Charlie Robinson, who became a regular on the hit comedy Night Court starting in its second season, has died at age 75.
The actor passed on Sunday at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from cardiac arrest with multisystem organ failures due to septic shock and metastatic adenocarcinoma, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
He had a career spanning more than five decades that featured major roles in films and in the theater, though he was best known for his work in television.
Acclaimed actor: Charlie Robinson, a longtime main cast member on the NBC sitcom Night Court, died Sunday at 75 from cardiac arrest with multisystem organ failures, according to The Hollywood Reporter; seen in 2017
Robinson’s best-known role was as the court clerk Macintosh ‘Mac’ Robinson on NBC’s Night Court from 1985 until the show’s final season in 1992.
His character replaced another clerk played by Karen Austin in the first season.
Mac was a Vietnam veteran and the most easy-going of the main cast, who had an instantly recognizable costume featuring some kind of plaid shirt paired with a cardigan and a knit tie.
The sitcom focused on the staff working the nightshift at a Manhattan court and also starred Harry Anderson and John Larroquette, among others.
Iconic: Robinson’s best-known role was as the court clerk Macintosh ‘Mac’ Robinson on NBC’s Night Court from 1985 until the show’s final season in 1992
Main cast: Mac was a Vietnam veteran and the most easy-going of the main cast. The series focused on the nightshift of a Manhattan municipal courthouse
Robinson’s first TV role was in 1971 with the legal drama Owen Marshall, Counselor At Law.
In the same year, he appeared in Jack Nicholson’s underseen directorial debut Drive, He Said.
Some of his biggest television credits included Buffalo Bill, The Guestbook, Home Improvement, Hart Of Dixie, Love & War and NCIS.
He was also featured on seven episodes of the CBS sitcom Mom, with his final appearance in 2019.
His most recent television work included the 2021 Freeform miniseries Love In The Time of Corona.
In 2018, he appeared on stage in playwright James Anthony Tyler’s Some Old Black Man opposite The Wire’s Wendell Pierce, and a recording of the play was made available to stream earlier this year.
Small screen: Some of his biggest TV credits included Buffalo Bill, The Guestbook, Home Improvement, Hart Of Dixie, Love & War and NCIS. He was also featured on seven episodes of the CBS sitcom Mom, with his final appearance in 2019; seen with Allison Janney in Mom
Robinson was born in Houston, Texas, on November 9, 1945.
He began his stage and screen career in the 1960s with a stint at a Houston-based acting school.
He also enrolled in the Actors Studio in Manhattan, which fostered numerous legendary talents of the stage and screen, before he moved to Hollywood to court bigger roles.
Some of his big screen appearances included Antwone Fisher, Denzel Washington’s feature directorial debut, and The House Bunny.
He would later reunite with its star Anna Faris for Mom, which also starred Allison Janney.
Swift rise: He began his acting career in the 1960s and was a student at the Actors Studio, before breaking out in the ’70s; seen in 2013
Robinson was honored throughout his career with multiple awards, including a Best Actor honors from the Image Theatre Awards and the FRED Awards for playing Simon in The Whipping Man.
He also won a Best Actor Ovation Award for playing the lead in a 2008 production of August Wilson’s classic play Fences.
He’s survived by his wife Dolorita and his children Byron, Charlie, Christian and Luca, as well as grandchildren, great grandchildren and daughters-in-law, plus his beloved dog Nala.
On the stage: Robinson was honored with a FRED Award for The Whipping Man (pictured) and a Best Actor Ovation Award for playing the lead in a 2008 production of Fences; seen in 2015