Phil Leeds, veteran character actor

LOS ANGELES Phil Leeds, 82, the character actor with therecognizable face and unknown name who said casting agents alwayscalled "when they want a funny old man," has died.

Mr. Leeds, who appeared in the final or season-ending episodesof four popular series during network sweeps week last May, diedSunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of pneumonia.

Mr. Leeds was seen that single week in May as Uncle Mel on"Everybody Loves Raymond," as a wizened old man on "Murphy Brown," asan old comic on "Ellen" and as Judge Boyle on "Ally McBeal."

"Here's how I describe myself: I am the guy who people say,`Here comes what's-his-face,' " Leeds said with customary humor in1995. "No one ever knows my name, just my face."

At the time, he was seen weekly as the Kid, the oldest messengerwho moved through crowded Manhattan streets faster on foot than hisyoung colleagues pedaled on bicycles in the television series "DoubleRush." Leeds quipped that the single-season series was his mostsuccessful since his first, "Front Row Center" on the old Dumontnetwork in 1949.

His most recent series role was playing Ned on Tom Selleck's"The Closer" earlier this year.

Leeds appeared in memorable motion pictures, including roles asthe mute mean wizard (his description) in "Rosemary's Baby" and theemergency room ghost in "Ghost."

And he performed in not-so-memorable films such as RichardDreyfuss' "Krippendorf's Tribe" earlier this year.

Leeds attended City College of New York and served in the Armyspecial services during World War II.

He started doing stand-up in New York clubs in his 20s,supplementing his income as a peanut vendor at Yankee Stadium and thePolo Grounds.

Leeds made his Broadway debut in 1942 opposite Betty Garrett in"Of V We Sing." When he wasn't busy on Broadway, he continuedworking in clubs during the 1950s and 1960s.

Outside New York, he had major roles in "Bells Are Ringing,""Song of Norway," "Oklahoma" and in San Francisco in 1973 in "TheSunshine Boys."

That year he moved to Los Angeles to appear in "Two Gentlemen ofVerona" - and stayed on to work in television.

Among the well-known series featuring that well-known face were"All in the Family," "Maude," "Barney Miller," "The Golden Girls,""Night Court," "Roseanne" and "The Larry Sanders Show."

Leeds' wife, the former Toby Brandt, died in 1987.