Paul Richards (actor)
Encyclopedia
Paul Richards was a Jewish American
actor who appeared in films and on television in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s until his death from cancer
at the age of fifty. He married actress Monica Keating (July 20, 1924 -September 10, 1985) in 1953.
Richards guest-starred in a number of classic television western series, including Gunsmoke
and Bonanza
. In fact, one of Richards' most memorable appearances came in the very first Gunsmoke episode, entitled "Matt Gets It," broadcast on September 10, 1955, where Richards portrays the first antagonist to outdraw and nearly kill Marshall Dillon. He made additional guest appearances in 1956, 1958, and 1968, respectively.
Richards guest starred three times in 1956 on the NBC
western
anthology series Frontier
, having portrayed Louis Rose in "The Texicans", John Webb in "The Big Dry", and Will Shaw in "The Salt War". He guest starred in Brian Keith
's first series, Crusader
, a Cold War
drama. Richards appeared twice on the ABC
and later syndicated
western
series Tombstone Territory
, starring Pat Conway
and Richard Eastham
, in the episodes "Thicker than Water" (1958) and "The Noose That Broke" (1959).
He also guest starred in the syndicated The Silent Service
, a drama based on true stories of the submarine
section of the United States Navy
. He appeared on two other syndicated crime dramas, Sheriff of Cochise
, starring John Bromfield
, and The Brothers Brannagan
, with Stephen Dunne
and Mark Roberts
.
In 1959, he appeared in a five-part episode entitled "Louie K" in the role of Louis "Louie" Kassoff in NBC
's 1920s crime drama The Lawless Years
with James Gregory
. Over the years, Richards guest starred in many television series, including NBC's Dan Raven
, a crime drama starring Skip Homeier
, and CBS's anthology series The Lloyd Bridges Show
as "Doc" in the 1962 episode, "Testing Ground".
He starred as Dr. McKinley Thompson in the 1963-1964 medical drama
Breaking Point, set in a hospital
psychiatric
ward. His co-star was Eduard Franz
. Breaking Point aired the same year as the second season of NBC's related series, The Eleventh Hour
starring Jack Ging
and Ralph Bellamy
. He appeared with Roy Thinnes
in the 1964 episode "Murder by Scandal" of the CBS drama The Reporter
starring Harry Guardino
. He appeared in a 1964 episode of The Fugitive
entitled A.P.B. as an escaped convict opposite David Janssen
's Dr. Richard Kimble. Richards' portrayal of an amoral killer with a refined intellect was an especially compelling performance in that popular drama's legendary run.
He appeared as the mutant leader Mendez in the film Beneath the Planet of the Apes
. His guest appearances included Walt Disney
's Zorro as Hernando.
Richards was entombed in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
near Moe Howard
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor who appeared in films and on television in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s until his death from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
at the age of fifty. He married actress Monica Keating (July 20, 1924 -September 10, 1985) in 1953.
Richards guest-starred in a number of classic television western series, including Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
and Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
. In fact, one of Richards' most memorable appearances came in the very first Gunsmoke episode, entitled "Matt Gets It," broadcast on September 10, 1955, where Richards portrays the first antagonist to outdraw and nearly kill Marshall Dillon. He made additional guest appearances in 1956, 1958, and 1968, respectively.
Richards guest starred three times in 1956 on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
anthology series Frontier
Frontier (1955 TV series)
This program should not be confused with Frontiers , the British program Frontier , Frontier Justice , Frontier Circus, or Frontier Doctor....
, having portrayed Louis Rose in "The Texicans", John Webb in "The Big Dry", and Will Shaw in "The Salt War". He guest starred in Brian Keith
Brian Keith
Brian Keith was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his four decade-long career gained recognition for his work in movies such as the 1961 Disney family film The Parent Trap, the 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and the 1975 adventure saga The Wind and...
's first series, Crusader
Crusader (TV series)
Crusader is a half-hour black-and-white American adventure/drama series that aired on CBS for two seasons from October 7, 1955 to December 28, 1956.-Synopsis:...
, a Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
drama. Richards appeared twice on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and later syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series Tombstone Territory
Tombstone Territory
Tombstone Territory is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959...
, starring Pat Conway
Pat Conway
Patrick Douglas Conway, known as Pat Conway , was an American actor best known for his role as young but tough Sheriff Clay Hollister on the ABC and then syndicated western television series Tombstone Territory . He was a maternal grandson of silent film star Francis X...
and Richard Eastham
Richard Eastham
Richard Eastham, born as Dickinson Swift Eastham , was an American actor of stage, film, and television and a concert singer known for his deep baritone voice.-Tombstone Territory:...
, in the episodes "Thicker than Water" (1958) and "The Noose That Broke" (1959).
He also guest starred in the syndicated The Silent Service
The Silent Service (TV series)
The Silent Service was a 1957–1958 syndicated anthology television series based on actual events in the submarine section of the United States Navy. The Silent Service was narrated by Rear Admiral Thomas M. Dykers, who retired from the Navy in 1949 after twenty-two years of service...
, a drama based on true stories of the submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
section of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. He appeared on two other syndicated crime dramas, Sheriff of Cochise
Sheriff of Cochise
Sheriff of Cochise , renamed U.S. Marshal , is a 58-episode syndicated western-themed crime drama set in Arizona and starring John Bromfield as law enforcement officer Frank Morgan. In the first two seasons, Morgan was sheriff of Cochise County...
, starring John Bromfield
John Bromfield
John Bromfield was an American film and television actor.Bromfield was born in South Bend, Indiana. He played football and was a boxing champion in college. He served in the United States Navy. In 1948, he twice harpooned a whale in the documentary film Harpoon...
, and The Brothers Brannagan
The Brothers Brannagan
The Brothers Brannagan is an American crime drama television series that aired in syndication from September 24, 1960, and July 15, 1961.-Synopsis:...
, with Stephen Dunne
Stephen Dunne
Stephen Dunne was an American actor.He was active on television and in films from 1945 to 1973 and was also credited as Steve Dunn, Michael Dunne, Stephan Dunne, and Steve Dunne.He also had roles on radio at several times, including as the voice of private eye...
and Mark Roberts
Mark Roberts (actor)
Mark Roberts was an American stage, film and television support actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1938 and 1994, according to the Internet Movie Database. Sometimes he was credited as Bob Scott, Robert E. Scott, or Robert Scott...
.
In 1959, he appeared in a five-part episode entitled "Louie K" in the role of Louis "Louie" Kassoff in NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's 1920s crime drama The Lawless Years
The Lawless Years
The Lawless Years is the first television crime drama set during the Roaring 20s, having predated ABC's far more successful The Untouchables with Robert Stack by six months. The 47-episode half-hour series aired nonconsecutively on NBC from April 16 to August 27, 1959, from October 1, 1959, to...
with James Gregory
James Gregory (actor)
James Gregory was an American character actor noted for his deep, gravelly voice and playing brash roles such as McCarthy-like Senator John Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate , the audacious General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and loudmouthed Inspector Luger in Barney Miller...
. Over the years, Richards guest starred in many television series, including NBC's Dan Raven
Dan Raven
Dan Raven is a crime drama starring Skip Homeier , a former child actor in films, which aired on NBC between January 23, 1960, and January 6, 1961. The setting of the series is the famous Sunset Strip of West Hollywood, California...
, a crime drama starring Skip Homeier
Skip Homeier
-Career:Homeier began acting as Skippy Homeier at the age of six, on the radio show Portia Faces Life. From 1943 until 1944 he played the role of Emil in the Broadway play, Tomorrow the World. Cast as a child indoctrinated into Nazism, who is brought to the United States from Germany following the...
, and CBS's anthology series The Lloyd Bridges Show
The Lloyd Bridges Show
The Lloyd Bridges Show is an American anthology drama series produced by Aaron Spelling, which aired on CBS from September 11, 1962 to May 28, 1963, starring and hosted by Lloyd Bridges.-Synopsis:...
as "Doc" in the 1962 episode, "Testing Ground".
He starred as Dr. McKinley Thompson in the 1963-1964 medical drama
Medical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
Breaking Point, set in a hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
psychiatric
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
ward. His co-star was Eduard Franz
Eduard Franz
Eduard Franz , born Eduard Franz Schmidt, was an American actor of theater, film, and television. Franz portrayed King Ahab in the 1953 biblical low-budget film Sins of Jezebel, Jethro in Cecil B...
. Breaking Point aired the same year as the second season of NBC's related series, The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...
starring Jack Ging
Jack Ging
Jack Lee Ging is an American actor best known for his role as General Harlan 'Bull' Fullbright in the NBC television series The A-Team.-Early life:...
and Ralph Bellamy
Ralph Bellamy
Ralph Bellamy was an American actor whose career spanned sixty-two years.-Early life:He was born Ralph Rexford Bellamy in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise , a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy. He ran away from home when he was fifteen and managed to get into a road show...
. He appeared with Roy Thinnes
Roy Thinnes
Roy Thinnes is an American television and film actor best known for his portrayal of lonely hero David Vincent in the ABC 1967-68 television series The Invaders. He also played Alfred Wentworth in the pilot episode of Law & Order...
in the 1964 episode "Murder by Scandal" of the CBS drama The Reporter
The Reporter (TV series)
The Reporter is an American drama series that aired on CBS from September 25 to December 18, 1964. The series was created by Jerome Weidman and developed by executive producers Keefe Brasselle and John Simon.-Synopsis:...
starring Harry Guardino
Harry Guardino
Harry Guardino was an American actor whose career spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. In 1964, he was cast in a short-lived CBS series entitled The Reporter, a drama about a hard-hitting investigative journalist named Danny Taylor. His principal co-star was Gary Merrill as city...
. He appeared in a 1964 episode of The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
entitled A.P.B. as an escaped convict opposite David Janssen
David Janssen
David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...
's Dr. Richard Kimble. Richards' portrayal of an amoral killer with a refined intellect was an especially compelling performance in that popular drama's legendary run.
He appeared as the mutant leader Mendez in the film Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Beneath the Planet of the Apes is a 1970 American science fiction film directed by Ted Post and written by Paul Dehn. It is the second of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs...
. His guest appearances included Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's Zorro as Hernando.
Richards was entombed in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
The Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary is a Jewish cemetery located at 6001 West Centinela Avenue, in Culver City, California, USA. Many Jewish people from the entertainment industry are buried here.-Notable interments:*Irving Aaronson, composer...
near Moe Howard
Moe Howard
Moses Harry Horwitz , known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades...
.