Richard Deacon's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) The Dick Van Dyke Show Melvin 'Mel… Leave It to Beaver Fred Ruther… The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour Richard Dea… The Lost Saucer Mr. Kroog The Mothers-In-Law Roger Buell Guestward Ho! Mr. Andrews Happy Hotel Manager The Real Tom Kennedy Show Richard Dea… Date with the Angels Roger Finley The People's Choice Dr. Baxter

Main Movie Roles 1978 - Piranha 1968 - Lady in Cement 1968 - Blackbeard's Ghost 1967 - The Gnome-Mobile 1967 - Enter Laughing 1965 - That Darn Cat! 1964 - The Patsy 1963 - Who's Minding the Store? 1963 - The Birds 1962 - That Touch of Mink 1960 - North to Alaska 1960 - Inherit The Wind 1959 - A Summer Place 1959 - The Young Philadelphians 1957 - Decision at Sundown 1957 - The Spirit of St. Louis 1957 - Affair in Reno 1956 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 - Carousel 1955 - This Island Earth 1955 - Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy 1955 - Blackboard Jungle 1954 - Cry Vengeance 1954 - Shield for Murder 1954 - Rogue Cop 1954 - Private Hell 36 1954 - Desirée 1953 - Invaders from Mars

BIOGRAPHY:

Richard Deacon was the bald, bespectacled character actor most famous for playing television producer Mel Cooley on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" from 1961 to 1966. In the first season of "Dick Van Dyke," he continued to appear on his previous series, "Leave it to Beaver," concurrently, playing Fred Rutherford on the latter show.

Born on May 14, 1921 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the tall, bass-voiced Deacon took to the boards as a stage actor. At the beginning of his career, stage legend Helen Hayes (I) told Deacon that he would never become a leading man but encouraged him to become a character actor. It was good advice, as Deacon's show business career lasted decades and only was terminated by his death.

Because of his looks and authoritative voice, Deacon usually was typecast as a humorless or foul-tempered authority figure. He became a highly regarded supporting-player in motion pictures, complimented by many of the leading actors he played opposite of, including Jack Benny, Lou Costello (I), and Cary Grant. But it was in television that Deacon really thrived.

It was his five-year gig on "The Dick Van Dyke Show", where he earned television immortality playing the long-suffering brother-in-law of Alan Brady (the faux-TV star for whom Dick Van Dyke and his companion writers, Morey Amsterdam and Rose-Marie (I), wrote for). Deacon's character was constantly harassed by Amsterdam's diminutive character Buddy Sorrell. After the show ceased production (still at the top of the ratings, Van Dyke had terminated the series in order to pursue movie stardom), Deacon co-starred on the TV situation comedy The Mothers-in-Law (1968) with Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden. (Deacon replaced original series co-star Roger C. Carmel as Ballard's husband in the second season after Carmel was fired from the series by producer Desi Arnaz for refusing to accept a pay-cut.)

After the show was canceled, Deacon returned to work as a free-lance actor. Back on the boards, Deacon appeared in the long-running Broadway production of "Hello Dolly" as Horace Vandergelder, opposite Phyllis Diller as the eponymous heroine in the 1969-70 season. Deacon continued appearing on television and in the movies until his death.

In real life, Deacon was a gourmet chef. In the 1980s, he hosted a Canadian TV program on microwave cookery, and even wrote a companion book on the subject

On the night of August 8, 1984, he was stricken by a heart attack in his Beverly Hills home. He was rushed to Cedars Sinai Hospital, where he died later that night. He was 63 years old.


TRIVIA:

• He was cremated at Grandview Crematory. The funeral director was from Westwood Village Mortuary.
• Imposing, bald-pated, bespectacled character actor, best known for playing imperious authority figure types. In private life, a bookish man and a renowned gourmet chef.