Richard Anderson

Richard Anderson
in I Love Melvin (1953)
Born	Richard Norman Anderson August 8, 1926 (1926-08-08) (age 83) Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1947–present

Richard Norman Anderson (born August 8, 1926) is an American actor in film and television.

Life and career

Anderson was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, the son of Olga (née Lurie) and Harry Anderson.^[1] He is probably best known for his role as Lee Majors's and Lindsay Wagner's boss, Oscar Goldman, in both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman TV series and their three subsequent TV movies.

On the big screen, his many films included the science-fiction classic Forbidden Planet and the gripping World War I drama Paths of Glory directed by Stanley Kubrick, in which Anderson played the prosecuting attorney. He was the object of the unrequited love of Clara Varner (Joanne Woodward) in 1958's The Long, Hot Summer and a suspicious military officer in the 1964 drama Seven Days in May.

The 1960s found Anderson making appearances in Perry Mason (in 22 episodes as police lieutenant Steve Drumm, replacing the character of Lt. Tragg), The Untouchables, The Rifleman, Death Valley Days, The Eleventh Hour, I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, Bonanza, The Invaders, and The Big Valley, among others. In 1961-1962, Anderson co-starred with Marilyn Maxwell in an ABC production of Bus Stop, a drama about travelers passing through a bus depot and diner in the fictitious town of Sunrise, Colorado.

In addition to his appearances on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman in the 1970s, Anderson also guest starred on Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, Ironside, Columbo and The Love Boat. Anderson was just as busy in the 1980s on Charlie's Angels, Knight Rider, Remington Steele, Cover Up, The A-Team, The Fall Guy, Simon & Simon, and Murder, She Wrote. Anderson also had a recurring role as Senator Buck Fallmont on Dynasty from 1986-1987.

In the 1990s, Anderson served as narrator of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. He also served as a commercial spokesperson for the Shell Oil Company in the United States known as the "The Shell Answer Man". Created by the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, "The Shell Answer Man" appeared in commercials from 1976 to 1982.

Filmography

• Go for Broke! as a Debarkation officer who has difficulty with Japanese names
• Scaramouche as Philippe de Valmorin
• Paths of Glory as a French military prosecutor in World War I
• A Gathering of Eagles as Colonel Josten
• Seconds as a conspiratorial plastic surgeon
• Tora! Tora! Tora! as a Naval captain who ignores first warnings of Japanese activity at Pearl Harbor
• Forbidden Planet as Engineering Officer Quinn
• Gettysburg as General George G. Meade
• Hit the Deck as Marco Javier, aide to Rear Admiral Smith (Walter Pidgeon)
• The Long, Hot Summer (1958) as Allen Stewart, love interest of Clara Varner

In 1979, he starred, with Hal Holbrook, Katharine Ross, and Barry Bostwick in the TV movie "Murder by Natural Causes".

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Richard Anderson

• Richard Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Anderson at Allmovie