Richard Deacon (actor)

Deacon often portrayed pompous, prissy, and/or imperious figures in film and television. He made appearances on The Jack Benny Program as a salesman and a barber, and on NBC's Happy as a hotel manager. He made a brief appearance in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds (1963). He played a larger role in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) as a physician in the "book-end" sequences added to the beginning and end of the film after its original previews.

In Billy Wilder's 1957 film adaptation of Charles Lindbergh’s The Spirit of St. Louis, Deacon portrayed the chairman of the Columbia Aircraft Corporation, Charles A. Levine.{{cite book| title=The Spirit of St. Louis| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lIld6SrHeW4C&q=charles+levine| first=Charles| last=Lindbergh| pages=72–76| publisher=Simon and Schuster| location=New York| date=December 9, 2003| isbn= 978-0743237055| access-date=January 24, 2020}}

His best-known roles are milksop Mel Cooley (producer of The Alan Brady Show) on CBS's The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and Fred Rutherford on Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963), although Deacon played Mr. Baxter in the 1957 Beaver pilot episode "It's a Small World".{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} He co-starred as Tallulah Bankhead's butler in an episode of The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour called "The Celebrity Next Door". Deacon played Roger Buell on the second season of TV's The Mothers-in-Law (1967–1969), replacing Roger C. Carmel in the role. He played Principal "Jazzbo" Conroy in The Danny Thomas Show (1958). He also appeared in the 1960 Perry Mason episode The Case of the Red Riding Boots as Wilmer Beaslee.

In Carousel (1956), the film adaptation of the Rodgers & Hammerstein stage musical, Deacon had a bit role as the policeman who admonishes Julie and Mr. Bascombe about Billy Bigelow in the "bench scene". It was one of the few films in which he did not wear glasses, as were his roles in Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955), and the 1954 costumer Désirée, where he played Jean Simmons' elder brother, an 18th-century Marseilles silk merchant. Philadelphia native Deacon played the role of Morton Stearnes' butler, George Archibald, whose courtroom testimony is a turning point in The Young Philadelphians (1959), starring Paul Newman. He played an imbibing justice of the peace, Reverend Zaron, in the 1957 Budd Boetticher western Decision at Sundown.

Deacon appeared in some Westerns and many sitcoms, including It's a Great Life, The People's Choice, How to Marry a Millionaire, Guestward, Ho!, Pete and Gladys, The Donna Reed Show, Gunsmoke (he was the original actor to portray town banker, Mr. Botkin), The Real McCoys (in the episode "The Tax Man Cometh", he clashes with series star Walter Brennan over property tax assessments in the San Fernando Valley), Get Smart, Bonanza (a deceitful character who cheats the Cartwrights during their visit to San Francisco in the episode "San Francisco"), and The Rifleman (episode "The Hangman", in an uncredited role). In episode 5 of the first season of The Munsters, "Pike's Pique", he plays water district commissioner Mr. Pike, buying the underground rights to lay pipe. In The Addams Family, he administers Cousin Itt a battery of psychological tests in the episode "Cousin Itt and the Vocational Counselor". In 1966, he appeared on Phyllis Diller's short-lived television sitcom, The Pruitts of Southampton. He also guest starred in the NBC family drama National Velvet, and in the ABC/Warner Bros. crime drama Bourbon Street Beat, and played Mr. Whipple on The Twilight Zone in the 1964 episode "The Brain Center at Whipple's". In 1967, Deacon played Ralph Yarby, director of security for lumber baron D.J. Mulrooney, in Disney's The Gnome-Mobile. In 1968, he played Dean Wheaton in the Walt Disney film Blackbeard's Ghost. He was also an occasional panelist in the 1970s/early 1980s versions of Match Game. In 1970, he appeared in four episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies as a psychiatrist treating Granny.

In 1971, Deacon co-starred, along with Elaine Joyce, in the final episode of Green Acres, which was a backdoor pilot for a proposed sitcom titled "The Blonde" or "Carol". Joyce played Oliver's former "dizzy blonde" secretary, Carol Rush, who now lives in Los Angeles with her sister and brother-in-law. Deacon played her no-nonsense boss, Mr. Oglethorpe, whom Carol manages to save from a real estate scam. The pilot was not picked up.

In 1969, he co-starred on Broadway as Horace Vandergelder in the long-running musical Hello, Dolly!, reuniting him onstage with Diller, who played the title character.{{cite book| title=Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse: My Life in Comedy| last1=Diller| first1=Phyllis| last2=Buskin| first2=Richard| year=2005| publisher=The Penguin Group| location=New York| isbn=978-1585423965| page=[https://archive.org/details/likelampshadeinw00dill/page/211 211]|url=https://archive.org/details/likelampshadeinw00dill/page/211}}

Deacon appeared on the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour in 1983 as a game show participant / celebrity guest star.

In 1983, Deacon reprised his role of Fred Rutherford in the television movie Still the Beaver, a sequel to the original TV series. When the television movie spawned a series of the same name on The Disney Channel, he was to reprise the role but died weeks before the series began production.

In 1984, Deacon had a cameo role in the teen comedy film Bad Manners.

Although he was born in Philadelphia, he and his family later moved to Binghamton, New York, living on the west side of that city. He attended West Junior High and Binghamton Central High School, where fellow Binghamton resident Rod Serling was a classmate.{{Cite news|title=High School Friend on Serling's 'Twilight'|author=|date=April 14, 1964|work=Los Angeles Times|page=C11|quote=Two high school friends meet in their first professional association when Richard Deacon appears in his first non-comic portrayal and his first starring role in Rod Serling's drama, 'The Brain at Whipple's' on 'Twilight Zone' in May. Deacon and Serling attended the same school in Binghamton, N.Y.|id={{ProQuest|168543480}}}}{{Cite news|title=Deacon's teacher recalls 'stage-struck' boy|author=Handte, Jerry|date=August 10, 1984|work=The Binghamton Evening Press|page=9|quote=The 62-year-old Philadelphia native, who came to Binghamton as a boy, died of apparently natural causes, possibly after a heart attack, at his West Los Angeles home, a coroner's spokesman said. [...] He had visited his hometown last year, for the world premiere of the movie Twilight Zone, based on the hit television series created by the late Rod Serling, the TV writer from Binghamton. Deacon and Serling were classmates and friends at West Junior and the old Binghamton Central High School.|id={{ProQuest|2044421150}}}} After high school, he worked as an orderly at Binghamton General Hospital.{{Cite news|title=Binghamton's link to the Petries|author=Smith, Gerald R.|date=June 4, 2016|work=Press & Sun Bulletin|page=2A|quote=He was born in Philadelphia in 1921, but at the age of 10, his father, Joseph Deacon, obtained a job as a salesman for the Franklin Research Co. and moved the family to Binghamton. Richard and his brother Frederick Bruce Deacon grew up on the west side of the city of Binghamton at 121 Crary Ave. His home was only a few blocks from another famous Binghamtonian, Rod Serling, who lived on Bennett Avenue. Both boys would attend Binghamton High School. Richard was a few years ahead of Rod and would graduate in 1938. After high school, Richard wandered a bit looking for a new life. He got a job at Binghamton General Hospital working as an orderly because he thought he wanted to be a doctor. [...] World War II broke out, and because so many young working men joined the armed services, Richard tried to join the Navy. But they turned him down; instead, the recruiter sent him across the street to the Army because, as Richard said later, the Army would take anyone. [...] Richard served in the medical corps during the war. At one time, he was in charge of the laboratory services for a 5,000-bed hospital. After the war, Richard came back and attended Ithaca College to study medicine. It was at this time that he realized medicine was not his calling, and he tried acting.|id={{ProQuest|2059699400}}}}

During World War II, Deacon served in the United States Army medical corps. In 1946, upon completion of his service, he returned to Binghamton. He attended Ithaca College, first as a medical student, but later developed an interest in acting. In 1949, Deacon, along with several other male actors, was admitted to Bennington College as a student/assistant in the drama department.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/261106221/?clipping_id=130083445 "The Valuable Time of Maturity "Bennington College Seeking Site for Summer Theatre in Area; 10 or 12 Would Seek Triple Cities' Actors' Assistance; Directed at Ithaca; Five Are Assistants; Straw Hat for Triple Cities"]. Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin. April 12, 1949. p. 5. Retrieved August 15, 2023. "Mr. Deacon and the other four actors are assistants in the drama department and enrolled students at Bennington. [...] Robert Alvin, left, and Richard Deacon of Binghamton, a student at Bennington, discuss plans for establishing a summer theatre in Triple Cities area this year."

Deacon was a gourmet chef in addition to working as an actor. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote a series of cookbooks and hosted a Canadian television series on microwave oven cooking.

While not widely known during Deacon's lifetime, he was a charitable man. At his memorial service, a number of people previously unknown to Deacon's friends and colleagues spoke of how Deacon had provided for needy people and charitable organizations during his life.DVD Commentary with Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner on The Dick Van Dyke Show Season 1 episode "The Sleeping Brother", DVD.

According to academic writers David L. Smith and Sean Griffin, Deacon was gay, and was among "a number of actors and actresses who were closeted homosexuals" working in Hollywood and often employed in Disney films.{{cite book| last1=Webb| first1=Clifton |author-link2=David Smith (historian) |first2=David L.| last2=Smith| title=Sitting Pretty: The Life and Times of Clifton Webb| date=May 17, 2011| publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi| location=Jackson| isbn=978-1604739961| page=219| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JrzjNFnS6oAC&q=richard+deacon+gay&pg=PA219|access-date=3 April 2017}}{{cite book| last1=Griffin| first1=Sean |author-link=Sean Griffin| title=Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out| year=2000| publisher=NYU Press| location=New York| isbn=978-0814731239| page=[https://archive.org/details/tinkerbellesevil00grif_0/page/99 99]| url=https://archive.org/details/tinkerbellesevil00grif_0| url-access=registration| quote=richard deacon gay.| access-date=3 April 2017}}

Deacon died of cardiovascular disease on August 8, 1984, at age 62. His remains were cremated and the ashes scattered at sea.{{cite news |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/08/10/The-manager-and-friends-of-Richard-Deacon-the-character/7058460958400/ |title=The manager and friends of Richard Deacon, the character... |work=United Press International |access-date=July 12, 2019 |date=August 10, 1984}}

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• {{IMDb name|0212586|Richard Deacon}}
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Category:1922 births

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Category:American chefs

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Category:Actors from Binghamton, New York

Category:20th-century American male singers