Richard Erdman

Acting

Richard Erdman

Born 1925-06-01 · Enid, Oklahoma, USA

Richard Erdman (June 1, 1925 - March 16, 2019) was an American film and television actor and director. In a career that has spanned seven decades, his best known roles are that of the barracks chief Hoffy in Stalag 17, and McNulty in the classic Twilight Zone episode "A Kind of a Stopwatch". In Tora Tora Tora he played Colonel Edward F. French, the officer who responded to the failure to transmit the warning to Pearl Harbor using Army radio to instead use commercial telegraph rather than using the Navy or FBI radio systems. Erdman appeared as the blackmailer, Arthur Binney, in the Perry Mason first season TV episode "The Case Of The Gilded Lily" aired May 24, 1958. In 1960, he co-starred with Tab Hunter in the short-lived The Tab Hunter Show on NBC, which aired opposite The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS and Lawman with John Russell on ABC. He was very funny when he appeared as a Broadway wardrobe man named Buck Brown on "The Dick Van Dyke Show". In 1962, Erdman had a recurring role as Klugie, the photographer, in the short-lived Nick Adams-John Larkin NBC series Saints and Sinners.

Acting credits

Tora! Tora! Tora! poster
7.2

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

1970

The Pagemaster poster
6.4

Rich knows a lot about accidents. So much so, he is scared to do anything that might endanger him, like riding his bike, or climbing into his treehouse. While in an old library, he is mystically transported into the unknown world of books, and he has to try and get home again.

The Pagemaster

1994

Trancers poster
6.0

Angel City trooper Jack Deth is sent back in time from 2247 to 1985 L.A. to inhabit the body of his ancestor. Deth's assignment is to find his archenemy, Whistler, who turns people into zombies, before the fiend is able to kill all the ancestors of the future's governing council.

Trancers

1984

Mr. Skeffington poster
6.8

A beautiful but vain woman who rejects the love of her older husband must face the loss of her youth and beauty.

Mr. Skeffington

1944

Mr. Majestyk poster
6.8

A melon farmer battles organized crime and a hit man who wants to kill him.

Mr. Majestyk

1974

Mr. Majestyk poster
6.8

A melon farmer battles organized crime and a hit man who wants to kill him.

Mr. Majestyk

1974

Stewardess School poster
4.9

A group of varied misfits (including a former prostitute/stripper and a bumbler who can't see more than 6 inches in front of his face) enter a school to become flight attendants. Somehow, the group makes it through to the final test: a cross-country flight.

Stewardess School

1986

Stalag 17 poster
7.7

After two American prisoners are killed by guards in the act of escaping from a German POW camp in World War II, barracks black marketeer J.J. Sefton is suspected of being an informer.

Stalag 17

1953

Wild Harvest poster
7.0

Joe is the head of an itinerant combine crew, working the harvests against rival crew boss Alperson. Joe's buddy Jim joins the crew with startup money. Farmer's niece Fay falls for Joe. He puts her off. To get back she marries Jim whom she prods into high-grading the grain (skimming off some for private sale). The last payment on Joe's machinery is due just as he discover's what his buddy has been doing.

Wild Harvest

1947

Saddle the Wind poster
6.7

Steve Sinclair is a world-weary former gunslinger, now living as a peaceful farmer. Things go wrong when his wild younger brother Tony arrives on the scene with his new bride Joan Blake.

Saddle the Wind

1958

The Blue Gardenia poster
6.5

Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.

The Blue Gardenia

1953

Hollywood Canteen poster
7.3

Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place.

Hollywood Canteen

1944

Objective, Burma! poster
6.9

A group of men parachute into Japanese-occupied Burma with a dangerous and important mission: to locate and blow up a radar station. They accomplish this well enough, but when they try to rendezvous at an old air-strip to be taken back to their base, they find Japanese waiting for them, and they must make a long, difficult walk back through enemy-occupied jungle.

Objective, Burma!

1945

The Very Thought of You poster
6.4

Army sergeants Dave and "Fixit" spend a three-day pass in Pasadena, where they meet Janet and Cora, two young women who work in a parachute factory.

The Very Thought of You

1944

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge poster
5.4

Spider-Man goes to China to help an official accused of World War II treachery. Two episodes of the TV series "Spider Man" edited together and released as a feature.

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge

1981

Tomboy poster
4.9

A budding female race-car driver finally meets her racing idol and unbelievably they fall in love...a love that's quickly put to the test when, having received the chance to show her racing talents, the two find themselves in a race for a multi-million dollar sponsorship contract.

Tomboy

1985

The Men poster
7.0

Ken, a WWII GI, returns home after he's paralyzed in battle. Residing in the paraplegic ward of a veteran's hospital and embittered by his condition, he refuses to see his fiancée and sinks into a solitary world of hatred and hostility. Head physician, Dr. Brock cajoles the withdrawn Ken into the life of the ward, where fellow patients Norm, Leo and Angel begin to pull him out of his spiritual dilemma.

The Men

1950

Deception poster
6.7

After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.

Deception

1946

Heidi's Song poster
6.3

Orphan Heidi lives with her grandpa in Swiss Alps. She brings joy to all there. However, her aunt takes her to the city to live as a servant girl to a cold rich strict family and their nice but sad handicapped daughter.

Heidi's Song

1982

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker poster
8.0

This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker

1991

Jumping Jacks poster
6.5

Nightclub entertainer Hap Smith has a new act since his former partner Chick Allen joined the army. With his lovely new female partner, Hap now plays a clownish parody of a soldier. When Chick organises a soldier show at Fort Benning, he realizes he needs his former partner's help—so, to get onto the base, Hap impersonates a hapless real soldier, but circumstances force them to prolong the masquerade, creating an increasingly tangled Army-sized SNAFU.

Jumping Jacks

1952

The Stooge poster
6.7

Bill Miller is an unsuccessful Broadway performer until his handlers convince him to enhance his act with a stooge—Ted Rogers, a guy positioned in the audience to be the butt of Bill's jokes. After Ted begins to steal the show, Bill's girlfriend and his pals advise him to make Ted an equal partner.

The Stooge

1951

Valet Girls poster
4.3

A young girl who aspires to a singing career gets herself and her best friend a job as valet parking girls at a Malibu party in order to meet people who can help them achieve their dreams.

Valet Girls

1987

The Brass Bottle poster
6.3

A genie tends to get his master into more predicaments than he gets him out of.

The Brass Bottle

1964

Behind the camera