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Hal Linden

Harold Lipshitz of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States was born on March 20, 1931 in Bronx County, NY. Harold Lipshitz was married to Frances (Martin) Linden on April 13, 1958, and they were together until Frances' death on July 9, 2010. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Hal Linden.

Harold Lipshitz

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States

March 20, 1931

Bronx County, New York, United States

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Hal Linden Harold Lipshitz (born 1931)

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Harold Lipshitz's History: 1931

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Introduction

Hal Linden was born Harold Lipshitz on March 20, 1931 in the Bronx, New York. He was raised in New York and attended many schools including the High School of Music and Art (New York City, NY) and Queens College, City University of New York (Queens, NY) where he studied music. In 1952, Linden joined the United States Army, serving for two years in the Army Band. While stationed at Fort Belvoir, he attended a touring production of "Guys and Dolls" in Washington, D.C., which inspired him to pursue acting. Hal is best known as an American television actor who starred in the show "Barney Miller" , in which he played the lead role. Hal has had an extensive acting career and more of his roles can be found in Hal Linden: Professions. Hal was happily married to Frances (Martin) Linden and had 4 children together. Their marriage was cut short upon her death in 2010. Linden has continued acting and appearing in guest roles on TV into the mid 2010's and has also focused more on his music. Read a fascinating article about his career and his view of his life at Hal Linden: Smart, sweet, but no schmaltz. And if you didn't know that Hal Linden was a gifted singer, see this YouTube video at Hal Linden | WHAT I DID FOR LOVE.
03/20

1931

Birthday

March 20, 1931

Birthdate

Bronx County, New York United States

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

His father was a Lithuanian Jew who immigrated to the United States in 1910. Hal was a United States citizen.
Nationality & Locations

Hal was born and raised in New York, and attended schools in both the Bronx and New York City. Later in life he moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue his acting career.
Early Life & Education

Linden attended Herman Ridder Junior High School (Bronx, NY), the High School of Music and Art (New York City, NY), and went on to study music at Queens College, City University of New York (Queens, NY). He later enrolled in Baruch College (New York City, NY) and then City College of New York (New York City, NY) where he received a Bachelor of Arts in business.
Religious Beliefs

Hal was known for saying ""I'm not a heavily religious person and I don't really believe in hell, but I've done enough good things in my life, just in case."
Military Service

Hal enlisted in the United States Army in 1952 and was sent to Fort Belvoir and played in the United States Army Band. During his time there, a friend recommended that he see the touring production of "Guys and Dolls" that was playing in Washington, D.C. and after seeing the show, Linden decided to become an actor. He was later discharged from the Army in 1954.
Professional Career

If you aren't familiar with actor Hal Linden or if you didn't know that he was a respected singer, this YouTube video will stun and entertain you!: Hal Linden | WHAT I DID FOR LOVE. Hal Linden is known as being an American television star. Linden began his career as a big band musician and singer in the 1950s. After enlisting in the United States Army, he began an acting career, first working in summer stock (where he would meet his wife Frances (Martin) Linden) and off-Broadway productions. Linden found success on Broadway when he replaced Sydney Chaplin in the musical Bells Are Ringing. In 1962, he starred as Billy Crocker in the off-Broadway revival of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes. In 1971, he won a Best Actor Tony Award for his portrayal of Mayer Rothschild in the musical The Rothschilds. In 1974, Linden landed his best-known role in the television comedy series called "Barney Miller" as Barney Miller, the police captain of the 12th Precinct in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City that aired from 1975-1982. With this role, Hal earned 7 Primetime Emmy Awards (one for each season of the show) and 3 Golden Globe Award nominations. Linden later said that leaving Broadway to work on this show was his most irrational acts yet also one of his best decisions. During the run of "Barney Miller", Linden served as the narrator and host of the ABC children's shows "Animals, Animals, Animals" and "FYI". He won two Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Individual Achievement for his host work on "FYI" in 1984 and 1985. After the show "Barney Miller" ended in 1982, Linden appeared in numerous television films and movies, including "I Do! I Do!" (1982), "Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land" (1983), "Second Edition" (1984), "Blacke's Magic" (1986), "A New Life" (1988), "Jack's Place" (1992-1993), "The Boys Are Back" (1994), "The Colony" (1996), "The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds... It Leads" (1999). Hal also appeared in guest roles throughout the late 1990s and 2000s including apperaing in "Touched by an Angel", "The King of Queens", "Gilmore Girls", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", and "Hot in Cleveland". In 2002, Linden received a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars. Linden continued to have an active career and appeared in the Toronto production of "Tuesdays with Morrie" (2009), the Colony Theatre's production of "On Golden Pond" (2011), a touring production of "Shine" (2011), "Under My Skin" (2012-2013), "Supernatural" (2013), "2 Broke Girls" (2014), and "Twenty Seventh Mann" (2015). He also released his first album of pop and jazz standards called "It's Never Too Late" in 2011.
Personal Life & Family

Linden has been the spokesman for the Jewish National Fund since 1997. He was married to Frances (Martin) Linden and they had 4 children together. Their marriage ended in 2010 when Frances died, and Hal has not remarried.
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5 Memories, Stories & Photos about Harold

Hal Linden | WHAT I DID FOR LOVE

Kathy Pinna

32.8k+ favorites

03/04/2024

Hal Linden | WHAT I DID FOR LOVE

From THE PETER MARSHALL VARIETY SHOW, here's Hal Linden singing Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban's WHAT I DID FOR LOVE from A CHORUS LINE.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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Kathy Pinna

32.8k+ favorites

03/04/2024

Hal Linden: Smart, sweet, but no schmaltz

If you think the world of Hal Linden begins and ends with Barney Miller, then think again. Yes, the much-loved '70s TV series that made him a star is probably the most prominent peak of Linden's career, but it's far from being the only one.

The 78-year-old performer is in Toronto rehearsing for the Harold Green Jewish Theatre's production of Tuesdays With Morrie, which starts previews May 8 at the Winter Garden Theatre but, in the course of a far-ranging conversation conducted at The Senator over a breakfast of bagels and lox, he lifted the curtain on his long and varied life.

He was born in the Bronx and grew up under the care of a father who was "a real music lover and served as the patriarch for our extended family. There was my brother and me, as well as eight male cousins, and all but two of us wound up as professional musicians." Linden was the youngest and the clarinet was his instrument of choice. He studied dutifully until puberty started moving his thoughts to the fair sex. "I learned that more girls went to dances than to concerts," Linden says with a laugh, "so I switched to the saxophone and adopted Benny Goodman as my idol."

After that, it was a short leap to becoming the vocalist in front of the band and – after a stint in the military – he began auditioning for Broadway shows. At first, Linden's luck wasn't that great. Oh, he got jobs, but some of them were in classic turkeys that didn't even leave the rehearsal hall or closed on the road. As he rattles off titles like Pleasure Dome and Strip for Action, it's easy to see why the shows never made it.

But then came Bells Are Ringing, the hit musical starring Judy Holliday. Linden's girlfriend at the time – Frances Martin, who he has been married to since 1958 – was a dancer in the show when the job of understudy to male lead Sidney Chaplin came open. This was a particularly sensitive posting, because, as Linden vividly recalls, "Judy and Sidney were having a thing at the time and it got pretty volatile on occasion. They hired me on a Monday and, by Sunday, Sidney was announcing, `I'm not going on stage with her!' and I had to spring into action."

He hadn't even had time to learn the staging for the show's hit song, "Just In Time," so he sang it into Holliday's ear as she gently but firmly pushed his shoulder so that he faced the audience instead. "She was the most generous actress I ever met," he says fondly, "and one of the most brilliant, saddled with the impression that she was a dumb blonde," thanks to her star-making role in Born Yesterday.

Linden continued in Broadway musicals, finally breaking through to stardom and a Tony Award with The Rothschilds. But then – as it always does – Los Angeles beckoned and, before too long, he found himself as the star of a police-station sitcom called Barney Miller. To this day, Linden is proud of his work on that show. "We never walked away from a shoot saying, `We'll do better next week.' Every single episode was executed as perfectly as we could do it. The actors around me were the best. And the scripts? Unbeatable."

After Miller went off the air in 1982, Linden tried other sitcoms but none really clicked. He's philosophical about the whole process. "Who knows why something succeeds or fails? It's not like anyone ever sets out to deliberately do a bad TV show but, sometimes, that's just the way it works out."

The stage has always remained Linden's first love, which is why he's in Toronto in Tuesdays With Morrie, based on the Mitch Alboim book about the wisdom the author received from weekly visits with his dying former teacher. "I didn't like the original book," Linden says with rare candor. "I thought it was sentimental, maudlin, self-aware. Morrie was so full of folksy wisdom that I wouldn't want to be in his presence too long."

But when he read the stage script, he changed his mind completely. "Everything has much more humour. We get all the points obliquely. You don't have to sew it on a sampler and put it up on the wall." What does he think the play is trying to say? "Live fully," is his immediate response. "Take life and fill it up with all you can. Commit to it and, when you go, you'll go smiling.

"I don't fear death," Linden says thoughtfully. "I'm not a heavily religious person and I don't really believe in hell, but I've done enough good things in my life, just in case. I have four children who – wonder of wonders! – all still talk to me, and eight grandchildren who are always happy to see me. That's the best."

And when it comes time for Linden to leave this world, he would like to do it like his brother Bernie did a year and a half ago. "It was Yom Kippur," Linden says with a gentle smile, "and he was playing the viola in the synagogue. He died, literally, in the middle of a note.

"You want that ending? I'll take it any day."

- The Star.com - Saurday, April 25, 2009 by Richard OUZOUNIAN, theater critic.

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Frances (Martin) Linden - 25th anniversary

Kathy Pinna

32.8k+ favorites

03/07/2023

Frances (Martin) Linden - 25th anniversary

HOLLYWOOD - On April 13, 1958, Hal Linden married Frances at the Town House in New York City. Twenty-five years later, the actor threw a "come as you were married" party where the guests were told to wear the same clothing they wore at their wedding. Hal and Frances Linden are pictured in their wedding clothing beside a photo taken on their wedding day. Half a dozen other couples also showed up in their wedding duds to prove that marriage can survive in Hollywood. (UPI)

Printed in The Daily Spectrum (Saint George, Utah) on Thursday, April 21, 1983.

Date & Place: April 13, 1983 at Hollywood in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States

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Lizzie Kunde

29.0k+ favorites

09/13/2022

Frances and Hal

Frances with husband Hal Linden

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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Pam Marks

2.68k+ favorites

09/22/2011

Mel Torme & Hal Linden, Hollywood

Handwritten:
"Mel Torme and Hal Linden"
This photo was someone's personal snapshot, not a Hollywood promo photo, etc.
Photo found in an antique store in Clovis, CA. I am not related to the subjects in the photo (darn!).

Date & Place: February 1985 in USA

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Harold Lipshitz's Family Tree & Friends

Harold Lipshitz's Family Tree

Parent

Hal Linden born Mar 20, 1931

Partner

Child

Sibling

Marriage

Frances (Martin) Linden

Hal Linden

April 13, 1958

Marriage date

Frances's Death

Cause of Separation

July 9, 2010

Frances's death date

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Hal Linden born Mar 20, 1931

Frances (Martin) Linden Sep 28, 1927 - Jul 9, 2010

Child

Friendships

Harold's Friends

3 Followers & Sources

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Other Biographies

Other Harold Lipshitz Biographies

Lipshitz, Harold (Sep 29, 1922 - Sep 12, 2009)

Other Lipshitz Family Biographies

Lipshitz, Lillian (Aug 1, 1907 - Oct 6, 1997) Lipshitz, Raymond (Jan 13, 1908 - Apr 1, 1997) Lipshitz, Anna (Feb 16, 1889 - Sep 1977) Lipshitz, Ethel (Oct 25, 1907 - Oct 1983) Lipshitz, Martha (Jul 2, 1891 - Mar 1978) Lipshitz, Sara (Oct 1, 1900 - Dec 1986) Lipshitz, Jacob (Mar 14, 1875 - Oct 1972) Lipshitz, Bessie (Sep 22, 1895 - Jan 1979) Lipshitz, Hyman (Mar 15, 1892 - Feb 1970) Lipshitz, Samuel (Sep 4, 1882 - Nov 1966)

Lipshitz, Esther (Sep 6, 1901 - Dec 13, 1987) Lipshitz, Rose (May 5, 1890 - Jul 1981) Lipshitz, Milton (May 7, 1914 - Mar 1975) Lipshitz, Hyman (Aug 3, 1894 - Aug 1962) Lipshitz, Shirley (Apr 2, 1900 - Feb 1983) Lipshitz, Tillie (Mar 20, 1897 - Jun 1985) Lipshitz, Benjamin (Nov 25, 1892 - Jun 1980) Lipshitz, Sam (Dec 24, 1881 - Jan 1963) Lipshitz, Sylvia (Aug 22, 1915 - Mar 1990) Lipshitz, Max (Jul 3, 1893 - Nov 1965)

About the AncientFaces Community

Hal Linden

Harold Lipshitz's History: 1931

Introduction

Birthday

Ethnicity & Family History

Nationality & Locations

Early Life & Education

Religious Beliefs

Military Service

Professional Career

Personal Life & Family

Living status

5 Memories, Stories & Photos about Harold

Harold Lipshitz's Family Tree & Friends

Harold Lipshitz's Family Tree

Frances (Martin) Linden

Hal Linden

Harold's Friends

Other Harold Lipshitz Biographies

Other Lipshitz Family Biographies