Richard Dysart

Richard Dysart studied at Emerson College, Gould Academy and Cony High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is acting. Residence is recorded at Augusta. Distinctions recorded are Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

• Name — Richard Dysart • Birth Name — Richard Allen Dysart • Born — 30 March 1929 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — 5 April 2015 • Place of death — Santa Monica, California, U.S. • Other Names — Richard A. Dysart • Education — * Cony High School • Gould Academy • Emerson College • George Washington University • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1953–2004 • Children — 1

Richard Dysart was born to Alice (née Hennigar) and Douglas Dysart, a podiatrist, near Boston, Massachusetts, on March 30, 1929. Dysart was raised in Skowhegan, Maine and Augusta, Maine. He attended Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine. At the encouragement of his mother, Dysart performed in summer stock at the Lakewood Theater near Skowhegan. He also worked at a local radio station. He earned both bachelor's (1956) and master's (1981) in speech communication from Emerson College in Boston, although his undergraduate education was interrupted due to his service for four years in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. At Emerson he performed on stage, and he was a class officer and student government vice-president. He was a brother of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity. He also studied at George Washington University. He returned for his master's degree later, completing it in 1981.

Dysart's acting career began on the stage. He was a founding member of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, which began in 1965. He performed on Broadway in All in Good Time (1965) and A Place Without Doors (1970–1971), and a revival of The Little Foxes (1967–1968) as Horace Giddens, alongside Anne Bancroft. Dysart played the role of Coach in the original Broadway production of Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season, alongside Charles Durning and Paul Sorvino, from 1972 to 1974. In 1979, Dysart portrayed a good-hearted physician treating a dying billionaire in the film Being There, starring Peter Sellers and Melvyn Douglas. In 1980, he played Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in the television film The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd. He voiced the kindly miner Uncle Pom in the Disney English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's 1986 adventure classic Castle in the Sky, and the character of Cogliostro on Todd McFarlane's Spawn: The Animated Series, which aired on HBO. His other movie credits included roles in The Hindenburg (as Ernst A. Lehmann), An Enemy of the People, Prophecy, The Thing (directed by John Carpenter), Pale Rider (directed by Clint Eastwood), and Day One (with L.A. Law co-star Michael Tucker). He appeared in an episode of the 1976 television series Sara.

Dysart was married three times. The first two marriages resulted in divorce. He and his third wife, artist Kathryn Jacobi, were married from 1987 until his death. He had no children of his own, but had a stepson from his third wife and two step-grandchildren. Dysart died at home in Santa Monica, California on April 5, 2015, after a long battle with cancer. He was 86 years old.

• Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) – Accountant (uncredited) • Petulia (1968) – Motel Receptionist • The Lost Man (1969) – Barnes • The Sporting Club (1971) – Spengler • The Hospital (1971) – Dr. Welbeck • All In The Family (1972) – Russ DeKuyper • The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974, TV Movie) – Master Bryant • The Terminal Man (1974) – Dr. John Ellis • The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) – Father • The Day of the Locust (1975) – Claude Estee • The Hindenburg (1975) – Captain Ernst A. Lehmann • It Happened One Christmas (1977, TV Movie) – Peter Bailey • An Enemy of the People (1978) – Aslaksen • Prophecy (1979) – Isely • Meteor (1979) – Secretary of Defense • Being There (1979) – Dr. Robert Allenby • Bitter Harvest (1981) – Dr. Morton Freeman • The Thing (1982) – Dr. Copper • The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) – Dr. Daulton Lee • Mask (1985) – Abe • Malice in Wonderland (1985, TV Movie) – Louis B. Mayer • Pale Rider (1985) – Coy LaHood • Warning Sign (1985) – Dr. Nielsen • Blood & Orchids (1986, TV Movie) – Harvey Koster • Castle in the Sky (1986) – Uncle Pom (English version, voice) • The Last Days of Patton (1986, TV Movie) – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower • Wall Street (1987) – Cromwell • Day One (1989, TV Movie) – President Harry S. Truman • War and Remembrance (1989, TV Movie) – President Harry S Truman • Back to the Future Part III (1990) – Barbwire Salesman • Panther (1995) – J. Edgar Hoover • Truman (1995, TV Movie) – Henry L. Stimson • Todd McFarlane's Spawn (1997) – Cogliostro (voice) • Hard Rain (1998) – Henry Sears • Todd McFarlane's Spawn 2 (1998) – Cogliostro (voice) • Todd McFarlane's Spawn 3: The Ultimate Battle (1999) – Cogliostro (voice) • L.A. Law: The Movie (2002, TV Movie) – Leland McKenzie • Proteus (2004, Documentary) – The Ancient Mariner (voice)