Lloyd Bochner had a sonorous voice, making him a natural fit for radio and the stage. By the time he was eleven, he was already working as a part-time voiceover artist and reader of drama serials for radio stations in Vancouver.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Frieda (Kenen) and Charles Abraham Bochner, Lloyd was of Russian Jewish and Ukrainian Jewish descent. He began his acting career as a youth with the Joseph Barrington Juveniles. Lloyd's education at the University of Toronto was interrupted in 1943 by wartime service in the Royal Canadian Navy. He graduated with a B.A. in 1947 and later moved to New York to hone his acting skills.
In 1953, Lloyd returned to Canada to participate in the inaugural season of the Stratford Festival, where he played choice Shakespearean roles such as Horatio in "Hamlet" and Orsino in "Twelfth Night". He made his screen debut in a small Canadian production, "The Mapleville Story" (1946).
Lloyd's first significant exposure in television was as British army officer Nicholas Lacey in the half-hour NBC serial "One Man's Family" (1949). His breakthrough role came in 1960 as co-star of the studio-bound crime series "Hong Kong", playing local British police-chief Neil Campbell.
He went on to play key roles, including his iconic appearance in the classic "The Twilight Zone" (1959) episode "To Serve Man" in 1962. Lloyd repeated his famous punch-line, "it's a cookbook!", years later as a spoof in Leslie Nielsen's "The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear" (1991).
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Lloyd was cast in supporting roles, often as smooth, upper-class snobs with treacherous intent. He appeared in several motion pictures, including "Point Blank" (1967) and "Tony Rome" (1967).
Lloyd's preferred medium was television, where he had a recurring role in the long-running soap-opera "Dynasty" (1981) as Blake Carrington's manipulative rival, Cecil Colby. A versatile character actor, Lloyd's clean-cut features and quiet air of authority lent themselves to portraying a vast gallery of medical men, soldiers, politicians, and executives.
Throughout his half-century-long acting career, Lloyd Bochner garnered two Liberty Awards as best television actor, Canada's equivalent of the Emmy Awards. He was also an active member in the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists. He died at age 81 of cancer on October 29, 2005 in Santa Monica, California. His children are actors Hart Bochner, Paul Bochner, and Johanna Courtleigh.
