Richard Derr

Richard Derr (June 15, 1917 – May 8, 1992) was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television over several decades. Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Norristown High School in 1933. While employed as a bank clerk, he began performing with a local little theater group in Norristown. He later served three years in the Army Transport Service during World War II. Following his career in acting, Derr held a license as a real estate broker and worked as an associate of the Beverly Hills Realty Company, maintaining membership on the Beverly Hills Realty Board.

Derr's Broadway career extended from 1949 to 1960, and he became a life member of the Actors Studio. His stage work began with two productions in 1949, A Phoenix Too Frequent and The Closing Door, the latter earning him a Theatre World Award that year. He subsequently appeared in The Traitor, Freight, and Invitation to a Murder. In 1952 he took on a role in Dial M for Murder, and in 1955 he sang the lead role in the Broadway musical Plain and Fancy. His later Broadway credits included Maybe Tuesday in 1957 and Invitation to a March in 1960.

In film, Derr worked primarily as a character actor, though he secured two leading roles that brought him wider recognition. He starred as David Randall in George Pal's 1951 Paramount science fiction film When Worlds Collide, and later played Lamont Cranston in The Invisible Avenger (1958), a film based on the pulp magazine and radio character The Shadow. That character also formed the basis for two television pilot episodes, neither of which was developed into a series. His film appearances ranged from early 1940s productions including Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) and Joan of Arc (1948) to later work in films such as The Drowning Pool (1975) and Firefox (1982).

Television occupied much of Derr's professional life during the 1950s. On November 21, 1950, he appeared in "The Perfect Type" on Armstrong Circle Theatre. In 1959, he served as host of Fanfare, a summer dramatic anthology series broadcast on NBC-TV. He later played Dr. Dwyer in the three-part Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color serial "The Adventures of Gallegher" in 1965, and made appearances on Barnaby Jones, in two episodes of Star Trek, and in the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man Book II.

Derr died of pancreatic cancer in Santa Monica, California, on May 8, 1992, at the age of 75.