Richard Haydn

Richard Haydn
Richard Haydn
	Richard Haydn, 1945
Born	George Richard Haydon; March 10, 1905; Camberwell, London, England
Died	April 25, 1985 (aged 80); Pacific Palisades, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1938–1985

Richard Haydn (born George Richard Haydon, 10 March 1905 – 25 April 1985) was a British-American comedy actor. Some of his better known performances include his roles as Professor Oddley in Ball of Fire (1941), Roger in No Time for Love (1943), Thomas Rogers in And Then There Were None (1945), Emperor Franz Joseph in The Emperor Waltz (1948), the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Baron Popoff in The Merry Widow (1952), William Brown in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music (1965).^[1]

Life

Haydn was born on March 10, 1905, in Camberwell. After working as a music hall entertainer and overseer of a Jamaican banana plantation, he joined a touring British theatre troupe,^[1] and then moved into television and film.

Haydn died on April 25, 1985, at the age of 80 following a heart attack. His body was found in his home in Pacific Palisades, California,^[2] and was donated to the University of California, Los Angeles.^[3]

Television and film work

Haydn as Thomas Rogers in the 1945 film *And Then There Were None*

Haydn was known for playing eccentric characters, such as Edwin Carp, Claud Curdle (Mr. Music, 1950), Richard Rancyd (Miss Tatlock's Millions, 1948) and Stanley Stayle (Dear Wife, 1949).^{[clarification needed]} Much of his stage delivery was done in a deliberate over-nasalised and over-enunciated manner.

Notable performances included the voice of The Caterpillar in the 1951 Disney animated adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, and his small role of Herr Falkstein in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Young Frankenstein. Haydn was the manservant Rogers in the 1945 adaptation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, and William Brown in the 1962 version of Mutiny on the Bounty. He was acclaimed for his role in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1965 film musical The Sound of Music, in which he played the Von Trapps' family friend Max Detweiler.^[4]

Haydn performed as the nosy neighbour and gossip in Sitting Pretty with Clifton Webb and Maureen O'Hara in 1948, using his over-nasal voice. He was Prof. Summerlee in 1960's The Lost World, and in the same year, played opposite Doris Day in Please Don't Eat the Daisies.^[4]

(L-R): George Sanders, Linda Darnell and Richard Haydn in Forever Amber (1947)

In the 1960 The Twilight Zone episode "A Thing About Machines", he portrayed Mr. Bartlett Finchley, a quirky, self-absorbed, technophobe who is confronted by every machine in his home. On April 1, 1964, he reprised his character of Edwin Carp in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show which saluted several old-time radio performers.

On 11 April 1968 he appeared as a Japanese businessman on the episode of Bewitched titled "A Majority of Two". On 23 February 1969, he played the Magician who had twin daughters on the episode of Bonanza titled "The Lady and the Mountain Lion" (S10/Ep21). On 12 January 1973, he appeared as Edward the butler in season 4 episode 15 of Love American Style titled "Love and the Impossible Gift".

Other work

Haydn had a brief spell as a film director starting in the late 1940s. He directed:^[4]

Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948)
Dear Wife (1949)
Mr. Music (1950)

On radio, Haydn played Edwin Carp on The Charlie McCarthy Show,^[5] and he was a regular on The Swan Soap Show, which featured George Burns and Gracie Allen.^[5]^: 323 Haydn wrote one book, titled The Journal of Edwin Carp, in 1954.

He debuted on Broadway in 1939 in Set to Music and appeared in Two for the Show (1940).^[6]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1938	Red Peppers	George Pepper	TV movie
1941	Charley's American Aunt	Charley Wyckham
1941	Ball of Fire	Professor Oddley
1942	Are Husbands Necessary?	Chuck
1942	Thunder Birds	George Lockwood
1943	Forever and a Day	Mr. Fulcher
1943	No Time for Love	Roger Winant
1945	Tonight and Every Night	Specialty
	And Then There Were None	Thomas Rogers
	Adventure	Limo
1946	The Green Years	Jason Reid
1946	Cluny Brown	Jonathon Wilson
1947	The Beginning or the End	Doctor Chisholm
	The Late George Apley	Horatio Willing
	Singapore	Deputy Commissioner Hewitt
	The Foxes of Harrow	Andre Leblanc
	Forever Amber	Earl of Radcliffe
1948	Sitting Pretty	Mr. Clarence Appleton
	The Emperor Waltz	Emperor Franz-Josef
	Miss Tatlock's Millions	Fergel	(as Richard Rancyd)
1949	Dear Wife	Early Riser	(as Stanley Stayle)
1950	Mr. Music	Jerome Thisbee	(as Claud Curdle)
1951	Alice in Wonderland	Caterpillar	Voice
1952	The Merry Widow	Baron Popoff
1953	Never Let Me Go	Christopher Wellington St. John Denny
1953	Money from Home	Bertie Searles
1954	Her Twelve Men	Doctor Avord Barrett
1955	Jupiter's Darling	Horatio
1956	The Toy Tiger	John Fusenot
1958	Twilight for the Gods	Oliver Wiggins
1960	Please Don't Eat the Daisies	Alfred North
	The Lost World	Professor Summerlee
	Let's Make Love	Prologue Narrator	voice actor, uncredited
1962	Five Weeks in a Balloon	Sir Henry Vining
1962	Mutiny on the Bounty	William Brown
1965	The Sound of Music	Max Detweiler
1965	Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion	Rupert Rowbotham
1967	The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin	Quentin Bartlett
1973	The Return of Charlie Chan	Andrew Kidder	TV movie
1974	Young Frankenstein	Herr Falkstein
1985	The Hugga Bunch	Bookworm	TV movie, Voice, uncredited (final role)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	Schlitz Playhouse		Episode: "A Quarter for Your Troubles"
1954	The Philco Television Playhouse		Episode: "The King and Mrs. Candle"
1955	Producers' Showcase		Episode: "The King and Mrs. Candle"
1957	Playhouse 90	Stephen Spettigue	Episode: "Where's Charley?"
1957		Muche	Episode: "Topaze"
1958		The Accountant	Episode: "Heart of Darkness"
1958	Shirley Temple's Storybook	Prime Minister	Episode: "The Emperor's New Clothes"
1959	Lux Playhouse	Cedric	Episode: "This Will Do Nicely"
1960	General Electric Theater	Chancellor	Episode: "The Ugly Duckling"
1960	The Twilight Zone	Bartlett Finchley	Episode: "A Thing About Machines"
1964	Burke's Law	Julian Clarington	Episode: "Who Killed Jason Shaw?"
1964	The Dick Van Dyke Show	Edwin Carp	Episode: "The Return of Edwin Carp"
1965	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Mr. Hemingway	Episode: "The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair"
1966	Laredo	Jonathon Pringle	Episode: "A Very Small Assignment"
1967	ABC Stage 67	Whitey	Episode: "The Wide Open Door"
1968	Bewitched	Kenzu Mishimoto	Episode: "A Majority of Two"
1969	Bonanza	Malcolm the Magnificent	Episode: "The Lady and the Mountain Lion"
1969	It Takes a Thief	Blanton	Episode: "The Old Who Came in from the Spy"
1971	Lassie	Henry Newton	Episode: "The Flying Grandpa"
1972	McCloud	Edwin	Episode: "Fifth Man in a String Quartet"
1973	Love, American Style	Edward	Episode: "Love and the Impossible Gift"

References

^ ^a ^b Eder, Bruce (2014). "Richard Haydn: Full Biography". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2014.
^ Staff (April 26, 1985). "Body of Actor Richard Haydn Found in His Palisades Home". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
^ Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 326. ISBN 9781476625997. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c Richard Haydn AFI Catalog
^ ^a ^b Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924–1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4.
^ "Richard Haydn". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved December 14, 2017.