Richard A. Dysart

Richard Allen Dysart (March 30, 1929 – April 5, 2015) was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across five decades. Born near Boston, Massachusetts, to Alice (née Hennigar) and Douglas Dysart, a podiatrist, he was raised in Skowhegan and Augusta, Maine. He attended Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, and first performed in summer stock at the Lakewood Theater near Skowhegan, an experience encouraged by his mother. He also worked at a local radio station during his early years. Dysart later studied at Emerson College in Boston, where he earned a bachelor's degree in speech communication in 1956, though his undergraduate studies were interrupted by four years of service in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. At Emerson he performed on stage and served as student government vice-president, and he was a member of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity. He also studied at George Washington University, and returned to Emerson decades later to complete a master's degree in speech communication in 1981.

Dysart's professional career began in the theater. He was a founding member of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, which launched in 1965. That same year he made his Broadway debut in All in Good Time. He subsequently appeared in a Broadway revival of The Little Foxes (1967–1968), playing Horace Giddens alongside Anne Bancroft, and in A Place Without Doors (1970–1971). His Broadway work culminated in the original production of Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season, in which he played the role of Coach alongside Charles Durning and Paul Sorvino, running from 1972 to 1974. His performance earned him a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance in 1972.

In film, Dysart accumulated a substantial body of supporting work. His credits include The Hospital (1971), Being There (1979), in which he portrayed a physician treating a dying billionaire in a film starring Peter Sellers and Melvyn Douglas, The Thing (1982), directed by John Carpenter, Mask (1985), Pale Rider (1985), directed by Clint Eastwood, and Wall Street (1987). Additional film roles included parts in The Hindenburg, in which he played Ernst A. Lehmann, An Enemy of the People, Prophecy, and Day One, the latter alongside his L.A. Law co-star Michael Tucker. On television, he played Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in the 1980 film The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd and appeared in an episode of the 1976 series Sara. He also provided voices for animated productions, including Uncle Pom in the Disney English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky and the character Cogliostro on Todd McFarlane's Spawn: The Animated Series, which aired on HBO.

Dysart is perhaps most widely recognized for his role as senior partner Leland McKenzie on the television series L.A. Law, which ran from 1986 to 1994. He received four consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series between 1989 and 1992, winning the award in 1992.

Dysart was married three times, with his first two marriages ending in divorce. He and his third wife, artist Kathryn Jacobi, were married from 1987 until his death. He had no biological children but had a stepson and two step-grandchildren through his third marriage. Dysart died at his home in Santa Monica, California, on April 5, 2015, following a prolonged illness with cancer. He was 86 years old.