Richard Deacon (actor)
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For the Sculpter Richard Deacon, see Richard Deacon
Richard Deacon (May 14, 1921 – August 8, 1984), born in Philadelphia, was an American television and motion picture actor.
He was a bald-pated and usually bespectacled character actor who often portrayed imperious authority figures. He made appearances on The Jack Benny Show as a salesperson. His best-known roles are Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Fred Rutherford on Leave It to Beaver and as Roger "Cutes" Buell on The Mothers-In-Law. He also appeared as a guest on the 1970s game show Match Game, and played Horace Vandergelder opposite Phyllis Diller's Dolly Gallagher Levi in a touring production of the musical Hello, Dolly!.
In real life, he was a gourmet chef. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote a series of cookbooks and hosted a television series on microwave cooking. He would stand behind a desk and say to customers "I'm standing behind here because in a moment of spontaneity, I sold my pants".
On August 8, 1984, Deacon died from cardiovascular disease at the age of 63.
Posthumously, he was included as a gay actor and his interview with Boze Hadleigh was published in Hadleigh's Hollywood Gays (ISBN# 1-56980-083-9/PN1995.9.H55H33), pp.67-76, although during his lifetime he made no particular secret of his sexual orientation.
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Categories: United States television biography stubs | American character actors | American film actors | American musical theatre actors | American television actors | Perry Mason cast members | Pennsylvania actors | People from Philadelphia | Deaths from cardiovascular disease | LGBT actors from the United States | 1921 births | 1984 deaths
