Richard Haydn

George Richard Haydn (March 10, 1905 – April 25, 1985) was a British actor.

Early life

George Richard Haydon was born in 1905 in Camberwell, in the London Borough of Southwark. After working as a music hall entertainer and overseer of a Jamaican banana plantation, he joined a touring British theatre troupe,^[1] where he shortened his last name from "Haydon" to "Haydn", and debuted on Broadway in 1939 in Set to Music and appeared in Two for the Show (1940).^[2]

Career

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

Some of Haydn's notable performances include Professor Oddley in Ball of Fire (1941), Roger in No Time for Love (1943), the manservant Thomas Rogers in And Then There Were None (1945) - based on Agatha Christie's book of the same name - Emperor Franz Joseph in The Emperor Waltz (1948), the voice of the Caterpillar in Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951), Baron Popoff in The Merry Widow (1952), and William Brown in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Haydn 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.^[1][3]

In the late 1940s, Haydn briefly worked as a film director, for the films Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948), Dear Wife (1949), and Mr. Music (1950). 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.^[3]

On radio, Haydn played Edwin Carp on The Charlie McCarthy Show,^[4] and he was a regular on The Swan Soap Show, which featured George Burns and Gracie Allen.^[4] Haydn wrote one book, titled The Journal of Edwin Carp, in 1954. In the 1960 The Twilight Zone episode "A Thing About Machines", Hayden played Bartlett Finchley, a quirky, self-absorbed, technophobe who is confronted by every machine in his home.

Haydn reprised the role of Edwin Carp for a 1964 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show which saluted several old-time radio performers. He also appeared as a Japanese businessman in a 1968 episode of Bewitched, a magician in a 1969 episode of Bonanza, and a butler in a 1973 episode of Love American Style. Haydn's last film role was as Gerhard Falkstein in Young Frankenstein (1974).

Death

On April 25, 1985, Haydn died from a heart attack at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, at the age of 80.^[5] His body was donated to the University of California, Los Angeles.^[6]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

1. ^ Eder, Bruce (2014). "Richard Haydn: Full Biography". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
2. ^ "Richard Haydn". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
3. ^ Richard Haydn AFI Catalog
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ Staff (April 26, 1985). "Body of Actor Richard Haydn Found in His Palisades Home". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
6. ^ Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.. McFarland. p. 326. ISBN 9781476625997. Retrieved 14 December 2017.