ROD STEIGER
BIOGRAPHY
ROD STEIGER stars as infamous Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock.
To play the part of the infamous Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock in LIFETIME’s “Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story” as an out-and-out villain was not a choice made by Academy Award-winning actor Rod Steiger (“In The Heat of the Night”). Rather than yell and come across as a Simon Legree “heavy,” Steiger chose instead to play the part of the man who censored birth control information with a certain amount of charm.
Steiger, and Academy Award-winner and three-time nominee, adds the character of the infamous Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock in “Choice of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story” to the gallery of memorable people he has played in his career – Benito Mussolini, Napoleon, Rasputin, Rudolf Hess, Al Capone, Pope John XXIII, W.C. Fields, Pontius Pilate, Andrei Vishinsky or Rear Admiral Robert Peary, among others.
After a five-year hitch in the Navy during World War II, Steiger took a civil service job and later joined a Veteran’s Administration drama group. He studied with the New York Theatre Wing, Dramatic Workshop and Elia Kazan’s Actor’s Studio, made his professional acting debut in a bit part in the touring company of “The Trial of Mary Dugan” and then made his Broadway debut playing a 55-year-old in “Night Music.”
Steiger made a name for himself in television in such roles as “Marty” (Sylvania Award). He went on to appear in a succession of classic films: “In The Heat of the Night” (Academy Award nomination), “The Pawnbroker” (Academy Award nomination, Berlin Film Festival Award), “and The Sergeant” (David Di Donatello Award). “Oklahoma!” “The Big Knife,” “Dr. Zhivago,” “No Way to Treat a Lady,” “The Loved One,” “The Harder They Fall,” “Waterloo,” “W.C. Fields and Me,” “The Chosen” and “The Specialist.”
Steiger lives with his wife, Paula Ellis, and son, Michael Winston, in Malibu, California.