Daniel Esobar was a trained Shakespearean actor, and a star best known as Lizzie McGuire's teacher Mr. Escobar, a role he played from 2001 to 2002. He also recurred on Dharma & Greg and had guest appearances on shows including Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Desperate Housewives, Malcolm in the Middle, Two and a Half Men, and How I Met Your Mother.

Among his film credits were Blow, The Mexican, Mark Ruffalo's Sympathy for Delicious, and The Lizzie McGuire Movie.

Last Friday, Escobar died from complications of diabetes in Los Angeles, Calif. He was 49. Today, a memorial service for Daniel Escobar will be held at 6:45 p.m. at the Hollywood United Methodist Church.

According to the DC Theater Scene, Escobar was a Shakespearian-trained actor who won the prestigious Helen Hayes Award for outstanding supporting actor in 2008 for his role in the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company's production of She Stoops to Comedy, a play by David Greenspan. He also won the Mary Goldwater award, for overall contribution to the stage, in 1993

Escobar also earned a bachelor's in fine arts from Southern Methodist University and trained with the Shakespeare Theatre at Folger in Washington, D.C.

"As an actor Danny was very funny and could easily make audiences laugh. But it was unquestionably his depth of emotion that set him apart. Danny found a way to personalize every role and bring whatever struggles he was facing in real life onto the stage," said Howard Shalwitz, who directed Escobar in She Stoops to Comedy, praising the actor to the DC Theatre Scene blog, the DC Theater Scene reports.

"He could shift from hilarious to heartbreaking in the blink of an eye. In his best roles, like that of an aging HIV-positive man in She Stoops to Comedy, he had the qualities of a sad clown, and I literally saw him make audiences weep night after night," Shalwitz added. "I had the privilege of directing Danny five times, and there's no one who brought more intelligence, discipline, joy, and raw emotional power to his work."