Remembering Richard Anderson

So I noticed perusing the obituaries that actor Richard Anderson died yesterday at the age of 91. He's one of those actors whom I should probably know better than I do, if only because of how much he was in.

First of all, Richard Anderson was not MacGyver. That's a different actor, Richard Dean Anderson. The Richard Anderson who died yesterday started his movie career around 1950, with bit parts in movies like Cause for Alarm! Isn't that the movie where Loretta Young mails a letter and then tries to get it back? Looking it up, that's precisely the one. Of course, Anderson only had one small scene in that movie as a sailor, and I haven't seen the movie in a while.

Then there are more prominent movies like Forbidden Planet where he plays Chief Quinn. Which character is that? Obviously I remember Leslie Nielsen from the crew, and I also remember Earl Holliman as the cook since I'm a game show fan and GSN has run quite a few of his Pyramid appearances. (Holliman is apparently still alive and will be turning 89 this month. Then there's the role as Natalie Wood's boyfriend in A Cry in the Dark. Ah, that one I remember; he's the one who gets beaten by Raymond Burr, who gets the memorable part as the heavy with a mother fixation. Anderson was in Paths of Glory? Apparently he was. Ditto Seven Days in May.

To be fair, it's probably the TV work for which Anderson will be remembered, since he was the government boss to both Steve Austin and Jamie Summers on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman respectively.

Anderson was also in half a dozen episodes of The Rifleman, so maybe MeTV will air a couple of those over the weekend.