Richard Anderson

My idea of acting is based on what Spencer Tracy taught me. I saw him sitting on a bench at MGM. I walked up and said, “Acting?” He said, “Acting. Learn the lyrics and don’t bump into the furniture.”

-Richard Anderson

Richard Norman AndersonAugust 8, 1926 – August 31, 2017

Richard Anderson died today in Beverly Hills at the age of 91. On the big screen, his many films included The Student Prince as Lucas (1954), Forbidden Planet (1956), as Chief Engineer Quinn, and the World War I drama Paths of Glory (1957) directed by Stanley Kubrick, in which Anderson played the prosecuting attorney. He was Don Diego De La Vega's joke-playing best friend and romantic rival, Ricardo Del Amo, on the Disney television series Zorro (1958-1959). He was the object of the unrequited love of Clara Varner (Joanne Woodward) in The Long, Hot Summer (1958) and a suspicious military officer in Seven Days in May (1964).

In the 1960s, Anderson made appearances in 23 episodes of Perry Mason during the series' final season as Police Lieutenant Steve Drumm, replacing the character of Lt. Tragg, played by Ray Collins who died in 1965. Before he became a Perry Mason regular, he made guest appearances in two 1964 episodes: as defendant Edward Lewis in "The Case of the Accosted Accountant", and Jason Foster in "The Case of the Paper Bullets".

Richard Anderson in an episode of The Rifleman

He also appeared on The Untouchables, Stagecoach West, The Rifleman, Daniel Boone, Thriller, The Eleventh Hour, Redigo, Combat!, Twelve O'Clock High, I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive (as brother-in-law to the protagonist Dr. Richard Kimble), Bonanza, The Green Hornet, The Invaders, and The Big Valley. In 1961–62, Anderson co-starred with Marilyn Maxwell in an ABC production of Bus Stop. He guest-starred in the last episode of season 1 of Mission: Impossible (1966) as Judge Wilson Chase. 

Richard Anderson in an episode of The Fugitive

In 1965, he played Judge Lander, who clashes over courtroom fairness and frontier justice with a young woman, Kate Melville (Gloria Talbott), the daughter of a sheriff, Will Melville (Dick Foran), in the episode "Kate Melville and the Law" of the syndicated series, Death Valley Days.

Anderson first appeared as Oscar Goldman in episode 2 ("Wine, Women, and War") of The Six Million Dollar Man in 1974. He would portray the character through the series' end in 1978 as well as on the spinoff series The Bionic Woman for its entire run from 1976 to 1978. 

In addition, Anderson guest-starred on other TV series in the 1970s, including Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Ironside, Columbo and The Love Boat.

He appeared in the television movie, The Night Strangler as the villain, Dr. Richard Malcolm. Anderson was just as busy in the 1980s on Charlie's Angels, Matt Houston, Knight Rider, Remington Steele, Cover Up, The A-Team, The Fall Guy, Simon & Simon, and Murder, She Wrote. In 1985, he played murderer Ken Braddock in the first two-hour episode of Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr, titled "Perry Mason Returns". Anderson had a recurring role as Senator Buck Fallmont on Dynasty from 1986 to 1987. He portrayed President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1987 miniseries, Hoover vs. The Kennedys.

In the 1990s, he served as narrator and a recurring guest star for Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. He served also as a commercial spokesperson for the Shell Oil Company in the United States known as The Shell Answer Man. "The Shell Answer Man" appeared in commercials from 1976-82.

In 2007, Anderson was honored with a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

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Tony Figueroa