Dick Miller
Encyclopedia
Richard "Dick" Miller is an American character actor
who has appeared in over 100 films, particularly those produced by Roger Corman
, and later in films of directors who started their careers with Corman, including James Cameron
and Joe Dante
, with the distinction of appearing in every film made by Dante. Miller's main roles have been in films such as Gremlins
, Gremlins 2: The New Batch
, Piranha, The Howling
, Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors
and Small Soldiers
.
, New York
and attended the City College of New York
as well as Columbia University
. He performed on Broadway
and also worked at the Bellevue Hospital Mental Hygiene Clinic and the psychiatric department of Queens General Hospital. In 1952, he moved to California
seeking work as a writer.
His roles in movies include White Line Fever
, The Terminator
, All The Right Moves
, Night of the Creeps
, Small Soldiers
, It Conquered the World
, Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors
, the Tales from the Crypt movie Demon Knight
, Amazon Women on the Moon
, Chopping Mall
, The Howling
, Piranha and I Wanna Hold Your Hand
. His best known role was in the movies Gremlins
and Gremlins 2: The New Batch
as Murray Futterman. He appeared in Pulp Fiction
as Monster Joe, but his scene and a few others were deleted because of the length of the film.
His television
credits include V: The Final Battle as Dan Pascal, and appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation
in the season 1 episode "The Big Goodbye" as the newspaper stand man in the holodeck
, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
in the season 3 two-part episode "Past Tense
" as Vin, Time of Your Life
, and he voiced the gangster Chuckie Sol in the animated feature film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
. Miller has also directed television shows, including "The Fix" a 1986 episode of the series Miami Vice
.
In 2000, Miller was featured alongside former collaborators including Roger Corman
, Sam Arkoff and Peter Bogdanovich
in the documentary SCHLOCK! The Secret History of American Movies, a film about the rise and fall of American exploitation cinema.
s portrayed by Miller. As Miller notes, "I've played Walter Paisley five times now, I think."
As of 2011, the character name has actually appeared seven times on film, with Miller providing six of these portrayals:
The name first appeared in the Roger Corman
film A Bucket of Blood
. In that film, Paisley is a busboy who becomes an artist of sorts by killing his subjects and covering them in clay. In 1976, Miller once again played a character named Walter Paisley—this time a talent agent—in another Corman production, Hollywood Boulevard, directed by Allan Arkush
and Joe Dante
.
Dante cast Miller as another character named Walter Paisley in the 1981 film The Howling
. This time, Paisley is the owner of an occult
bookshop. Two years later, the name popped up again for another Miller character, the owner of a diner in the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie
. 1986's Chopping Mall
featured a janitor named Walter Paisley, and the 1994 made-for-TV remake of Shake, Rattle and Rock!
had Miller playing a character named Officer Paisley. In 1995, A Bucket of Blood
was remade, with Anthony Michael Hall
as Walter Paisley.
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
who has appeared in over 100 films, particularly those produced by Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
, and later in films of directors who started their careers with Corman, including James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
and Joe Dante
Joe Dante
Joseph "Joe" Dante, Jr. is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and science fiction content....
, with the distinction of appearing in every film made by Dante. Miller's main roles have been in films such as Gremlins
Gremlins
Gremlins is a 1984 American horror comedy film directed by Joe Dante, released by Warner Bros. The film is about a young man who receives a strange creature—called a Mogwai—as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who transform into small, destructive, evil monsters. It was followed by a sequel,...
, Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a 1990 American horror comedy film, and the sequel to Gremlins . It was directed by Joe Dante and written by Charles S. Haas, with creature designs by Rick Baker...
, Piranha, The Howling
The Howling (film)
The Howling is a 1981 werewolf-themed horror film directed by Joe Dante. Based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, the screenplay is written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless...
, Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on a 1932...
and Small Soldiers
Small Soldiers
Small Soldiers is a 1998 American action/science fiction film directed by Joe Dante starring Gregory Smith and Kirsten Dunst. The film revolves around two teenagers , who get caught in the middle of a war between two factions of sentient action figures, the Gorgonites and the Commando...
.
Life and career
Miller was born in The BronxThe Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and attended the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
as well as Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He performed on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and also worked at the Bellevue Hospital Mental Hygiene Clinic and the psychiatric department of Queens General Hospital. In 1952, he moved to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
seeking work as a writer.
His roles in movies include White Line Fever
White Line Fever (film)
White Line Fever is an American movie about truck drivers released in 1975 and starring Jan-Michael Vincent.-Backstory:Sam Hummer was a local truck driver from Tucson Arizona who worked for a Tucson-based produce-shipper called "Red River". His driving partners were Duane Haller and "Pops" Dinwiddie...
, The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
, All The Right Moves
All the Right Moves
All the Right Moves is a 1983 drama film directed by Michael Chapman and starring Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson, Chris Penn, and Gary Graham...
, Night of the Creeps
Night of the Creeps
Night of the Creeps is a 1986 zombie horror film written and directed by Fred Dekker, starring Tom Atkins, Jason Lively, Steve Marshall and Jill Whitlow. The film is notable as an earnest attempt at a B movie and a homage to the genre...
, Small Soldiers
Small Soldiers
Small Soldiers is a 1998 American action/science fiction film directed by Joe Dante starring Gregory Smith and Kirsten Dunst. The film revolves around two teenagers , who get caught in the middle of a war between two factions of sentient action figures, the Gorgonites and the Commando...
, It Conquered the World
It Conquered the World
It Conquered the World is a 1956 American science fiction film about an alien from Venus trying to take over the world with the help of a disillusioned human scientist. It was directed by Roger Corman, written by Lou Rusoff , and starred Peter Graves, Lee Van Cleef, Beverly Garland, and Sally...
, Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on a 1932...
, the Tales from the Crypt movie Demon Knight
Demon Knight
Demon Knight is a 1995 American horror film directed by Ernest Dickerson, starring Billy Zane, William Sadler, and Jada Pinkett Smith...
, Amazon Women on the Moon
Amazon Women on the Moon
Amazon Women on the Moon is a 1987 American satirical comedy film that parodies the experience of watching low-budget movies on late-night television...
, Chopping Mall
Chopping Mall
Chopping Mall is an American horror/science fiction film, produced by Julie Corman and originally released on March 21, 1986 under the title Killbots....
, The Howling
The Howling (film)
The Howling is a 1981 werewolf-themed horror film directed by Joe Dante. Based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, the screenplay is written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless...
, Piranha and I Wanna Hold Your Hand
I Wanna Hold Your Hand (film)
I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a comedy film directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis, which takes its name from the 1963 song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles. It was produced and co-written by Bob Gale. The film is about "Beatlemania" and is a fictionalized account of the day of the...
. His best known role was in the movies Gremlins
Gremlins
Gremlins is a 1984 American horror comedy film directed by Joe Dante, released by Warner Bros. The film is about a young man who receives a strange creature—called a Mogwai—as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who transform into small, destructive, evil monsters. It was followed by a sequel,...
and Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a 1990 American horror comedy film, and the sequel to Gremlins . It was directed by Joe Dante and written by Charles S. Haas, with creature designs by Rick Baker...
as Murray Futterman. He appeared in Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
as Monster Joe, but his scene and a few others were deleted because of the length of the film.
His television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
credits include V: The Final Battle as Dan Pascal, and appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
in the season 1 episode "The Big Goodbye" as the newspaper stand man in the holodeck
Holodeck
A holodeck, in the fictional Star Trek universe, is a simulated reality facility located on starships and starbases. The first use of a "holodeck" by that name in the Star Trek universe was in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint", although a conceptually...
, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
in the season 3 two-part episode "Past Tense
Past Tense (DS9 episode)
"Past Tense" is a two-part episode from the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The crew of the Defiant is thrown back in time to 2024 on Earth. The United States of America has attempted to solve the problem of homelessness by erecting "Sanctuary Districts" where unemployed and/or...
" as Vin, Time of Your Life
Time of Your Life (TV series)
Time of Your Life is an American drama series starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. The series is a spin-off of Party of Five, and features the character Sarah Reeves Merrin whom Hewitt portrayed on Party of Five.-Plot:...
, and he voiced the gangster Chuckie Sol in the animated feature film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is a 1993 animated superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, and is a spin-off of the Emmy Award-winning Batman: The Animated Series...
. Miller has also directed television shows, including "The Fix" a 1986 episode of the series Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
.
In 2000, Miller was featured alongside former collaborators including Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
, Sam Arkoff and Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
in the documentary SCHLOCK! The Secret History of American Movies, a film about the rise and fall of American exploitation cinema.
Walter Paisley
Walter Paisley is the name of several fictional characterFictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
s portrayed by Miller. As Miller notes, "I've played Walter Paisley five times now, I think."
As of 2011, the character name has actually appeared seven times on film, with Miller providing six of these portrayals:
The name first appeared in the Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
film A Bucket of Blood
A Bucket of Blood
A Bucket of Blood is a 1959 American comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in beatnik culture. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days, and shares many of the low-budget filmmaking aesthetics commonly associated with Corman's work....
. In that film, Paisley is a busboy who becomes an artist of sorts by killing his subjects and covering them in clay. In 1976, Miller once again played a character named Walter Paisley—this time a talent agent—in another Corman production, Hollywood Boulevard, directed by Allan Arkush
Allan Arkush
Allan Arkush is an American cult film and television director and frequent collaborator of Joe Dante....
and Joe Dante
Joe Dante
Joseph "Joe" Dante, Jr. is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and science fiction content....
.
Dante cast Miller as another character named Walter Paisley in the 1981 film The Howling
The Howling (film)
The Howling is a 1981 werewolf-themed horror film directed by Joe Dante. Based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, the screenplay is written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless...
. This time, Paisley is the owner of an occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
bookshop. Two years later, the name popped up again for another Miller character, the owner of a diner in the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Twilight Zone: The Movie is a 1983 science fiction horror film produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis as a theatrical version of The Twilight Zone, a 1959 and '60s TV series created by Rod Serling. Those starring in the film are: Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Vic Morrow, Scatman Crothers,...
. 1986's Chopping Mall
Chopping Mall
Chopping Mall is an American horror/science fiction film, produced by Julie Corman and originally released on March 21, 1986 under the title Killbots....
featured a janitor named Walter Paisley, and the 1994 made-for-TV remake of Shake, Rattle and Rock!
Shake, Rattle and Rock!
Shake Rattle and Rock! is a 1994 television movie starring Renée Zellweger, Howie Mandel and members of the Grammy-nominated R&B band For Real. The film was produced by Lou Arkoff Shake Rattle and Rock! is a 1994 television movie starring Renée Zellweger, Howie Mandel and members of the...
had Miller playing a character named Officer Paisley. In 1995, A Bucket of Blood
A Bucket of Blood (1995 film)
A Bucket of Blood is a 1995 American black comedy film. It was directed by Michael James McDonald, and starred Anthony Michael Hall. It is a remake of A Bucket of Blood, the 1959 cult film directed by Roger Corman, who produced the remake. Both films tell the story of a nerdy busboy who turns to...
was remade, with Anthony Michael Hall
Anthony Michael Hall
Michael Anthony Hall , known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor, film producer and director who starred in several teen-oriented films of the 1980s. Hall began his career in commercials and on stage as a child, and made his screen debut in 1980...
as Walter Paisley.
External links
- Biography on (re)Search my Trash