LOS ANGELES — Actor David Lander, best known for playing Squiggy on the 1970s sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” has died at the age of 73, entertainment news outlets including Variety, TMZ, and The Hollywood Reporter reported. Lander made up half of the duo alongside Michael McKean’s “Lenny” on the popular ABC comedy
On Saturday, McKean tweeted a picture of himself and Lander as young men.
Lander battled multiple sclerosis for much of his life. His wife said it was a decades-long battle. He died Friday in Los Angeles, surrounded by her, his daughter and son-in-law, Kathy Fields Lander said in an email Saturday to The Associated Press.
“It was very peaceful,” Lander said. “He had a tough battle with MS for 37 years and he persevered like no one I have ever seen, and it taught me a great deal about the important things of life.”
Lander had a longtime comedic partnership with McKean, whom he met at Carnegie Mellon University. Together they created the characters of Lenny and Squiggy that they would play on the show, which ran from 1976 to 1983.
Lenny and Squiggy — or Lenny Kosnowski and Andrew “Squiggy” Squiggman — were friends and upstairs neighbors of Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams), bottle-cappers in 1950s Milwaukee.
Lander is survived by his wife and a daughter, Natalie Lander.
The Associated Press contributed.
