Richard Erdman
Birth : 1925-06-01, Enid, Oklahoma, USA
Death : 2019-03-16
History
Richard Erdman (June 1, 1925 - March 16, 2019) was an American film and television actor and director.
In a career that has spanned seven decades, his best known roles are that of the barracks chief Hoffy in Stalag 17, and McNulty in the classic Twilight Zone episode "A Kind of a Stopwatch". In Tora Tora Tora he played Colonel Edward F. French, the officer who responded to the failure to transmit the warning to Pearl Harbor using Army radio to instead use commercial telegraph rather than using the Navy or FBI radio systems.
Erdman appeared as the blackmailer, Arthur Binney, in the Perry Mason first season TV episode "The Case Of The Gilded Lily" aired May 24, 1958. In 1960, he co-starred with Tab Hunter in the short-lived The Tab Hunter Show on NBC, which aired opposite The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS and Lawman with John Russell on ABC. He was very funny when he appeared as a Broadway wardrobe man named Buck Brown on "The Dick Van Dyke Show". In 1962, Erdman had a recurring role as Klugie, the photographer, in the short-lived Nick Adams-John Larkin NBC series Saints and Sinners.
Eddie Walker
A tribute and doc-crime-drama celebrating American film noir and the icons of the Hollywood golden age. It recaptures the time and place of New York in the 30's and 40s as well as plays with the codes and references of the genre.
Pirate (voice)
Tyler knows a lot about accidents. So much so, he is scared to do anything that might endanger him, like riding his bike, or climbing into his treehouse. While in an old library, he is mystically transported into the unknown world of books, and he has to try and get home again.
actor 'Stalag 17' (archive footage) (uncredited)
This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.
Co-Producer
An Indian police officer is mixed up in murder and drug smuggling on the reservation.
Sid Buckman / Car Wash Manager (voice)
Beverly hills dowager leaves everything to Benny the Ball because her only rightful heir, her niece Amy, is missing. But that's only if Benny stays alive for 48 hours. If not, evil butler Snerdly and his mad Russian Wolfhound are next in line - and he's quick to pull every trick in the book to do poor Benny in and the troop sets off to rescue Benny and find the lost heir Amy.
Waiter
A young girl who aspires to a singing career gets herself and her best friend a job as valet parking girls at a Malibu party in order to meet people who can help them achieve their dreams.
Fletcher Mays
A series of vignettes based upon an imaginative girl's unique outlook on her community.
Chester
A budding female race-car driver finally meets her racing idol and unbelievably they fall in love...a love that's quickly put to the test when, having received the chance to show her racing talents, the two find themselves in a race for a multi-million dollar sponsorship contract.
Drunken Wise Man
Angel City trooper Jack Deth is sent back in time from 2247 to 1985 L.A. to inhabit the body of his ancestor. Deth's assignment is to find his archenemy, Whistler, who turns people into zombies, before the fiend is able to kill all the ancestors of the future's governing council.
Pirate #1
The Secret World of Og is a children's adventure about three young girls who venture into an underground cavern beneath their playhouse to look for their lost baby brother. There, they discover a land of little green people who are enamored by the world above but won't allow anyone to leave their cavern for fear they might "tell".
Herr Sessman
Orphan Heidi lives with her grandpa in Swiss Alps. She brings joy to all there. However, her aunt takes her to the city to live as a servant girl to a cold rich strict family and their nice but sad handicapped daughter.
Mr. Zeider
Spider-Man goes to China to help an official accused of World War II treachery. Two episodes of the TV series "Spider Man" edited together and released as a feature.
Dick Richard (uncredited)
A melon farmer battles organized crime and a hit man who wants to kill him.
Judge Quincey P. Trumbell
The O'Toole Brothers are Eastern con men, exceptionally good at talking their way out of tight situations. When they ride into Molybdenum, Colorado, not suspecting the riches beneath the streets, they turn the sleepy mining town upside-down for their search for the gold. High-spirited hijinks ensue, with the brothers involved in everything from stolen gambling equipment to a "belchin', cussin' and spittin' " contest.
Director
The O'Toole Brothers are Eastern con men, exceptionally good at talking their way out of tight situations. When they ride into Molybdenum, Colorado, not suspecting the riches beneath the streets, they turn the sleepy mining town upside-down for their search for the gold. High-spirited hijinks ensue, with the brothers involved in everything from stolen gambling equipment to a "belchin', cussin' and spittin' " contest.
Joseph Somerby
A young girl writes to President Abraham Lincoln to advise him to grow a beard.
Director
A dog tries to become a canine star with the help of Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Director
A movie about a girl who was good...especially when she was bad.
Colonel Edward F. French
In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words use by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.
Walt Dabbett
A comedy filled with tenderness as a baby raccoon snuggles his way into the life of a lonely boy. He becomes the boy's only companion during his father's frequent absences. Because of Rascal, both father and son realize their responsibility to each other
Deke
Based on the amazing true story of a marine biologist (Robert Lansing) who befriends a six-ton Orcawhale, this "honest, fascinating and vigorously wholesome film" (Citizen-News) is heartwarming fun for the whole family. Like all close pals, Hank (Lansing) and Namu love spending time together. Whether sharing a morning swim or soaking up the afternoon sun, these two are virtually inseparable. Trouble is, the local fishermen mistakenly think that Namu is a threat. Racing against time, Hank must enlist the help of a young widow and her daughter to save Namu and prove that he's a gentle giant!
Seymour Jenks
A genie tends to get his master into more predicaments than he gets him out of.
Producer
In this unsold television pilot for a proposed travelogue series, Richard Erdman visits with the children and townsfolk of the Sacromonte district of Granada, Spain. Directed and photographed by noted master cinematographer and multi-Academy Award winner, James Wong Howe.
Host and narrator
In this unsold television pilot for a proposed travelogue series, Richard Erdman visits with the children and townsfolk of the Sacromonte district of Granada, Spain. Directed and photographed by noted master cinematographer and multi-Academy Award winner, James Wong Howe.
Al Williams
A local handyman saves a child in a fire, but the burns he receives disfigure his face so much that the townspeople avoid him.
Dallas Hanson
Steve Sinclair is a world a world-weary former gunslinger, now living as a peaceful farmer. Things go wrong when his wild younger brother Tony arrives on the scene with his new bride Joan Blake.
Rupe Pardee
In this western two wagon masters are wrongfully accused of driving their wagon train in to a Comanche raid and are sentenced to hang. Now they must work hard and fast to prove their innocence.
Ed Brent
Bill Benson and Ted Adams are to appear in a Broadway show together and, while in Paris, each 'discovers' the perfect leading lady for the plum female role. Each promises the prize role to the girl they selected without informing the other until they head back across the Atlantic by liner - with each man having brought his choice along! It becomes a stormy crossing as each man has to tell his 'find' that she might not get the role after all.
Selby
An American with a shady past joins with a morally-bankrupt Irishman to find treasure buried by Arabs in a deserted mosque in the Sahara. The situation becomes complicated when they are surrounded by Bedouin bandits.
Murph
In the U. S. Army intelligence office, bumbling lieutenant Peter Stirling receives a coded message from his friend, Francis, a talking mule. The note urges Pete to hurry to the Coronado, California naval base, where Francis is about to be sold as surplus. Pete rushes to the train station, but before he can board, nurse Betsy Donevan mistakes him for her shell-shocked brother, Navy boatswain Slicker Donevan. She tries to forcibly remove his uniform so he will not get into trouble for impersonating an Army officer. Finally she realizes that Pete is not Slicker but merely his mirror image.
Jim Evans
Surviving a plane crash in the Sahara, four oilmen find and manage to repair a German Afrika Corps tank which had been buried in the sand since WWII.
Pvt. Swenson
A rookie pilot in the Korean War wants to avenge his brother's death.
Sgt. 'Hoffy' Hoffman
It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seems to be a security leak.
Al
A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may be a murderess.
Ben Bailey
Bill Miller is an unsuccessful Broadway performer until his handlers convince him to enhance his act with a stooge—Ted Rogers, a guy positioned in the audience to be the butt of Bill's jokes. After Ted begins to steal the show, Bill's girlfriend and his pals advise him to make Ted an equal partner.
Alfred Grattin
A violinist and his brother guide one's son through his crush on the family maid in 1920s Ottawa.
Dogface Dolan
Nightclub entertainer Hap Smith has a new act since his former partner Chick Allen joined the army. With his lovely new female partner, Hap now plays a clownish parody of a soldier. When Chick organises a soldier show at Fort Benning, he realizes he needs his former partner's help—so, to get onto the base, Hap impersonates a hapless real soldier, but circumstances force them to prolong the masquerade, creating an increasingly tangled Army-sized SNAFU.
Shorty
After five years of being away, Rick Nelson (Joel McCrea) returns to San Francisco to find it filled with corruption - and crooked politicians. It isn't until he meets a beautiful San Franciscan (Yvonne De Carlo), that Nelson decides to get involved with bringing law-and-order to the city by the bay!
Mirza
A poor young man finds a lamp with a genie trapped inside. The genie promises to grant the man three wishes if he frees him from the lamp.
Cpl. Frenchy
Wendell Corey and Forrest Tucker star as a pair of World War II Army Air Corps officers. In between their battles over the affections of a beautiful nurse, Corey and Tucker prepare to fly a bombing mission in the South Pacific. Before boarding their B29 Superfortress, Tucker appears to be chickening out, but he's steadfastly at his cockpit post at takeoff time.
Ens. Chuck Dorrance
When Lt. John Harkness is assigned as the new skipper of a submarine chaser equipped with an experimental steam engine, he hopes that the U.S.S. Teakettle's veterans will afford him enough help to accomplish the ship's goals. Unfortunately, he finds the crew and its officers share his novice status or only have experience in diesel engines.
Delong
After serving five years of a life sentence, Rocky Mulloy hopes to clear his friend who's still in prison for the same crime.
Leo
Ken, an ex-WWII GI, returns home after he's paralyzed in battle. Residing in the paraplegic ward of a veteran's hospital and embittered by his condition, he refuses to see his fiancée and sinks into a solitary world of hatred and hostility. Head physician, Dr. Brock cajoles the withdrawn Ken into the life of the ward, where fellow patients Norm, Leo and Angel begin to pull him out of his spiritual dilemma.
Oliver 'Ollie' Bonelli
Ex-WAVE encounters four fun-loving, work-hating men, all of whom want to marry her.
Buddy Morgan
A football halfback has a heart condition, a nagging wife and a team secretary who loves him.
Willie
Joe spends a lot of his time at Nick's Pacific Street Saloon. Tom, who credits Joe with once saving his life, stops by regularly to run errands for Joe. Today, Tom notices a woman named Kitty when she comes into Nick's, and he quickly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, a distraught young man repeatedly calls his girlfriend, begging her to marry him. Nick himself muses on all the various persons who come into his bar, some to ask for work and others just to pass the time.
Mark Lewis
Joe is the head of an itinerant combine crew, working the harvests against rival crew boss Alperson. Joe's buddy Jim joins the crew with startup money. Farmer's niece Fay falls for Joe. He puts her off. To get back she marries Jim whom she prods into high-grading the grain (skimming off some for private sale). The last payment on Joe's machinery is due just as he discover's what his buddy has been doing.
Eddie (as Dick Erdman)
A bored millionaire matches his daughter with his partner in a gas station.
Bellboy, The Marwood Arms
A con artist falls for the rich widow he's trying to fleece.
Eddie (uncredited)
In this outing, Joe loves playing the horses and shows what you can do to improve your odds of winning.
Joe, Counterman at Owl Lunch
Brooke's marital life with Eric takes a downturn when she starts suspecting that her husband is starving his son from a prior marriage to death in order to claim his inheritance.
Lt. 'Scooper' Nolan (as Dick Erdman)
Newlywed Janie's (Joan Leslie) World War II-veteran husband (Robert Hutton) goes to work at her father's (Edward Arnold) newspaper.
Tommy
A returning GI searches for the wife who left him and gave away their son.
Bunkie Taylor (as Dick Erdman)
After robbing and murdering his married lover and then making her death look like suicide, conniving philanderer Ronnie Mason relocates to Los Angeles. Under a new identity and claiming to be a writer, Ronnie finds lodging at the home of Hilda Fenchurch and her mother. He woos Hilda, knowing she has money, but when he discovers that Hilda's sister, Anne, has just inherited $25,000, he switches his attentions to her.
Middle Cowboy
Nick, a motel owner who has lost faith in more than just the humanity of mankind, is visited by a kindly stranger on Christmas Eve. The motel's guests are only concerned for themselves until a poor man and his wife drive up to the motel, unable to go any further. Out of rooms, Nick's wife prepares a place for them in a shed under a neon star Nick had just finished hanging. Their plight brings out the generosity in everyone, including Nick, who remembers another family almost two thousand years earlier that also found a makeshift room at an inn under another kind of star.
Pvt. Nebraska Hooper
A group of men parachute into Japanese-occupied Burma with a dangerous and important mission: to locate and blow up a radar station. They accomplish this well enough, but when they try to rendezvous at an old air-strip to be taken back to their base, they find Japanese waiting for them, and they must make a long, difficult walk back through enemy-occupied jungle.
Soldier on Deck (uncredited)
Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place.
Soda Jerk
Army sergeants Dave and "Fixit" spend a three-day pass in Pasadena, where they meet Janet and Cora, two young women who work in a parachute factory.
Sailor with Tour (uncredited)
A group of tourists is given a tour of a movie studio lot. They see the various permanent sets that are used for different types of movies, and they appear to watch the filming of several productions in progress. Musical numbers from several previous Warner Bros. Technicolor shorts are edited into this short to create the illusion.
Scooper Nolan (as Dick Erdman)
Teenage Janie (Joyce Reynolds) falls in love with a private (Robert Hutton) from an Army base opposed by her editor father (Edward Arnold).
Western Union Boy (uncredited)
A beautiful but vain woman who rejects the love of her older husband must face the loss of her youth and beauty.
