Sandy Helberg

Sandy Helberg is a German-born American actor who grew up in Toledo, Ohio and studied acting in New York City with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He started out doing stand-up comedy and improv in Greenwich Village clubs before settling in Los Angeles, where he was an original member of the Groundlings. He appeared in several comedies, notably three Mel Brooks films, High Anxiety, History of the World, Part I and Spaceballs (1987), and he starred in The Hollywood Knights and Up the Creek (1984). His television work includes writing and starring in The Lorenzo and Henrietta Music Show and Flatbush, guest roles on series such as Newhart, The Jeffersons, The Wonder Years and Night Court, and a co-starring part in the miniseries 79 Park Avenue. He played Burl Gopher Smith in the pilot of The Love Boat, and he wrote episodes for The Golden Girls, Perfect Strangers, Dear John and Harry and the Hendersons.