Harry Frazier, 77, found fame playing Falstaff and Santa

LOS ANGELES — Harry Frazier, an actor whose full white beard helped win him Santa Claus roles in movies and commercials but who performed far more often on stage and television, has died at age 77.

Mr. Frazier died May 26 at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in the Woodland Hills district of Los Angeles, said Jaime Larkin, a hospital spokeswoman. The cause was complications from diabetes. He had been a resident of the assisted-living facility adjoining the hospital for several years.

Starting in the 1970s, Mr. Frazier performed regularly in Shakespeare plays at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga.

"Harry's work as an actor was so lovely that it was always the character that you saw," said Ellen Geer, artistic director of Theatricum Botanicum. Although he worked in film and television, Geer said, "theater was Harry's life."

He also performed in Shakespeare festivals throughout California, often playing Falstaff, the burly punster who appears in several plays, including "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

The "Fat Knight" with his rotund, rosy-cheeked appearance and quick wit was "the role Harry Frazier was born to play," Sylvie Drake wrote in a 1992 Los Angeles Times review of "Merry Wives" at the Garden Grove Shakespeare Festival.

Mr. Frazier worked in television starting in the 1960s, appearing in guest roles on such popular series as "Batman," "Cheers," "Hill Street Blues" and "Power Rangers."

He portrayed Santa Claus in several television movies, including "The Elf Who Saved Christmas" in 1992, and on a holiday episode of "Knots Landing" in 1991. He was asked to play the role at parties so often that he made a red costume.

"Harry looked so much like Santa Claus, with his white beard, twinkling eyes and very expressive face," said Stuart Timmons, a writer and longtime friend of Mr. Frazier. "He made a living playing Santa Claus."

Mr. Frazier had smaller roles in several feature films; perhaps the best known was "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" in 1971.

He also made experimental films that were screened in museums and art galleries. They typically had no plot or dialogue but focused on images and evoked moods.