Richard Ross Eyer (born May 6, 1945) is an American former

child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage, television, or in film, movies. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associa ...

who worked during the 1950s and 1960s. He then became a teacher and taught at

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s in

Bishop, California Bishop (formerly Bishop Creek) is the only incorporated city in Inyo County, California, United States. It is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley within the Mojave Desert, at an elevation of . The city was named after Bishop Creek ...

until he retired in 2006. He is the older brother of Robert Eyer (1948-2005), another child actor of the period.

Career

Eyer played a war orphan in " Homeward Borne", an episode of ''

Playhouse 90 ''Playhouse 90'' is an American television anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 134 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of t ...

'', August 22, 1957, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. In 1956, he played a boy named Chuck in '' Canyon River'' which starred George Montgomery and Peter Graves. He had the starring role in '' The Invisible Boy'', producer Nicholas Nayfack's independent sequel to

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

's ''

Forbidden Planet ''Forbidden Planet'' is a 1956 American science fiction action film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack and directed by Fred M. Wilcox (director), Fred M. Wilcox from a script by Cyril Hume that was based on a film story by ...

''. In '' The Desperate Hours'' (1955), Eyer played

Fredric March Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated stars of the 1930s and 1940s.Obituary '' Variety'', April 16, 1975, page 95. As ...

's dangerously impulsive son. He also starred in the 1958 western ''

Fort Dobbs ''Fort Dobbs'' is a 1958 American Western film, the first of three directed by Gordon Douglas to star Clint Walker. The other two were: ''Yellowstone Kelly'' in 1959 and ''Gold of the Seven Saints'' in 1961. Released by Warner Brothers and ba ...

'', with

Clint Walker Norman Eugene "Clint" Walker (May 30, 1927 – May 21, 2018) was an American actor. He played cowboy Cheyenne (TV series), Cheyenne Bodie in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC/Warner Bros. Western (genre)#Film, western series ''Cheyenn ...

and

Virginia Mayo Virginia Mayo (born Virginia Clara Jones; November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of popular comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Bros.' biggest box-office draw in the late 1940s. S ...

and ''

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1958 American Technicolor heroic fantasy adventure film directed by Nathan H. Juran and starring Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher, Richard Eyer, and Alec Mango. It was distributed by Columbia Pict ...

'' in 1958, in which he portrayed the metallic-voiced Barani the Genie. In a 1995 interview, Eyer credited his mother for the promotion of his acting career. "It was all her work that did it. I had curly hair, freckles, and people would say what a cute kid he was and all that; so my mother entered me in some children's personality contests, and I won one of these which had been held at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

, and I guess that one was the springboard in getting me started. After that, I was hired for some television commercials and some modeling jobs, and this led into other things ... I was around fourteen when I did ''Stagecoach West'' ... My last role was at age 21, appearing in an episode of BC's''

Combat! ''Combat!'' is an American television drama that originally aired on ABC from 1962 until 1967. The exclamation point in ''Combat!'' was depicted on-screen as a stylized bayonet. The show covered the grim lives of a squad of American soldiers ...

''"Classic Images - Vol. 251 - May 1996 Issue
/ref> He appeared in more than one hundred episodes of various television programs, including Rod Cameron's syndicated ''

City Detective ''City Detective'' is a half-hour syndicated television crime drama starring Rod Cameron as Bart Grant, a tough 1950s New York City police lieutenant. The show's title was a bit of a misnomer, as Grant fought crime "from Mexico to the Mojave ...

'', when he was eight years of age. Other appearances include ''

Arrest and Trial ''Arrest and Trial'' is a 90-minute American crime/legal drama series that ran during the 1963–1964 season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 pm Eastern. Overview The majority of episodes consists of two segments. Set in Los Angeles, the ...

'', '' Stoney Burke'', ''

Mr. Novak ''Mr. Novak'' is an American television drama (film and television), drama television series starring James Franciscus in the title role as a high school teacher. The series aired on NBC for two seasons, from 1963 to 1965. It won a Peabody Award ...

'', ''

Wagon Train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western television series that aired for eight seasons, first on the NBC television network (1957–1962) and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and reached the top of the ...

'', '' Wanted: Dead or Alive'', ''

Father Knows Best ''Father Knows Best'' is an American sitcom starring Robert Young (actor), Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray (actor), Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six ...

'', ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central charact ...

'', ''

Lassie Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a 1938 short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a 1940 full-length novel, '' Lassie Come-Home''. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with anot ...

'', ''

Rawhide Rawhide may refer to: *Rawhide (material), a hide or animal skin that has not been tanned * Whip made from rawhide Entertainment * ''Rawhide'' (1926 film), a Western directed by Richard Thorpe * ''Rawhide'' (1938 film), a Western starring baseball ...

'' and ''

General Electric Theater ''General Electric Theater'' is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations. Radio After an audition show ...

''.

Personal life

Eyer is

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

d. He is the father of Samantha Rae Eyer, and twin sons, Benjamin Adam Eyer and Andrew Z. Eyer.

Filmography

References

Bibliography

* * Holmstrom, John (1996). ''The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995''. Norwich: Michael Russell, p. 253.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eyer, Richard Living people 1945 births 20th-century American male actors American male child actors American male television actors American male film actors Male actors from Santa Monica, California People from Bishop, California