Career Highlights: The Ride to Hangman's Tree, The Glass Shield, Holiday for Sinners
First Major Screen Credit: No Questions Asked (1951)
Biography
Following his screen debut in 1949's Twelve O'Clock High, Richard Anderson was groomed for stardom at MGM. His stature in Hollywood seemed assured when he married the daughter of former MGM luminary Norma Shearer. But Anderson was -- by his own admission -- a less-than-noble figure in his younger days, losing both prestige and several plum film roles through his arrogance, his explosive temper, and his after-hours carousing. A kinder, mellower Richard Anderson resurfaced on television in the 1970s, gaining a modest but loyal fan following thanks to his weekly appearances as Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man. Anderson also played Goldman on the spin-off series The Bionic Woman -- the result being that, for several years in the mid-1970s, he was simultaneously co-starring on two different TV series in the same role. Richard Anderson's additional TV-series stints included Mama Rosa (1950), Bus Stop (1961), Dan August (1970), Cover-Up (1984) and Dynasty (1986-87 season). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Anderson may also be remembered 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.