His parents, Jennie (née Greenberg) and Mayer "Mike" Edelman, were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Ukraine, respectively.

After serving in the U.S. Army as an announcer for Armed Forces Radio, he enrolled in Brooklyn College as a theater student, but eventually dropped out.

One of his fares was director Mike Nichols,[2] who in 1963 cast Edelman in his breakthrough Broadway role, as the bewildered telephone repairman in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.

He remains best known for his three decades in television, usually as a co-star, recurring character, or guest star on CHIPS, The Golden Girls, That Girl, Love, American Style, The Streets of San Francisco, Maude, Cannon, Happy Days, Welcome Back, Kotter, Highway to Heaven, Kojak, Fantasy Island, Cagney & Lacey, and MacGyver, but occasionally in a lead role.

He also appeared with Bill Bixby and Valerie Perrine in Bruce Jay Friedman's Steambath, a controversial PBS dramedy, during 1973.