Richard Dysart

Acting

Richard Dysart

Born — Died

1929-03-30 — 2015-04-05

Place of birth

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

70 titles

Richard Allen Dysart (March 30, 1929 – April 5, 2015) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as senior partner Leland McKenzie in the television series L.A. Law (1986–1994), for which he won a 1992 Primetime Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series after four consecutive nominations. In film, he held supporting roles in The Hospital (1971), Being There (1979), The Thing (1982), Mask (1985), Pale Rider (1985) and Wall Street (1987). Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard Dysart, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known for

Columbo poster
8.1

Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline.

Columbo

1971

Batman: The Animated Series poster
8.6

Vowing to avenge the murder of his parents, Bruce Wayne devotes his life to wiping out crime in Gotham City as the masked vigilante "Batman".

Batman: The Animated Series

1992

L.A. Law poster
7.0

L.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco's trademark features including a large number of parallel storylines, social drama and off-the-wall humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual harassment, AIDS, and domestic violence. The series often also reflected social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their less well-paid junior staff. The show was popular with audiences and critics, and won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its run, four of which were for Outstanding Drama Series.

L.A. Law

1986

Cannon poster
6.7

Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976. The primary protagonist is the title character, private detective Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad. He also appeared on two episodes of Barnaby Jones. Cannon is the first Quinn Martin-produced series to be aired on a network other than ABC. A "revival" television film, The Return of Frank Cannon, was aired on November 1, 1980. In total, there were 124 episodes.

Cannon

1971

All in the Family poster
7.8

Archie Bunker, a working class bigot, constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day.

All in the Family

1971

The Defenders poster
6.3

The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing.

The Defenders

1961

Film credits

2000s · 3 titles

L.A. Law: The Movie poster
6.7

Reunion movie from the popular TV series reunites most of the original cast from the Los Angeles law firm of McKenzie-Brackman. In the eight years since the series ended, the founding senior partner, Leland McKenzie, has retired and left Douglas Brackman, Jr. as the senior managing partner. New employees to the firm are Brackman's over-achieving son Jason, who's at odds with his father, and ambitious and conniving associate Chloe Carpenter at odds with others. Former partner Michael Kuzak, now a successful restaurant owner, is called out of retirement to help stop the impeding execution of a former client on death row and the opposing counsel is Kuzak's old flame Grace Van Owen.

L.A. Law: The Movie

2002

Everything Is Terrible! The Movie poster
6.9

The fine folks at EIT have spent years digging thought thrift establishments, video caverns, and haunted houses throughtout the country in order to create the most mind-melting VHS mash-up imaginable. Literally thousands of hours of video gold have been chopped up into millions of pieces and gluded back together into an ever-multiplying bizarre path to allegorical self-enlightenment and surreal resurrection. Obviously!

Everything Is Terrible! The Movie

2009

Proteus: A Nineteenth Century Vision poster
5.0

The animated documentary Proteus explores the nineteenth century's engagement with the undersea world through science, technology, painting, poetry and myth. The central figure of the film is biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel, who found in the depths of the sea an ecstatic and visionary fusion of science and art.

Proteus: A Nineteenth Century Vision

2004

1990s · 8 titles

Back to the Future Part III poster
7.5

The final installment finds Marty digging the trusty DeLorean out of a mineshaft and looking for Doc in the Wild West of 1885. But when their time machine breaks down, the travelers are stranded in a land of spurs. More problems arise when Doc falls for pretty schoolteacher Clara Clayton, and Marty tangles with Buford Tannen.

Back to the Future Part III

1990

Hard Rain poster
5.9

An armored car driver tries to elude a gang of thieves while a flood ravages the countryside.

Hard Rain

1998

Panther poster
6.3

In this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as the Panthers battle for the right to exist.

Panther

1995

Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair poster
7.5

The 1960s. Bobby Kennedy is in power in Washington. Marilyn Monroe is a legendary film star. For years there has been widespread speculation and rumors of a secret romance between Marilyn and Bobby. Now that story is told for the first time in this account of two very public figures whose brief romance fired the imaginations of millions and fueled debate over their mysterious and untimely deaths.

Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair

1993

Truman poster
7.4

Biographical account of America's President for the latter part of WWII. Shows Truman's rise from small-town nobody to leader of the USA, his decision to use the Atomic Bomb against Japan, and subsequent election as the US' post-war President.

Truman

1995

Todd McFarlane's Spawn: Season 2 poster
7.8

Spawn - having become plagued by nightmares - discovers that his former Special Forces partner, Chapel, was the one who murdered him. Their paths inevitably cross when Chapel attempts to steal military weapons for Jason Wynn.

Todd McFarlane's Spawn: Season 2

1998

A Child Is Missing poster
6.9

A hermit living in the Washington Mountains stumbles upon a boy who has been kidnapped. He does everything in his power to save the boy but he becomes a suspect.

A Child Is Missing

1995

No artwork available
5.0

Biography of Norman Corwin, the great writer, producer and director of the Golden Age of Radio. Actors in his radio plays included Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart, Charles Laughton, Danny Kaye, Paul Robeson and Judy Garland.

Corwin

1996

1980s · 20 titles

The Thing poster
8.1

A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

The Thing

1982

Wall Street poster
7.2

A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider, who takes the youth under his wing.

Wall Street

1987

Pale Rider poster
7.2

A mysterious preacher protects a humble prospector village from a greedy mining company trying to encroach on their land.

Pale Rider

1985

Mask poster
7.3

A significantly deformed but highly intelligent teenage boy and his biker gang mother attempt to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.

Mask

1985

The Falcon and the Snowman poster
6.4

The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.

The Falcon and the Snowman

1985

Warning Sign poster
6.0

An accident occurs in an ultra-secret government biological weapons laboratory spreading a sinister bacteria.

Warning Sign

1985

The Last Days of Patton poster
6.4

Gen. George S. Patton now works a desk job for the U.S. military after World War II. In the midst of dealing with the difficulty of adapting to his dramatic change of lifestyle, Patton is involved in an auto wreck that leaves him in critical condition. While his body fails him, Patton introspectively reminisces about his relationship with his spouse, Beatrice; his childhood; and his days on the WWI battlefields.

The Last Days of Patton

1986

Moving Target poster
5.9

A teenage musician goes on the run from killers and the police when he returns home to find his home empty and his family gone.

Moving Target

1988

Six Against the Rock poster
4.8

In May of 1946, Alcatraz inmate Bernie Coy initiates a carefully thought out plan to escape the island prison. His plan, carried out with five accomplices, falls apart when they can't obtain a key to unlock a door leading to the yard.

Six Against the Rock

1987

Malice in Wonderland poster
7.6

Struggling actress Hedda Hopper can't get a break in Hollywood, even though an acquaintence of hers is the extremely powerful gossip monger Louella Parsons - maker and breaker of careers (and lives) through her daily syndicated newspaper column. The big movie moguls, fed up with Parson's power over their stars, decide to de-claw her by setting up gossip Hopper as a competitor in the rumour industry. What they couldn't forsee was that Hopper would become as big as Parsons -- and every bit as much of a pain. Based on the true life stories of two of the most powerful (and arguably dangerous) women of Hollywood's hay-day.

Malice in Wonderland

1985

Day One poster
6.2

Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard leaves Europe, eventually arriving in the United States. With the help of Einstein, he persuades the government to build an atomic bomb. The project is given to no-nonsense Gen. Leslie Groves who selects physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to head the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where the bomb is built. As World War II draws to a close, Szilard has second thoughts about atomic weapons, and policy makers debate how and when to use the bomb.

Day One

1989

People vs. Jean Harris poster
NR

This dramatic re-enactment premiered a mere nine weeks after the actual headline-making trial of the refined private school headmistress who was convicted of the murder of her unfaithful lover, Dr. Herman Tarnower, the famed "Scarsdale Diet" author.

People vs. Jean Harris

1981

The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd poster
5.3

The story of the doctor who faced charges of conspiracy after he assisted John Wilkes Booth by setting his broken leg after he had assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd

1980

Mickey's 60th Birthday poster
6.8

This film combines live action/original animation and library animation. Mickey steals a magic hat from a Sorcerer and is put under a spell by the angry magi so that no one will recognize him until he finds his own magic within. While Mickey is on his quest, network news teams around the country desperately try to find the famous, beloved mouse who has mysteriously disappeared. On his quest, Mickey pays a visit to the patrons of "Cheers", meets up with the Keatons from "Family Ties", and winds up on Disneyland's Main Street the night before his Birthday celebration is to take place. It is there that he finds he has all the magic inside him that he will ever need. The spell is broken and the Birthday bash commences as the whole World celebrates the beloved Mickey Mouse.

Mickey's 60th Birthday

1988

Your Alcohol I.Q. poster
NR

Just how much do you know about alcohol consumption? Take this video quiz to find out!

Your Alcohol I.Q.

1988

Bitter Harvest poster
1.0

A farmer's herd sickens and dies, then his family and neighbors fall ill, so he bucks the state agricultural establishment as he pursues the politically-explosive investigation of how his farm, family, and friends came to be poisoned.

Bitter Harvest

1981

L.A. Law: Pilot poster
NR

Pilot episode for the TV series introduces the lawyers and employees of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak, a Los Angeles law firm, in dealing with their courtroom cases and personal matters out of the courthouse. While the entire office deals with the unexpected death of one of the founding senior partners, Norman Chaney, junior partner Michael Kuzak reluctantly takes on the defense of a wealthy and spoiled young man, accused with two friends, of raping a woman dying from leukemia. While intern Abby Perkins deals with her abusive alcoholic husband, divorce lawyer Arnie Becker takes advantage of his latest client caught up in her divorce. Public defender Victor Sifuentes is also offered to join the firm, while the ruthless managing partner, Douglas Brackman, deals with a surprising revelation from his new secretary.

L.A. Law: Pilot

1986

Missing Children: A Mother's Story poster
7.5

A young mother hands her children into what she thinks is a childcare center while she finds a new home, but returns to find that they have been adopted out without her knowledge.

Missing Children: A Mother's Story

1982

Bogie poster
6.3

The Humphrey Bogart story from the early '30s until his death, covering the period as a struggling young actor through movie stardom and his marriages to Mayo Methot and Lauren Bacall.

Bogie

1980

Jay Leno's Family Comedy Hour poster
7.0

Jay Leno hosts "Jay Leno's Family Comedy Hour," a one hour special featuring a humorous look at the American family.

Jay Leno's Family Comedy Hour

1987

1970s · 16 titles

Being There poster
7.6

A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.

Being There

1979

The Hospital poster
6.7

Dr. Bock, the chief of medicine at a Manhattan hospital, is suicidal after the collapse of his personal life. When an intern is found dead in a hospital bed, it appears to Bock to be a case of unforgivable malpractice. Hours later, another doctor, who happens to be responsible for another case of malpractice, is found dead. Despondent, Bock finds himself drawn to Barbara, the daughter of a comatose missionary.

The Hospital

1971

Meteor poster
5.2

After a collision with a comet, a nearly 8km wide piece of the asteroid "Orpheus" is heading towards Earth. If it hits, it will cause an incredible catastrophe that will probably extinguish mankind. To stop the meteor, NASA wants to use the illegal nuclear weapon satellite "Hercules," but discovers soon that it doesn't have enough firepower. Their only chance to save the world is to join forces with the USSR, which has also launched such an illegal satellite. But will both governments agree?

Meteor

1979

The Hindenburg poster
6.3

Colonel Franz Ritter, a former hero pilot now working for military intelligence, is assigned to the great Hindenburg airship as its chief of security. As he races against the clock to uncover a possible saboteur aboard the doomed zeppelin he finds that any of the passengers and crew could be the culprit.

The Hindenburg

1975

The Day of the Locust poster
6.4

Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the lurid world of film industry, gets infatuated with his neighbor Faye Greener, an aspiring actress who prefers the life that Homer Simpson, a lone accountant, can offer her.

The Day of the Locust

1975

An Enemy of the People poster
6.8

A small forest town is trying to promote itself as a place for tourists to come enjoy the therapeutic hot springs and unspoiled nature. Dr. Stockmann, however, makes the inconvenient discovery that the nature around the village is not so unspoiled. In fact, the runoff from the local tanning mill has contaminated the water to a dangerous degree. The town fathers argue that cleaning up the mess would be far too expensive and the publicity would destroy the town's reputation, so therefore news of the pollution should be suppressed. Dr. Stockmann decides to fight to get the word out to the people, but receives as very mixed reaction.

An Enemy of the People

1978

Prophecy poster
5.4

When a dispute occurs between a logging operation and a nearby Native American tribe, Dr. Robert Verne and his wife, Maggie, are sent in to mediate. Chief John Hawks insists the loggers are poisoning the water supply, and, though company man Isley denies it, the Vernes can't ignore the strangely mutated wildlife roaming the woods. Robert captures a bear cub for testing and soon finds himself the target of an angry mutant grizzly.

Prophecy

1979

The Terminal Man poster
5.5

As the result of a head injury, brilliant computer scientist Harry Benson begins to experience violent seizures. In an attempt to control the seizures, Benson undergoes a new surgical procedure in which a microcomputer is inserted into his brain. The procedure is not entirely successful.

The Terminal Man

1974

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman poster
6.6

In February, 1962, as the civil rights movement reaches Bayonne, Louisiana, a New York journalist arrives to interview Jane Pittman, who has just turned 110. She tells him her story dating back to her earliest memories before slavery ended. In between the chapters of her life, the present-day struggles of Blacks in Bayonne, urged on by Jimmy, are dramatized.

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

1974

It Happened One Christmas poster
4.7

It's Christmas Eve 1944 in the small town of Bedford Falls, New York. A despondent and suicidal Mary Bailey Hatch is praying for guidance on what to do about an incident no fault of her own which threatens her name and the community standing of her longtime family business, the Bailey Building and Loan, which she took over after the passing of her father. What Mary does not know is that most in town, including her husband George Hatch and their children, are also praying for her. All the prayers are heard by Joseph, God's gatekeeper of prayers. As there are no other angels available on such a busy day, Joseph assigns Clara Oddbody, angel second class (i.e. she has yet to receive her wings), to Mary's case, which he reluctantly does as Clara has never been assigned a case on her own in the two hundred years she's been in heaven for good reason.

It Happened One Christmas

1977

Churchill and the Generals poster
9.0

The complicated relationship between Winston Churchill and the leaders of the British army during World War II.

Churchill and the Generals

1979

First, You Cry poster
NR

The story of television news correspondent Betty Rollin and her battle with breast cancer, and how her subsequent mastectomy changed her marriage, her philosophy and her entire life.

First, You Cry

1978

The Sporting Club poster
4.2

The wealthy members of an exclusive backwoods retreat face an existential threat from both a disgruntled former manager as well as a subversive, anarchistic current member.

The Sporting Club

1971

Riding with Death poster
2.9

Agent Sam Casey is in a satellite explosion and the radiation turns him invisible. He gets a watch that keeps him visible, and he uses it to switch from visible to invisible. He is assigned to transport a chemical called Tripolydine, which is purported to be the most efficient fuel; when the cover is blown on that and he uncovers and stops the Tripolydine fraud, he must then stop a terrorist from blowing up race cars.

Riding with Death

1976

The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer poster
2.0

General Custer is on trial for the deaths of his men at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer

1977

The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder poster
5.6

After returning home from the war, Vietnam veteran Julius Vrooder resides in a veteran's hospital, where he has been vaguely diagnosed as "psychiatrically impaired." Taking the news with an air of initially lighthearted defiance, Vrooder escapes and sets up camp under a highway, where he builds a paranoia-driven booby-trapped bunker for himself. Falling in love with not-so-bright nurse Zanni, Vrooder soon plans to elope with her to a remote Canadian outpost.

The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder

1974

1960s · 4 titles

Series credits

Columbo poster
8.1

Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline.

Columbo

1971

Batman: The Animated Series poster
8.6

Vowing to avenge the murder of his parents, Bruce Wayne devotes his life to wiping out crime in Gotham City as the masked vigilante "Batman".

Batman: The Animated Series

1992

L.A. Law poster
7.0

L.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco's trademark features including a large number of parallel storylines, social drama and off-the-wall humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual harassment, AIDS, and domestic violence. The series often also reflected social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their less well-paid junior staff. The show was popular with audiences and critics, and won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its run, four of which were for Outstanding Drama Series.

L.A. Law

1986

Cannon poster
6.7

Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976. The primary protagonist is the title character, private detective Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad. He also appeared on two episodes of Barnaby Jones. Cannon is the first Quinn Martin-produced series to be aired on a network other than ABC. A "revival" television film, The Return of Frank Cannon, was aired on November 1, 1980. In total, there were 124 episodes.

Cannon

1971

All in the Family poster
7.8

Archie Bunker, a working class bigot, constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day.

All in the Family

1971

The Defenders poster
6.3

The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing.

The Defenders

1961

Baretta poster
6.5

Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma. While popular, Toma received intense criticism at the time for its realistic and frequent depiction of police and criminal violence. When Musante left the series after a single season, the concept was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role.

Baretta

1975

Maude poster
6.9

Well-educated and upper middle class, Maude Findlay is the archetypal feminist of her generation. She lives in suburban Tuckahoe, New York, with her fourth husband, Walter, their divorced daughter, Carol, and grandson Phillip.

Maude

1972

Spawn poster
8.0

After being betrayed and murdered by his employer, a government assassin is resurrected as a Hell spawn and is forced to act as the reluctant leader of Hell's army.

Spawn

1997

NET Playhouse poster
7.3

NET Playhouse is an American dramatic television anthology series produced by National Educational Television. NET subsequently merged with WNDT Newark, New Jersey to form WNET and was superseded by the Public Broadcasting Service. American television anthology series of wide range of genres, from history and drama, to fantasy, and science fiction. Fiction novels, stories, stage plays, fairytales, and historic events are dramatized in each episode.

NET Playhouse

1966

No artwork available
7.0

CBS Playhouse is an American anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1967 to 1970. Airing twelve plays over the course of its run, the series was nominated for a number of awards and featured many noteworthy actors and playwrights.

CBS Playhouse

1966

No artwork available
9.0

Doc is an American sitcom which aired on CBS from September 1975 to October 1976.

Doc

1975

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

Gemini Man poster
6.8

Sam Casey is an agent for INTERSECT, a government think-tank and operations center specializing in secret missions. While on a diving assignment, Sam was affected by the radiation from an underwater explosion. The radiation rendered him invisible, but INTERSECT devised a way to control his invisibility, by fitting him with a computerized watch that kept him visible. He could, however, shut it off, and become invisible again, for short periods of time. If he did this for more than 15 minutes in any 24 hour period he would die. This ability to become invisible made him a very effective agent.

Gemini Man

1976

Doctors' Hospital poster
7.0

Doctors' Hospital is an American medical drama that ran on NBC during the 1975–1976 season.

Doctors' Hospital

1975

Blood & Orchids poster
7.2

Hester Murdoch is found naked and nearly beaten to death by four young Hawaiian men on the beach and taken to the hospital. Some of the men didn’t want to get involved, fearing they might be blamed, because she was white, but do so anyway. Almost immediately everyone suspects they are to blame. When Hester’s politically influential mother Doris finds out what really happened, she fearing a scandal, forces her daughter to blame the men who rescued her, of raping and beating her. It’s up to detective Curt Maddox, to find out what really happened, and their Hawaiian lawyer to do the impossible. Convince a white court of law, that they are innocent.

Blood & Orchids

1986

E! True Hollywood Story poster
8.1

E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and also well-known public figures. Among the topics covered on the program include salacious re-tellings of Hollywood secrets, show-biz scandals, celebrity murders and mysteries, porn-star biographies, and "where-are-they-now?" investigations of former child stars. It frequently features in-depth interviews, actual courtroom footage, and dramatic reenactments. When aired on the E! network, episodes will be updated to reflect the current life or status of the subject.

E! True Hollywood Story

1996

The Andros Targets poster
7.0

James Sutorious star as Mike Andros, a newspaper investigative reporter who seeks out corruption and injustice in this this action-drama series.

The Andros Targets

1977

Lincoln poster
8.0

Lincoln (aka Sandburg's Lincoln) is an American six-part miniseries broadcast on NBC from September 6, 1974 to April 14, 1976.

Lincoln

1974