Richard Deacon

Richard Deacon (May 14, 1921 – August 8, 1984), born in Philadelphia, was an American television and motion picture actor. The bald and usually bespectacled character actor often portrayed imperious authority figures. He made appearances on The Jack Benny Show, as a salesperson and on NBC's Happy as a hotel manager. He had a brief role in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds (1963), and a larger role in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1... more

Richard Deacon (May 14, 1921 – August 8, 1984), born in Philadelphia, was an American television and motion picture actor. The bald and usually bespectacled character actor often portrayed imperious authority figures. He made appearances on The Jack Benny Show, as a salesperson and on NBC's Happy as a hotel manager. He had a brief role in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds (1963), and a larger role in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), as a physician in the "book-end" sequences added to the beginning and end of this film after its original previews. He portrayed the real life and historically infamous Chairman of the Columbia Aircraft Corp, Charles Levine. In February of 1927 Mr. Levine would refuse to sell Charles Lindbergh his company’s recently acquired Bellanca monoplane for Lindbergh’s famous trans-atlantic flight unless his company could choose the crew. Deacon would immortalize the scene in the 1957 release of the Billy Wilder/Jimmy Stewart adaptation of... less