Richard Eastham

Richard Eastham, born Dickinson Swift Eastham on June 22, 1916, in Opelousas, Louisiana, was an American actor, concert singer, and inventor whose career spanned stage, film, and television. His birth name honored Helen Dickinson Swift, a college classmate of his mother. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest K. Eastham, he attended Soldan High School, where he met Betty Jean Van Allen, whom he later married. Before his military service in the Army during World War II, Eastham studied at Washington University in St. Louis and sang with the St. Louis Grand Opera, developing the deep baritone voice that would define his professional identity.

Eastham's Broadway career ran from 1947 to 1952 and included appearances in Medea, Call Me Madam, and South Pacific. In South Pacific, he served as understudy to Ezio Pinza in the role of Emile DeBecque and eventually stepped into the part on stage. The reception to his performance led to his being named the male lead for a two-year national tour of the production. In 1965, Eastham and co-star Janet Blair reprised their original roles in a separate tour of South Pacific.

Beyond the stage, Eastham maintained a career in television, including a 1981 appearance as Wesley Northridge in the episode "The Lumberjack" on The Waltons. His work in The Sound of Music prompted him to develop a practical invention: a mechanical device called the Sidewinder, which attaches to a guitar's tuning gears to assist with restringing. Within the first three weeks of its public release, 31,000 units were sold.

Eastham died on July 10, 2005, of Alzheimer's disease at an assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades. Following a private funeral service held by his nieces and nephews at Angeleno Valley Mortuary, he was cremated, and his ashes were entombed in a columbarium at Oak Grove Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.