‘Parks and Rec’ Actor James Greene Dies at 91

James Greene, a Broadway veteran who had a recurring role in Parks and Recreation, died Friday. He was 91.

Greene, who played Councilman Milton on Parks and Recreation, died at his home in Los Angeles, his wife, Elsbeth M. Collins, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Greene was also well known for his stint on The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd as Davey McQuinn, the elevator attendant in Molly’s (Blair Brown) apartment complex. The NBC and Lifetime dramedy aired from 1987 to 1991. He also found regular work on series like Alien Nation, The Practice and Men Behaving Badly.

Throughout NBC’s Parks and Rec, which starred Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, Nick Offerman, Chris Pratt, Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe, Greene appeared in 16 episodes over three seasons as Fielding Milton, an elderly and tactless city councilman in the fictional Pawnee, Indiana. According to The Hollywood Reporter, his character was first elected in 1948 as a member of the Dixiecrat Party, on a platform to de-integrate baseball, and was also the chairman of the Commitment to Re-convert the Pawnee Japanese Internment Camp Museum Back into a Working Internment Camp.

With original Broadway productions like Inherit the Wind (1955), Compulsion (1957), Elia Kazan’s The Changeling (1964), and Foxfire (1982) under his belt, Greene initially got his start on Broadway as a member of the chorus in a 1951 production of Romeo and Juliet starting Olivia de Havilland. From then on until the 1991 comedy La Bete, he appeared in 22 other Broadway productions and another 29 plays off Broadway.

He starred opposite Jason Robards in a revival of The Iceman Cometh in 1985 and also appeared in a revival of You Can’t Take It With You in 1965 and 1967.

Fans may also recognize him from his movie roles in Doc (1971), The Missouri Breaks (1976), A Little Sex (1982), Patch Adams (1998), Road to Perdition (2002), and That Statement (2003).

Greene graduated from Emerson College in 1950 after being born on Dec. 1, 1926 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

In addition to Collins, his wife of 34 years who is head of production at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, he is survived by his son, Christopher.