Robert Z'Dar

Robert James Zdarsky was born on June 3, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois,^[4] Z'Dar was of Lithuanian descent. He first started acting while attending Proviso West High School in Hillside, Illinois. After high school, Z'Dar attended Arizona State University^[4] where he received a bachelor of fine arts and played on the university football team.^[1] After graduation, Z'Dar returned to Chicago, where he was employed as a Chicago police officer, member of the band Nova Express, commercial jingle writer, and Chippendales dancer.^[4]

Eventually Z'Dar moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. His first feature-film appearance was in the women in prison film Hellhole (1985).^[4] He appeared in several more films in close succession, including Hot Chili (1985), The Night Stalker (1987), Cherry 2000 (1987), The Killing Game (1988), and Grotesque (1988).

Z'Dar's name became recognizable when he played Matt Cordell in 1988's Maniac Cop, a film about a back-from-the-dead hero NYPD cop turned evil avenger, who brutally murders people.^[5] Z'Dar reprised his role in the 1990 sequel and Badge of Silence (1993).^[6]

It was perhaps Z'Dar's performance in Maniac Cop that landed him the role of "Face" in 1989's Tango & Cash, alongside action stars Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.^[7] He went on to appear in films such as Killing American Style (1988), The Final Sanction (1990), A Gnome Named Gnorm (1990), Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991), Mobsters (1991), Samurai Cop (1991), Return to Frogtown (1993), Marching Out of Time (1993), Death from Above (2011), Meltdown (2009), and Easter Sunday (2014).

Robert Z'Dar appeared in more than 121 films and television episodes, with at least one film appearance per year in 27 of the last 29 years of his career (missing only 1986 and 2001).^[1] He continued making at least one film every year despite a serious back injury he suffered in 2002 on a movie set. Two of Z'Dar's films, Soultaker (1990) and Future War (1997), appeared in season 10 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, increasing his renown somewhat.^[8]

In 2012, he was inducted to International Indie Filmmakers Hall of Fame at The Indie Gathering film festival.^[9]

While appearing at Pensacon in Pensacola, Florida, Z'Dar was hospitalized for chest pains. He seemed to recover, but subsequently went into cardiac arrest and died on March 30, 2015 at the age of 64, one month after his hospitalization.^[10]