david smyrl

Eight-time Emmy Award winning character actor David Langston Smyrl died Tuesday of lung cancer. He was 80.

Mr. Smyrl is best known as the affable Mr. Langston Hanford, the retired firefighter who ran the corner store on Sesame Street.

Smyrl holds the distinction as the second-highest Emmy award winner in children’s TV programming.

A former Broadway star, Smyrl landed a gig as a writer and audience warm-up man on The Cosby Show. He later played a bit role as Mr. Sam Lucas on ‘Cosby’.

Smyrl also had small roles in The Preacher’s Wife and TV’s crime drama Law and Order.

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Little Known Black History Fact: David Langston Smyrl