William Earle Richmond (December 19, 1921 – June 4, 2016) was an American film and television comedy writer and producer, as well as a musician, actor and composer. He co-wrote the screenplays to numerous popular films that starred
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...
The Ladies Man
''The Ladies Man'' is a 1961 American comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was released on June 28, 1961, by Paramount Pictures.
Plot
Herbert H. Heebert is a young man who loses his girlfriend, swears off romance, and then tak ...
''. He also made cameo appearances in some of Lewis' films as well, such as a piano player in '' The Patsy''. Later in his career, he wrote and/or produced for numerous television shows, including ''
Laugh-in
''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (often simply referred to as ''Laugh-In'') is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for six seasons from January 22, 1968, to July 23, 1973, on the NBC television network. The show, hosted by come ...
'', ''
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology series, anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 onwa ...
'', ''
The Carol Burnett Show
''The Carol Burnett Show'' is an American variety/sketch comedy television show that originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in fall 1991. It starred Carol Burnett, Harv ...
'', ''
I Dream of Jeannie
''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy sitcom television series created by Sidney Sheldon and starring Barbara Eden as a beautiful but guileless 2,000-year-old Jinn, genie and Larry Hagman as an astronaut with whom s ...
Three's Company
''Three's Company'' is an American television sitcom that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. Developed by Don Nicholl, Michael Ross and Bernie West, it is based on the British sitcom '' Man About the ...
All in the Family
''All in the Family'' is an American sitcoms in the United States, sitcom television series that aired on CBS for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, with a total of 205 episodes. It was later produced as ''Archie Bunker's Pla ...
'', ''
Blossom
In botany, blossoms are the flowers of stone fruit trees (genus ''Prunus'') and of some other plants with a similar appearance that flower profusely for a period of time in spring.
Colloquially, flowers of orange are referred to as such as w ...
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
s for his writing work (shared) on ''The Carol Burnett Show'' for the years 1974, 1975 and 1978.
Life and career
Born in
Kentucky
Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
, Richmond grew up in
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, Winnebago and Ogle County, Illinois, Ogle counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located in far northern Illinois on the banks of the Rock River (Mississippi River tributary), Rock River, Rockfor ...
. Following military service as a Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War II, Bill decided to pursue his dream of being a jazz musician by moving to Los Angeles. He became a journeyman drummer, working through the latter 1940s and the 1950s for the likes of
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
,
Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...
,
Harry James
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band to great commercial success from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947, but ...
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many vocalists at Capitol Records, including ...
. By the late 1950s, tiring of the grind, Richmond was looking to retire from music and try something new. It was at this point that Jerry Lewis asked him to join his band; Bill wasn't eager to take on another long-term drumming gig, but he realized that this could be a golden opportunity to try his hand at comedy writing. Already well known backstage for his wit, Richmond began pitching gag ideas to Lewis, who quickly moved him out from behind the drum kit and into the writers' room.
His first project for Lewis was ''The Ladies Man'', and his co-screenwriter was
Mel Brooks
Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodie ...
. However, Brooks and Lewis soon had a clash of temperament and Brooks quit the film, leaving Richmond to collaborate alone with Jerry on the screenplay. He worked with Lewis on several more films in the Sixties, along with writing for two of Jerry's network television series. The pair reunited to co-script '' Cracking Up'' in 1983.
Richmond has appeared in small roles as an actor in several films and television shows, most notably a silent role as "
Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel ( ; born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, director and writer who was in the comedy double act, duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 sh ...
" in '' The Bellboy'', a part which he reprised in a short filmed message which Jerry privately made for the real Laurel that year.
Death
Richmond died on June 4, 2016, in
Calabasas, California
Calabasas (, ; Spanish language in California, Spanish for "winter squash, squashes") is a city in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States.