Richard Haydn
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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 ''Ball of Fire'' is a 1941 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. This Samuel Goldwyn Productions film (originally distributed by RKO) concerns a group of professors laboring to ...
'' (1941), Roger in '' No Time for Love'' (1943), Thomas Rogers in ''
And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as ...
'' (1945),
Emperor Franz Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...
in ''
The Emperor Waltz ''The Emperor Waltz'' (german: Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame) is a 1948 American musical film directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine.Bookbinder 1977, p. 179. Written by Wilder and Charles Brackett, the film is about ...
'' (1948), the Caterpillar in '' Alice in Wonderland'' (1951), Baron Popoff in ''
The Merry Widow ''The Merry Widow'' (german: Die lustige Witwe, links=no ) is an operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt ...
'' (1952), William Brown in ''
Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set h ...
'' (1962), and Max Detweiler in ''
The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. S ...
'' (1965).


Life

Haydn was born on March 10, 1905, in
Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...
. After working as a music hall entertainer and overseer of a Jamaican banana plantation, he joined a touring British theatre troupe, and then moved into television and film. Haydn never married nor had children, although he was engaged to the actress
Maria Riva Maria Elisabeth Riva (née Sieber; born December 13, 1924) is a German-born American former actress. She worked on television at CBS in the 1950s, becoming one of the first stars of early kinescope-era television. She is the daughter of actress ...
for several months in 1943. In the DVD commentary of ''
Young Frankenstein ''Young Frankenstein'' is a 1974 American comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks. The screenplay was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder also starred in the lead role as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor F ...
'',
Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...
said that Haydn eschewed the Hollywood lifestyle and that he used gardening and
horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
as a means of escape. 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 Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside Los Angeles, Westside region of Los Angeles, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. Pacific Palisades was formally founded in 1921 by a Chautauqua, Methodist organization, an ...
, and was donated to the University of California, Los Angeles.


Television and film work

Haydn was known for playing eccentric characters, such as Edwin Carp, Claud Curdle (''
Mr. Music ''Mr. Music'' is a 1950 film starring Bing Crosby and Nancy Olson, directed by Richard Haydn, and released by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the play '' Accent on Youth'' written by Samson Raphaelson. Filming took place from October to Dece ...
'', 1950), Richard Rancyd (''
Miss Tatlock's Millions ''Miss Tatlock's Millions'' is an American screwball comedy film directed by Richard Haydn in 1948. Plot Movie stuntman Tim Burke is offered $1000 for a couple of days of work by Denno Noonan. Noonan was the "social secretary" for the mentally in ...
'', 1948) and Stanley Stayle (''
Dear Wife ''Dear Wife'' is a 1949 comedy film starring Joan Caulfield and William Holden. It is the sequel to ''Dear Ruth'', which was based on the Broadway play of the same name by Norman Krasna. Plot Miriam Wilkins is a teenage girl who is campaigning ...
'', 1949). Much of his stage delivery was done in a deliberate over-nasalized 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 Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...
comedy ''
Young Frankenstein ''Young Frankenstein'' is a 1974 American comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks. The screenplay was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder also starred in the lead role as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor F ...
''. Haydn was the manservant Rogers in the 1945 adaptation of
Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
's ''
And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as ...
'', and William Brown in the 1962 version of ''
Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set h ...
''. He was acclaimed for his role in
Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popular ...
's 1965 film musical ''
The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. S ...
'', in which he played the Von Trapps' family friend Max Detweiler.Richard Haydn
''
AFI Catalog The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in ...
''
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 ''Please Don't Eat the Daisies'' (New York: Doubleday, 1957) is a best-selling collection of humorous essays by American humorist and playwright Jean Kerr about suburban living and raising four boys. The essays do not have a plot or through-sto ...
''. In the 1960 ''
The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...
'' episode "
A Thing About Machines "A Thing About Machines" is episode 40 of the American television anthology series ''The Twilight Zone''. It originally aired on October 28, 1960, on CBS. Opening narration Plot Lonely, ill-tempered gourmet magazine critic and misanthrope Ba ...
", he portrayed Mr. Bartlett Finchley, a quirky, self-absorbed,
technophobe Technophobia (from Greek τέχνη ''technē'', "art, skill, craft" and φόβος ''phobos'', "fear"), also known as technofear, is the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers. Although there are numero ...
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 ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' is an American television sitcom created by Carl Reiner that initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 to June 1, 1966, with a total of 158 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. It was produced by Calvada Product ...
'' which saluted several
old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early ...
performers. On 11 April 1968 he appeared as a Japanese businessman on the episode of ''
Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typic ...
'' 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 ''Love, American Style'' is an anthology comedy television series that aired on ABC from 1969 to 1974. The series was produced by Paramount Television. During the 1971–72 and 1972–73 seasons, it was a part of ABC's Friday primetime lineup ...
'' titled "Love and the Impossible Gift".


Other work

Haydn had a brief spell as a film director starting in the late 1940s. He directed: *''
Miss Tatlock's Millions ''Miss Tatlock's Millions'' is an American screwball comedy film directed by Richard Haydn in 1948. Plot Movie stuntman Tim Burke is offered $1000 for a couple of days of work by Denno Noonan. Noonan was the "social secretary" for the mentally in ...
'' (1948) *''
Dear Wife ''Dear Wife'' is a 1949 comedy film starring Joan Caulfield and William Holden. It is the sequel to ''Dear Ruth'', which was based on the Broadway play of the same name by Norman Krasna. Plot Miriam Wilkins is a teenage girl who is campaigning ...
'' (1949) *''
Mr. Music ''Mr. Music'' is a 1950 film starring Bing Crosby and Nancy Olson, directed by Richard Haydn, and released by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the play '' Accent on Youth'' written by Samson Raphaelson. Filming took place from October to Dece ...
'' (1950) On
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
, Haydn played Edwin Carp on '' The Charlie McCarthy Show'', and he was a regular on ''The Swan Soap Show'', which featured George Burns and Gracie Allen. Haydn wrote one book, titled ''The Journal of Edwin Carp'', in 1954. He debuted on Broadway in 1939 in ''
Set to Music Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...
'' and appeared in '' Two for the Show'' (1940).


Filmography


Film


Television


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Haydn, Richard 1905 births 1985 deaths 20th-century English male actors British expatriate male actors in the United States British male comedy actors English expatriates in the United States English male film actors English male radio actors English male television actors English male voice actors Male actors from London People from Camberwell