Daniel von Bargen dead, accomplished actor with ‘Seinfeld’ role was 64

Daniel von Bargen, an accomplished stage actor who turned to movies and eventually TV — most famously as “Mr. Kruger” on “Seinfeld” — died Sunday in Montgomery, Ohio, according to Variety. He was 64.

“Mr. Kruger” was George Costanza’s (Jason Alexander) excessively lackadaisical boss at Kruger Industrial Smoothing — which haplessly attempted to “get the green stuff off the Statue of Liberty.” He also played Commandant Spangler, the military veteran who oversaw the cadets at Marlin Academy, on the Fox sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle.”

In HBO’s 1995 biopic “Truman,” von Bargen played Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and he also appeared in the HBO movie “Citizen Cohn” as J. Edgar Hoover’s confidant, Clyde Tolson.

His TV and movie work (small but memorable roles in “The Silence of the Lambs,” Woody Allen’s “Shadows and Fog” and “Basic Instinct,” among them) was preceded by a lengthy stage career. (Newsday’s Linda Winer favorably reviewed his performance in the 1993 show-biz satire “The Treatment.”)

Von Bargen attempted suicide almost exactly three years ago, just before he was to go into the hospital for toe amputation related to diabetes. People magazine, without giving cause of death, said, “For the past five years, he had been grappling with health issues that precluded his active pursuit of work.”

Von Bargen had lived in his home state of Ohio.

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