David L. Lander

Born in Brooklyn, David L. Lander was raised in Bronx. Lander attended drama classes at Carnegie Tech, where he befriended fellow student Michael McKean. The two budding comedians joined a Hollywood improv group called the Credibility Gap (another member was Harry Shearer), gaining a huge fan following with their manic appearances on an LA radio station. Hired by producer Gary Marshall as writers/consultants for the '70s TV sitcom Laverne and Shirley, Lander and McKean immediately wrote themselves into the first show. Lander played Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman and McKean portrayed Lenny Kosnowski, two adenoidal, terminally stupid truck drivers for Milwaukee's Shotz Brewery. The boys remained with the series from 1976 to 1983, then pretty much went their separate ways. Lander played comic character roles in films, and was prominently featured in the off-the-wall television efforts of David Lynch, notably the 1992 series On the Air, in which he was cast as unintelligible TV director Vladja Gochktch. Since providing the voice of the title character in the 1970 animated cartoon series Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down?, Lander has been a busy and versatile voiceover artist, most recently as Lechner in the USA Network's Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills (1994-95). Also for USA, he played the recurring role of Elvis the mechanic in the 1995 series Pacific Blue. David L. Lander's credits are sometimes confused with those of British actor David Lander. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide