Addison Richards

Addison Whittaker Richards, Jr. (October 20, 1902 – March 22, 1964) was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television. Born in Zanesville, Ohio, he was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Addison Richards, and his grandfather served as mayor of Zanesville. Following his father's death, the family relocated to California. Richards earned a bachelor of arts degree from Washington State College before pursuing a career in performance.

Richards began his professional stage work in 1931 when he joined the Pasadena Playhouse as both an actor and associate director. He made his entry into motion pictures in 1933, and the following year Warner Bros. signed him to a nonexclusive five-year contract. His bearing and businesslike presence established him as a character actor specializing in figures of authority, including doctors, attorneys, judges, military officers, executives, legislators, and prison wardens. He appeared so frequently in Warner Bros. productions that he was included in the studio's annual blooper reels of the late 1930s, among them the Breakdowns of 1937. While under contract at Warners, Richards also accepted roles at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, Republic Pictures, and Monogram Pictures. Over the course of his career he appeared in more than 300 films between 1933 and his death in 1964.

Among his notable film appearances were the James Cagney vehicle G Men, the Andy Hardy series in which he played the father of neighbor Polly Benedict, and the Mae West and W. C. Fields collaboration My Little Chickadee. He appeared in the Charlie Chan mysteries Charlie Chan in Panama and The Shanghai Cobra, the Laurel and Hardy feature A-Haunting We Will Go, and the Charlie Chaplin production Monsieur Verdoux. In the western Badlands of Dakota, Richards portrayed George Armstrong Custer. He also appeared in the Bowery Boys comedy High Society. In 1956, he took the role of Doc Jennings in The Fastest Gun Alive alongside Glenn Ford, and played the marshal in The Broken Star that same year.

Richards's Broadway credits came in 1952, when he appeared in First Lady and One Bright Day. He returned to the stage a decade later for the summer of 1962, joining the summer stock company at Denver's Elitch Theatre, where he appeared in productions of Auntie Mame and The Best Man.

As film work gave way to the expanding television industry, Richards became a prolific presence on the small screen, eventually limiting his motion picture appearances to one or two features annually. He appeared in six episodes of NBC's anthology series The Loretta Young Show between 1955 and 1961, playing different roles across those appearances. On the syndicated crime drama Sheriff of Cochise, starring John Bromfield, he was a recurring presence. He played the role of Evanson in the 1957 episode "Venus of Park Avenue" on the CBS crime drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective, and was cast as Warden Johnson in the Colt .45 episode "Dead Reckoning" in 1958.

Richards was a frequent presence in the television western genre. In 1957, on Dale Robertson's NBC series Tales of Wells Fargo, he portrayed Governor Lew Wallace in the episode "Billy the Kid," the first of three appearances on that program. He played Doc Jay Calhoun in seven episodes of the CBS series Trackdown from 1958 to 1959, and appeared in both The Texan, starring Rory Calhoun, and two episodes of Cimarron City in 1959. From 1960 to 1961, he recurred as Doc Landy in eight episodes of The Deputy, which starred Henry Fonda and Allen Case. He also appeared in The Tall Man and Rawhide in 1961.

In situation comedy, Richards held the recurring role of J. B. Barker in nine episodes of Jackie Cooper's NBC sitcom The People's Choice from 1957 to 1958. When NBC brought its Fibber McGee and Molly radio property to television in 1959, Richards was cast as Doc Gamble, Fibber's foil. He appeared in a 1960 episode of Dennis the Menace, in two episodes of The Real McCoys, and as Dr. Butler on The Donna Reed Show in 1959. During 1963 and 1964, he appeared on four CBS sitcoms: Pete and Gladys, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis starring Dwayne Hickman, Petticoat Junction, and twice on The Beverly Hillbillies with Buddy Ebsen. His final television role was Colonel Saunders in the 1964 episode "The Permanent Recruit" of ABC's No Time for Sergeants.

Richards met Vivian Eccles in late 1929 and married her approximately a year later; the couple had one child, a daughter named Ann. He died of a heart attack on March 22, 1964. Services were held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, as reported in the March 26, 1964 issue of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and he was interred at Oak Park Cemetery in Claremont, California.