بیوگرافی
Milt was born on April 10, 1936, at Beth Israel Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Eastern European immigrants Mildred and Joseph Kogan. Joseph, a pharmacist who graduated from Temple University, relocated the family to Camden, New Jersey, after a year, where he established a pharmacy that became a local landmark for 40 years. Milt excelled as a basketball player at Woodrow Wilson High School, earning a spot on the Camden City All-Star Basketball Team in 1953. He was admitted to the prestigious Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he led the freshman basketball team in scoring. However, during his first varsity game the following year, he suffered a severe knee injury—occurring before advances in knee surgery—which effectively ended his high-level athletic career. Despite this, he was elected captain of the Cornell basketball team in 1957.
Pivoting to medicine, Milt earned both a D.O. and an M.D. from the University of California, Irvine. In the early 1960s, he unexpectedly began an acting career in Hollywood, gaining recognition for his comedic roles as working-class characters in TV commercials. He married Dena Lambie of Northern California after working as a professor and physician aboard the University of the Seven Seas, a floating campus that traveled globally. The couple had two children, Magavin and Teidi. Though his TV career flourished, Milt felt compelled to give back and joined the United States Peace Corps, relocating with his family to what is now Burkina Faso in West Africa, where he served impoverished communities for two and a half years.
Upon returning to California, he completed a Master’s in Preventive Health at UCLA. His demanding lifestyle strained his marriage, leading to a divorce two years later. Devoting himself fully to both medicine and acting, Milt worked with homeless and mentally ill populations in Los Angeles while continuing to appear on major TV shows, films, and commercials. After spending two years in Harlowton, Montana, as a National Health Service Corps physician, he met Susan Quast, a small-town beauty from South Dakota, who he eventually married. Together, they have two children, Jamie and Millay. To maintain close ties with all his children, Milt served with the U.S. Army in West Germany for two years through the Defense Department.
Now back in Hollywood with his full family, Milt and Susan have been married for 35 years. His medical experiences have enabled him to speak German, French, and Spanish. He is a voting member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmy). Three of his four children have become lawyers, while his son Jamie is a successful film composer in Hollywood. Milt and Susan built a home and farm in Oceanside, California, where he now considers himself a farmer. He continues to balance his medical practice and acting career, frequently traveling to Los Angeles for television work.
