Hiram Kasten Dies: Comedian And TV Actor Was 71

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Hiram Kasten, a comedian/actor who was part of the New York comedy club scene in the 1970s and 1980s, died today at his home in Batavia, New York at age 71.

He endured seven years of fighting through a multitude of illnesses, including prostate cancer, according to his wife, Diana Kisiel Kastenbaum. He died hours after their 38th wedding anniversary.

Kasten, born Hiram Z. Kastenbaum, was a Bronx, New York native who dreamed of becoming an actor. After a few years of bouncing around the theater scene, he decided he would try his hand at stand-up comedy. 

He set his sights on The Comic Strip, where the MC was Jerry Seinfeld, who passed Hiram on his first audition. He soon became a regular at the club. The two struck up a friendship that lasted for 45 years.  It was also where Hiram met to soon be life-long friends, comedians Paul Reiser, Larry Miller, and Mark Schiff.

During the 1980s, he became a regular at Catch a Rising Star and occasionally The Improv, The Comedy Cellar, Caroline’s, and Dangerfield’s the latter where he ran his own show every Sunday night for years.

By the late ’80s, Kasten moved to Los Angeles. He landed a role in a pilot for CBS with Frank Langella and Sally Kellerman, Dr. Paradise. Other roles followed, including playing Michael, a co-worker to Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in Seinfeld. 

He also had guest starring roles in Mad About You, Everybody Loves Raymond, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 7th Heaven, Brooklyn Bridge, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, My Wife and Kids, Men of a Certain Age, Yes, Dear “Cybill and L.A. Law, among other shows.

Television writer and producer Don Reo and actor/musician David Cassidy were producing a show at The Desert Inn in Las Vegas called The Rat Pack is Back, and they were casting for a Joey Bishop-like character to add the comedy element to the show.   Kasten was soon wearing a tuxedo onstage in Vegas eight times a week for nearly two years.

Afterwards, he continued his stand-up by performing in clubs and on cruise ships.  He traveled the world on luxury cruises such as Seabourn, Royal Viking and Princess

He is survived by his wife, Diana, who in 2016, ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket in NY-27, his daughter, Millicent Jade Kastenbaum, along with brother-in-law, Kevin John Kisiel and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

Funeral services will be at Schwartz Brothers-Jeffers Memorial Chapel, 114‑03 Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, New York (date and time to be announced). 

Burial will take place immediately after services at Mount Hebron Cemetery, 130-04 Horace Harding Expressway, Flushing, New York.  A memorial service will be held in Los Angeles later this summer, time and place to be announced.

The family has asked that if anyone cares to make a memorial tribute that it be made in the form of a charitable donation to Crossroads House and Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund).