Richard Derr (June 15, 1917 – May 8, 1992) was an American actor who worked on stage, screen, and television, performing in both starring and supporting roles.

Early years

Born in

Norristown, Pennsylvania Norristown is a municipality with home rule status and the county seat of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States, in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Located along the Schuylkill River, approximately from the Philadelphia city limi ...

, Derr graduated from Norristown High School in 1933. While he worked as a bank clerk, he acted with a little theater group in Norristown.

Stage

A life member of The Actors Studio, Derr landed the majority of his leading roles on stage. In 1955, he sang in the lead role in the Broadway musical ''

Plain and Fancy ''Plain and Fancy'' is a musical comedy with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, lyrics by Arnold Horwitt, and music by Albert Hague. One of the first depictions of an Amish community in American pop culture, it includes a traditional bar ...

''. His other Broadway credits include ''

Dial M for Murder ''Dial M for Murder'' is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it wa ...

'' (1952), ''Invitation to a March'' (1960), ''Maybe Tuesday'' (1957), ''A Phoenix Too Frequent'' (1949), and ''The Closing Door'' (1949).

Film

On the silver screen, Derr was primarily a character actor. He had a starring role in

George Pal George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak; ; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen afte ...

's 1951 science fiction film from

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, '' When Worlds Collide''. Derr later starred in the ''Invisible Avenger'' (1958), a film based on the radio show and pulp magazine character ''

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

''. The character also served as the basis for two television pilot episodes, neither of which was developed into a series.

Television

In the 1950s, most of Derr's work was done on television. On November 21, 1950, he co-starred in "The Perfect Type" on ''

Armstrong Circle Theatre ''Armstrong Circle Theatre'' is an American anthology drama television series which ran from June 6, 1950, to June 25, 1957, on NBC, and from October 2, 1957, to August 28, 1963, on CBS. It alternated weekly with '' The U.S. Steel Hour''. It f ...

''. In 1959, he was the host of ''Fanfare'', a summer dramatic anthology series on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

-TV. In 1965, he played the role of Dr. Dwyer in the three-part serial, "The Adventures of Gallegher," on '' Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color'', and later made appearances in ''

Barnaby Jones ''Barnaby Jones'' is an American detective television series starring Buddy Ebsen as a formerly retired investigator and Lee Meriwether as his widowed daughter-in-law, who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show was or ...

'', in two episodes of ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...

'', and in the 1976 miniseries '' Rich Man, Poor Man Book II''.

Military service

Derr served in the

Army Transport Service The United States Army Transport Service (ATS) was established as a sea-going transport service that was independent of the Navy Department. ATS operated army transport ships for both troop transport and cargo service between United States ports a ...

for three years during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Real estate

Derr had a license as a real estate broker. He was an associate of the Beverly Hills Realty Company and a member of the Beverly Hills Realty Board.

Death

On May 8, 1992, at the age of 75, Derr died of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of panc ...

in Santa Monica, California.

Partial filmography

*'' Charlie Chan in Rio'' (1941) as Ken Reynolds *'' Man at Large'' (1941) as Max, posing as Colonel Von Rohn *'' A Gentleman at Heart'' (1942) as Stewart Haines *'' Sex Hygiene'' (1942 short) as Soldier *'' Castle in the Desert'' (1942) as Carl Detheridge *'' The Man Who Wouldn't Die'' (1942) as Roger Blake *'' Ten Gentlemen from West Point'' (1942) as Chester *'' Just Off Broadway'' (1942) as John Logan *'' Commandos Strike at Dawn'' (1942) as Gunnar Korstad *''

Tonight We Raid Calais ''Tonight We Raid Calais'' is a 1943 American film directed by John Brahm and starring John Sutton, Lee J. Cobb, and Annabella. Plot summary Geoffrey Carter ( John Sutton), a young commando British intelligence officer, is sent into Nazi-occu ...

'' (1943) as German Captain (uncredited) *'' Cry "Havoc"'' (1943) as Marine with Thermometer (uncredited) *'' An American Romance'' (1944) in an undetermined role (uncredited) *'' The Secret Heart'' (1946) as Larry Addams *'' The Bride Goes Wild'' (1948) as Bruce Kope Johnson *'' Luxury Liner'' (1948) as Charles G.K. Worton *''

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the corona ...

'' 1948) as Jean de Metz (a knight) *'' Guilty of Treason'' (1950) as Soviet Col. Aleksandr Melnikov *'' When Worlds Collide'' (1951) as David Randall *'' Something to Live For'' (1952) as Tony Collins *'' Invisible Avenger'' (1958) as Lamont Cranston *'' Terror Is a Man'' (1959) as William Fitzgerald *'' An American Dream'' (1966) as Jack Hale (uncredited) *'' Rosie!'' (1967) as Lawyer *'' Three in the Attic'' (1968) as Mr. Clinton *''

Topaz Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al Si O( F, OH). It is used as a gemstone in jewelry and other adornments. Common topaz in its natural state is colorless, though trace element impurities can ma ...

'' (1969) as U.S. Embassy Official in Copenhagen (uncredited) *'' Adam at 6 A.M.'' (1970) as Mr. Gaines *'' The Morning After'' (1974) as Dr. Tillman *''

The Drowning Pool ''The Drowning Pool'' is a 1950 mystery novel by American writer Ross Macdonald, his second book in the series revolving around the cases of private detective Lew Archer. Plot summary Archer is hired by a woman to investigate a libellous lett ...

'' (1975) as James Devereaux *'' SST: Death Flight'' (1977) as Governor Stensky *'' American Gigolo'' (1980) as Mr. Williams *''

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

'' (1982) as Admiral Curtin

References

External links

* * *
Richard Derr biography
Richard Derr biography a

{{DEFAULTSORT:Derr, Richard 1917 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American male actors American male television actors American male film actors Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from pancreatic cancer Male actors from Pennsylvania People from Norristown, Pennsylvania United States Army personnel of World War II