Richard Erdman

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Richard "Dick" Erdman (born June 1, 1925 in Enid , Oklahoma , † March 16, 2019 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor and director who played numerous character roles over the course of his 73-year film and television career .

life and career

Richard Erdman was born the son of a musician and a restorer . When he was 15, his mother brought him to Hollywood , where he made his breakthrough as an actor. After initially working as a sports reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner , Erdman made his film debut at the age of 18 in The Life of Mrs. Skeffington (1944) alongside Claude Rains and Bette Davis . At first only seen in small roles, he found his position as a supporting actor in the late 1940s. Because he aged relatively quickly, he was seen as a character actor at a young age. In 1953 he played the role of the strict but just Sergeant Hoffy in the film adaptation of the successful Broadway play Stalag 17 by Billy Wilder . Erdman has appeared in a long line of war films, including Torah! Torah! Torah! (1970) in the role of a soldier in World War II.

Occasionally, the American also took on roles in European productions such as Four Days Leave (1950) and Face of Fire (1959). Richard Erdmann also played numerous guest roles in US television series - including a recurring role as a millionaire on the sitcom The Tab Hunter Show between 1960 and 1961 - and took over speaking roles in cartoons. In total, he appeared in more than 150 film and television productions. As a director, he was responsible for two episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1966), as well as for the television film Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971) and the feature films Teenage Tease (1971) and The Brothers O'Toole (1973). Richard Erdman was seen on German broadcaster arte in 2008 in the feature film collage Murder in the Empire State Building , in which scenes from more than 50 films from Film Noir are assembled into a fictional story. In addition to Richard Erdman, old Hollywood legends such as Kirk Douglas , Mickey Rooney and Ben Gazzara are interviewed about the alleged events. Between 2009 and 2015 Erdman took on a supporting role as old student Leonard in a total of 53 episodes of the television series Community .

Erdman's first marriage to actress Leza Holland between 1948 and 1950 was divorced, with his second wife Sharon Randall (1923-2016) he was married from 1953 until her death. Their daughter Erica Erdman died in 2010 at the age of 55. Richard Erdman died in 2019 at the age of 93 in Los Angeles, where he last lived in assisted living .

Filmography (selection)

As an actor

As a director

  • 1966: The Dick Van Dyke Show (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1971: Teenage Tease
  • 1971: Mooch Goes to Hollywood (TV movie)
  • 1973: The Brothers O'Toole

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Erdman - About This Person. In: The New York Times . 2010, archived from the original on November 13, 2013 ; accessed on March 17, 2019 (English).
  2. Richard Erdman, Actor in 'Stalag 17' and TV's 'Community,' Dies at 93.Retrieved October 31, 2019 .