Interview with Richard Erdman
An interview with Richard Erdman, veteran western actor
by Deborah Painter
Deborah Painter's background as a writer of articles for film related magazines, as well as books, is extensive. Since 1979 she has written for many movie magazines such as MOVIE COLLECTOR’S WORLD, FILMFAX, WILDEST WESTERNS, BIG REEL and more. She has written two books: HOLLYWOOD’S TOP DOGS: THE DOG HERO IN FILM (Midnight Marquee Press, 2008) and FORRY: THE LIFE OF FORREST J ACKERMAN (McFarland Publishing, 2010), and has hosted talks and screenings of Western films at the Williamsburg Film Festival every year since 2010 on silent western stars like Tom Mix, William S. Hart, Rex, King of the Wild Horses, and Rin-Tin-Tin.
Well known author and film historian Gene Blottner moderated a lively interview at the 2012 Williamsburg Film Festival in Williamsburg, Virginia with actor Richard Erdman, who has been in pictures for over sixty years. Gene and fellow Festival organizer Larry Floyd have kindly consented to its used for Rope and Wire. Richard Erdman has a very long resume, including roles in Stalag 17, The Men, Star in the Night, The Wild Wild West (TV), Wildfire (TV) and many more films and television series.
“What made you decide to be an actor, Richard?” Gene inquired.
“My mother and sister laughed at me.” Richard quipped.
“Hurt your feelings?”
“No, I loved it. When I was five I went to work in vaudeville at the ‘cheap theater’ in the town of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where I spent most of my childhood. I did three years in the Rocky Mountain Circuit. A dear man, my school teacher at the high school named Newton Windber, told my parents, ‘take him to Hollywood NOW!’ And they did. I went to work for Warner Brothers. “
Gene asked him of his memories of working on Objective, Burma with Errol Flynn, and what Flynn was like.
“Despite what everybody says, he was a real gentleman and was always very kind to me. The same limo took us both to work each day. Women chased Errol Flynn every day. He needed to hire two other guys to help him get them away! He chased them too.. But when he had time. And he chased them faster. “
“Tell us about your Academy Award winning short, Star in the Night, from the 1940s, in which you played a cowboy,” prompted Gene.
“Don Siegel was the director, and he said to me, ‘I want you to play this part.’ It had to do with the three wise men, but in a Western setting. The director said it was gonna win an Oscar. I thought, ‘How arrogant is he?” Well, it won an Oscar for the best two-reeler, the only two reeler ever that year!”
Gene asked Richard to talk about working with Marlon Brando in The Men.
“I was asked to be in this film about paraplegic veterans in a Birmingham hospital. Producer Stanley Kramer wanted me to live there with the real men. They were funny. Nothing was serious. They made fun of everything because it made them survive. One day the strangest young man came in to also live in the ward. He was actor Marlon Brando and he was not well known then. He did not speak to me for a week. Finally, one day, he said to me, ‘Let’s go to a nearby saloon which has room for these wheelchairs.’ Marlon said he wanted me to go also, the condition being that both of us would be pretending to be paraplegics. So we’re all there with the other men, having our drinks and enjoying ourselves, and out of nowhere comes this dizzy woman. She stood over Marlon. ‘You are paraplegic. You can’t walk.’ She said. Nobody said anything.
“’You…’ she pointed at Marlon. ‘You know, you could walk if you wanted to.’
“’Lady, go away.’
“’No, no, you can walk if you only try!’ she insisted.
“’I’ll do it.’ He struggled, stood, and then fell back into the chair.
“’You did it! You stood up! ’
“’One more, lady, one more!’ Marlon said and then he jumped up, did a jig and ran out the door!
“William Bowers was a screenwriter legend who wrote the screenplays for a number of my films. He was one of the finest ever….when not drunk. We got to be good friends. His commute took him between L. A. and a place on the outskirts, Riverside. He was bothered by a billboard along the freeway for Forest Lawn Cemetery. It read ‘don’t let seepage spoil your loved ones.’ One day he got on the phone and called Forest Lawn. ‘I’d like to arrange a plot.’
“’How old are you, sir?’
“’I’m 30,’ he replied. Well, after being congratulated by the Forest Lawn sales agent for thinking ahead, Bowers said ‘I have a special place picked out, a tree near your front office area.’
The sales person said that it was impossible to place a plot there. Bowers offered a lot of money and the man said, ‘Alright, we can do it.’
“’There’s one catch. I want lots and lots of seepage.’
“’Well, Mr. Bowers,’ the man stammered, “That is not a good thing. But if that is what you want, we can arrange it.’
“’OK, come to think of it, I may go with cremation instead, and I have a friend who’s a glider pilot, and he’ll drop my ashes by the tree.’
The cemetery staff member said “’You do that, and we’ll sue you for all you’ve got!’”
Gene Blottner asked Richard about his experiences with Dick Powell. “I always had been under the impression in the 1930s that he was a lightweight comedy performer and singer and suddenly out of nowhere comes Dick Powell, private eye in Murder My Sweet. William Bowers wrote Cry Danger for him and I was in that one, as well as four others with Mr. Powell. When I began work on Cry Danger Powell came to me and told me that I had the best part in the picture and asked how he could help me with it. A wonderful guy.”
Someone asked him about Stalag 17. Ingo Preminger was Otto Preminger’s brother and he took me to Billy Wilder’s office. Wilder said to me, ‘You’re good for the picture but you get no laughs.
“I got a big laugh in one scene from the crew and Wilder came over to me and said ‘No. Laughs.’
“For Billy to be directing another great director, Otto Preminger, is something to see!”
“You are in a new TV series, Community,” Gene asked Richard then. “What is your role?”
“Yes, I sat in a swimming pool and had two lines. It’s on Monday nights on NBC.”
“Who were the actors?” Gene inquired.
“No one you ever heard of in your life. But they are all just amazingly talented young kids. The show was produced 12 years ago and they sat on it for all those years. But it’s catching on!”
Gene Blottner reminded everyone that The San Francisco Story was one of the films at that weekend’s Film Festival. “You worked in that one with Joel McCrea and Yvonne deCarlo.”
“Joel was a dry, entertaining man. I won’t tell you what he said about Yvonne deCarlo. It wouldn’t be nice. He worked with her in a picture prior to that one. On the set he walked up to me one night and said ‘doomed again!’”
When asked who some of his favorite female co-stars were over the years, Richard mentioned Ann Sheridan, who was an underrated actress in his opinion. And his favorite film he worked on? The Men.
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Richard Erdman was in Stalag 17 and Tora! Tora! Tora!, among dozens of other films.
Image Credit, David Hawk
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Richard Erdman (center) starred with Ben Wright (left) and Robert Taylor (right) in 1956’s The Power and the Prize.
Credit, Metro Goldwyn-Mayer
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