A Television Transition

The new television medium offered a career shift for some movie character actors. Many were kept busy, becoming a household face if not a name.

Richard Erdman (1925-2019) was an American character actor appearing in more than 160 films and television productions, mostly in supporting roles. Known for his expressive face, he was adept at drama or comedy. He kept busy as a voice artist for a number of animated shows later in his career. Starting out with Warner Bros in the mid-Forties in uncredited roles, the Enid, Oklahoma native later made an early impact opposite Dick Powell in Cry Danger (1951), tapping into his talent for delivering dry quips. This led to a few minor military roles, most notably in Stalag 17 (1953). That same year, he was a co-pilot in, The Steel Lady which concerns a crew that crash lands in the Sahara desert.

Though appearing in a few films through the Sixties, his mainstay became the small screen, often as humorous or quirky individuals. Erdman played a garage mechanic in sync with a corrupt administration's small town, in a 1958 Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, The Crooked Road. In a 1963 The Twilight Zone episode, A Kind of a Stopwatch, (above) he famously played an obnoxious blow-hard who is given a timepiece that can halt time. He guest-starred in a wide variety of popular shows, among them were six appearances on Perry Mason, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Dream of Jeannie, The Beverly Hillbillies, That Girl, The Six Million Dollar Man, One Day at a Time, Lou Grant, Quincy, M.E., Cheers, and Murder, She Wrote. Near the end of his career, Erdman gained renewed fame with his fifty-three appearances as Leonard in the comedy series Community (2009–2015).