ACTOR
Ed Flanders
25 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (25)
- #001
Ed Flanders spent much of his life battling depression.
- #002
The salary he earned from St. Elsewhere (1982) allowed him to buy a farm in Eureka, California.
- #003
Despite his physical pain, he never gave up acting.
- #004
Before becoming a successful actor, he served as an X-ray technician in the United States Army.
- #005
Much of his depression was a result of severe chronic back pain.
- #006
Flanders lost his mother in a car accident when he was 14 years old.
- #007
He appeared in every episode of St. Elsewhere (1982) except one, and throughout its final year.
- #008
Shortly before his death, he worked with former St. Elsewhere (1982) lead Terence Knox on the film The Road Home (1994), again produced by Bruce Paltrow.
- #009
He portrayed U.S. President Harry S. Truman more often, and in more different productions, than any other actor.
- #010
He met his second wife, Ellen Geer, while ice skating in Milwaukee.
- #011
He began acting during his high school years.
- #012
He was called up to the United States Army, and his conscription created an estrangement that ended his marriage and then separated him from his children for the next twenty years.
- #013
He was involved in a nearly fatal car accident (1989).
- #014
He met Christina Pickles, who would later appear alongside him in St. Elsewhere (1982), at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
- #015
In 1959, Flanders won the first of two Atlas Awards (the Globe's equivalent of the Tony) for the role of Banjo in The Man Who Came to Dinner. In 1960, he won his second Atlas Award for the comedy Golden Fleecing.
- #016
Shakespeare's appeal soon led him to the Association of Producing Artists, based at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
- #017
His friends included Norman Lloyd, William Daniels, Bonnie Bartlett, Bruce Paltrow, David Wayne, Herb Edelman, Paul Sand, Betty White, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, Jack Lord, France Nuyen, Jack Dodson, Jane Wyatt, Christina Pickles and Stephen Elliott.
- #018
Before becoming a successful actor, Ed Flanders worked at the Old Globe Theatre.
- #019
At Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis, Flanders was voted "jolliest" — a trait that also characterized his energy as an actor.
- #020
When he attended Patrick Henry High School, he was part of the hockey team.
- #021
Ed Flanders was the former son-in-law of Will Geer and Herta Ware.
- #022
Ed Flanders had two brothers: Rene and Bud.
- #023
Ed Flanders graduated from Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1953.
- #024
Ed Flanders was the former brother-in-law of Kate Geer and Thad Geer.
- #025
Ed Flanders was a former neighbor of Mark Rowley.
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