and Donald L. von Bargen, and was of German and English descent.

He was born in Cincinnati, where he grew up for most of his childhood before moving with his family to Southern California.

In 1968, von Bargen graduated from Reading High School.

He graduated from Purdue University in Indiana.

In 1974, von Bargen made his television debut in Feasting with Panthers, a play about Oscar Wilde's imprisonment at the Reading Gaol, on PBS's Great Performances anthology series.

Von Bargen's film credits included The Silence of the Lambs, London Betty, RoboCop 3, Basic Instinct, Broken Arrow, Truman, The Majestic, Philadelphia, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Snow Falling on Cedars, Thinner, A Civil Action, Disney's The Kid, Super Troopers and Universal Soldier: The Return.

Von Bargen played the maniacal sorcerer Nix in Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions and the Sheriff in The Postman.

He played a terrorist in a season 5 episode of The X-Files.

Von Bargen had played Mr. Kruger, George Costanza's boss, in the ninth season of Seinfeld, and also played the recurring antagonist Commandant Edwin Spangler in the FOX comedy Malcolm in the Middle for the first three seasons.

Von Bargen's stage career included a long residency with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island; he made his Off-Broadway debut in 1981 in Missing Persons.

He also appeared in the debut of Larry Gelbart's Mastergate and other plays at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He made his Broadway debut when the show went to New York City.

In 1990, he won a Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Performer for his role in Mastergate.

His last films roles were as Maury in London Betty and as George Burgess in Things That Hang from Trees.

In 1993, von Bargen narrated the unabridged Streets of Laredo audiobook.

Von Bargen was married to actress Margo Skinner, but the two were divorced by the time of her death on April 11, 2005.

Skinner died in her sleep of a heart attack in her New York City apartment.

Von Bargen played fewer and fewer roles as his diabetes worsened; His last role was in the comedy "London Betty" in 2009.

On February 20, 2012, Von Bargen shot himself in the temple area in the head during an apparent suicide attempt.

He called an emergency services operator who dispatched an ambulance to his apartment in Montgomery, Ohio.

He suffered from diabetes and had previously had a leg amputated.

When calling 911, he told the operator that he needed to go to the hospital to have two of his toes amputated but "didn't want to" undergo another surgery.

"I have no children and no life, and I'm tired," he said.

It is possible to find on the internet the recording tape in which Von Bargen called 911.

He had had complications from diabetes for years.

Von Bargen died on March 1, 2015 of undisclosed causes at 64 years old.

The death was confirmed to the American newspaper "The New York Times" and by funeral director Harry Gilligan of Gilligan Funeral Homes.

The Washington Post reported that his death "came after an unspecified long illness."

Von Bargen's ashes were given to his family.