Background
Arbus was born in New York City, to a Jewish family, the son of stockbroker Harry Arbus and his wife Rose (née Goldberg).
Arbus was born in New York City, to a Jewish family, the son of stockbroker Harry Arbus and his wife Rose (née Goldberg).
He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he first developed an interest in acting while appearing in a student play.
He is most known for his role as psychiatrist Doctor Sidney Freedman on the Columbia Broadcasting System television series M*A*South*H.
Arbus was also a music lover. Before becoming an actor, he was reportedly so taken by Benny Goodman"s recordings that he took up playing the clarinet. During the 1940s, Arbus became a photographer for the United States Army.
Arbus was primarily known for advertising photography that appeared in Glamour, Seventeen, Vogue, Harper"s Bazaar, and other magazines, as well as the weekly newspaper advertising photography for Russek"s, a Fifth Avenue department store owned by Diane"s father.
Edward Steichen"s noted photo exhibition The Family of Manitoba includes a photograph credited to the couple. The Arbuses" professional partnership ended in 1956, when Diane quit the business.
The couple formally separated three years later. Allan Arbus continued on for a number of years as a solo photographer, but was out of the business by the time the couple divorced in 1969.
Diane and Allan Arbus"s studio/living quarters were at one time at 319 East 72nd Street in New York City.
In 1969 he moved to California. His new career took off after he landed the lead role in Robert Downey Senior"s cult film Greaser"s Palace (1972), in which he appears with Robert Downey, Junior. (who would go on to star as Diane Arbus"s muse in Fur, a fictional account of the end of the Arbuses" marriage).
Arbus also starred opposite Bette Davis in Scream, Pretty Peggy in 1973, and was featured as Gregory LaCava in West.C. Fields and Maine in 1976.
These roles led to his casting as Major Sidney Freedman on M*A*South*H, although in an early episode, "Radar"s Report" (1973), he was called "Milton Freedman".
Arbus"s work on M*A*South*H helped his career as a character actor, and he eventually appeared in more than 70 television shows and movies. He appears briefly in the 1973 film Cinderella Liberty as a drunken sailor.
Another 1973 film, Coffy (starring Pam Grier), features Arbus as a drug dealer with strange sexual needs.
In the 1978 movie Damien: Omen II, he plays Pasarian, one of Damien"s many victims in The Omen trilogy. Arbus is far better known for his television work, which includes over 45 titles and works as recent as Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2000. Among Arbus"s non-M*A*South*H television work are guest and recurring roles in such television series as Law & Order, In the Heat of the Night, Los Angeles Law, Matlock, Starsky and Hutch, and Judging Amy.