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For decades, millions of television viewers knew James Sloyan’s face even if they could not immediately remember his name.
He was one of those dependable character actors who seemed to appear everywhere.
A familiar face in a movie.
A memorable guest star on television.
A voice heard during commercial breaks for years.
Now, the actor whose career quietly stretched across more than six decades has died.
James Sloyan died on July 22 at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, surrounded by his family.
He was 85.
News of his death became public after his family published an obituary remembering a man they described as curious, courageous, inventive, loyal and unmistakably one-of-a-kind.
For many viewers, Sloyan may be best remembered as Charlie Wayne on the 1980s ABC sitcom Oh Madeline.
The series starred Madeline Kahn as Madeline Wayne, a restless suburban wife constantly searching for more excitement in her life.
Sloyan played her husband Charlie, a romance novelist whose wife’s unpredictable adventures regularly complicated his otherwise orderly existence.
The sitcom lasted only one season, beginning in 1983, but it became one of the roles most closely associated with Sloyan’s long television career.
Yet his work stretched far beyond comedy.
Years earlier, he had appeared in the Oscar-winning film The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Sloyan played Mottola, a numbers runner whose encounter with a pair of con artists helps set the movie’s story in motion.
He also appeared in films including Xanadu, The Traveling Executioner and The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.
Television gave him even more opportunities to disappear into dramatically different characters.
Over the years, he portrayed lawyers, villains, husbands, authority figures and countless other personalities.
That versatility eventually brought him into one of television’s most devoted franchises.
Star Trek fans came to know Sloyan particularly well during the 1990s.
Rather than appearing as one recurring character, he returned repeatedly in different roles across multiple series.
He appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Each role required him to disappear beneath different costumes, makeup and personalities.
It was the kind of work that defined much of Sloyan’s career.
He rarely needed to be the biggest name on the screen.
He simply needed enough time to make a character memorable.
But there was another side of his career that reached an even larger audience.
Millions of people heard James Sloyan regularly without ever seeing him.
Beginning around the launch of Toyota’s luxury Lexus brand, his distinctive voice became closely associated with the automaker’s advertising.
For approximately 18 years, Sloyan served as the voice behind Lexus commercials.
His calm, authoritative delivery became part of the brand’s identity.
To many viewers, the voice represented sophistication and reliability.
They may never have known the actor speaking to them was the same man they had seen on sitcoms, in movies and aboard fictional starships.
That unusual combination made Sloyan’s career different from many Hollywood performers.
He could be recognizable and anonymous at the same time.
His face appeared across generations of television.
His voice entered millions of homes through advertising.
Yet outside devoted movie and television audiences, his name never became as famous as many of the stars he worked beside.
For Sloyan, however, acting had never been limited to celebrity.
His career began long before Hollywood.
He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, served in the U.S. Army and later became involved with Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival.
He made his Broadway debut in Arthur Kopit’s Indians before eventually moving west and building the television and film career viewers came to recognize.
But away from the screen, another story lasted even longer than most of his professional roles.
It was the relationship he built with actress Deirdre Lenihan.
And as his family reflected on his death, the private life behind that familiar face revealed another side of the actor millions thought they knew.