Jon Cypher, Actor in ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Hill Street Blues’ and ‘Major Dad,’ Dies at 94
tags:Jon Cypher, who portrayed Prince Charming opposite Julie Andrews in the first live TV production of Cinderella and Chief of Police Fletcher Daniels on all seven seasons of Hill Street Blues, has died. He was 94.
Cypher died Aug. 3 at his home in Central Point, Oregon, his family announced.
In films, the Brooklyn College graduate played an evil rancher alongside Burt Lancaster and Susan Clark in Edwin Sheron’s Valdez Is Coming (1971), and he was the heroic Man-at-Arms in the cult favorite Masters of the Universe (1987), starring Dolph Lundgren.
Cypher demonstrated his flair for broad comedy when he portrayed Brigadier Gen. Marcus Craig on 69 episodes over the last three seasons (1990-93) of the CBS sitcom Major Dad, starring Gerald McRaney.
He also recurred as the record producer Jeff Munson on CBS’ Knots Landing in 1982-83 — his character gives a listen to Lisa Hartman’s singer Ciji Dunne — and the less-than honorable lawyer Dirk Maurier on ABC’s Dynasty from 1983-87.
Cypher was a virtual unknown when he was cast as the prince alongside rising British star Andrews in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s original musical adaptation of Cinderella. The lavish production, which aired live and in color on CBS in March 1957, attracted more than 107 million viewers, with more than 60 percent of U.S. households tuning in.
Cypher, however, is probably best known for his run as the calculating, bureaucratic Daniels on Hill Street Blues. On 71 episodes of the acclaimed NBC hit from 1981-87, Daniels frequently clashed with Daniel J. Travanti’s Capt. Frank Furillo, prioritizing politics and budgets over doing the right thing.
Though he had a solid career, Cypher noted in a 2014 interview that acting is “not an easy profession. You’re always being judged, by critics, by the audience,” he said. “I’d say to any young actor who is thinking about entering the fray, ‘Gird your loins very sturdily and have a sharp sword,’ because you have to pick yourself up many, many, many times.”
Born in New York on Jan. 13, 1932, Cypher attended Erasmus Hall High School on Flatbush Avenue and then Brooklyn College, graduating in 1953. Three years later, he acted in summer stock productions for the Elitch Theatre in Denver.
After his big break in Cinderella, Cypher made his Broadway debut in 1958 in Harvey Breit’s The Disenchanted, then returned to the Great White Way in 1961 to understudy for and then replace Patrick O’Neal as the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in the original production of Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana.
In other prominent original productions on Broadway, he played Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, several characters in The Great White Hope and Thomas Jefferson in 1776. (Asked how he researched the role for that last one, he replied, “I looked at a nickel!”)
He sang opera in four languages, his family said, and “was known to burst out in song, bringing joy to every event.”
On Knots Landing, his producer character also offered Kenny and Ginger Ward (James Houghton and Kim Lankford) jobs in Nashville so they could escape the Seaview Circle cul-de-sac.
Cypher also worked on the daytime soaps As the World Turns, General Hospital and Santa Barbara; voiced the villain Spellbinder for Batman Beyond; and showed up in primetime on Nanny and the Professor, The Doris Day Show, Mannix, Bonanza, McMillan & Wife, The F.B.I., Bronk, The Rockford Files, Police Woman, Hunter, JAG and Law & Order, among many other shows.
He wrote a book of limericks, If You’re Not Depressed You Oughta Be in Therapy, published in 2019, and, according to his family was “outspoken in support for recognition of truth regarding non-threatening extra-terrestrials and their crafts.”
Cypher is to be buried Tuesday at the Forest Conservation Burial Ground in Ashland, Oregon, “under tall trees in a meadow, wrapped in a completely natural, biodegradable shroud, obliging his wish to return to nature.”