Richard Deacon
Richard Deacon
Very early in his stage career, Richard Deacon was advised by Helen Hayes to abandon all hopes of becoming a leading man: instead, she encouraged him to aggressively pursue a career as a character actor. Tall, bald, bespectacled and bass-voiced since high school, Deacon heeded Ms. Hayes' advice, and managed to survive in show business far longer than many of the "perfect" leading men who were his contemporaries. Usually cast as a glaring sourpuss or humorless bureaucrat, Deacon was a valuable and highly regarded supporting-cast commodity in such films as Desiree (1954), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Kiss Them For Me (1957), The Young Philadelphians (1959) and The King's Pirate (1967), among many others. Virtually every major star who worked with Deacon took time out to compliment him on his skills: among his biggest admirers were Lou Costello, Jack Benny and Cary Grant. Even busier on television than in films, Richard Deacon had the distinction of appearing regularly on two concurrently produced sitcoms of the early 1960s: he was pompous suburbanite Fred Rutherford on Leave It to Beaver, and the long-suffering Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Deacon also co-starred as Kaye Ballard's husband on the weekly TV comedy The Mothers-in-Law (1968), and enjoyed a rare leading role on the 1964 Twilight Zone installment "The Brain Center at Whipples." In his last decade, Richard Deacon hosted a TV program on microwave cookery, and published a companion book on the subject. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmography of Richard Deacon:
- The Gnome-Mobile with Walter Brennan , Ed Wynn , Jerome Cowan , Gil Lamb , Ellen Corby , William Fawcett , Alvy Moore , Dale vanSickel , Parley Baer
- The Patsy with Jerry Lewis , Ina Balin , Everett Sloane , Phil Harris , Keenan Wynn , Peter Lorre , John Carradine , Hans Conried , Neil Hamilton , Scatman Crothers , Nancy Kulp , Fritz Feld , Jerome Cowan , Jack Albertson , Kathleen Freeman , Hedda Hopper , Norman Leavitt , Mantan Moreland , George Raft , Michael Ross , Mel Torme , Dave Willock , Ed Wynn , Richard Bakalyan
- Billie with Patty Duke , Jim Backus , Jane Greer , Warren Berlinger , Billy DeWolfe , Harlan Warde
- My Sister Eileen with Janet Leigh , Jack Lemmon , Betty Garrett , Bob Fosse , Kurt Kasznar , Barbara Brown , Horace McMahon , Hal March , Alberto Morin , Dick York
- Them! with James Whitmore , Edmund Gwenn , James Arness , Fess Parker , Ann Doran , Ann Doran , Charles Meredith , William Schallert , Dub Taylor , Lawrence Dobkin , Leonard Nimoy
- That Touch of Mink with Cary Grant , Doris Day , Gig Young , John Astin , John Fiedler
- Piranha with Bradford Dillman , Kevin McCarthy , Keenan Wynn , Dick Miller , Barbara Steele , Paul Bartel , Bruce Gordon , Barry Brown
- Lover Come Back with Rock Hudson , Doris Day , Tony Randall , Edie Adams , Jack Oakie , Jack Kruschen , Joe Flynn , Howard St. John , Jack Albertson , William Benedict , John Litel
- The Last Hurrah with Spencer Tracy , Jeffrey Hunter , Pat O'Brien , Basil Rathbone , Donald Crisp , James Gleason , Edward S. Brophy , John Carradine , Ricardo Cortez , Wallace Ford , Frank McHugh , Anna Lee , Ken Curtis , Jane Darwell , Ruth Warren , James Flavin , William Forrest , Charles Sullivan , Ruth Clifford , Harry Lauter , Edmund Lowe
Richard Deacon Trivia
