Richard Dysart

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). Early life Richard Dysart was born to Alice (née Hennigar) and Douglas Dysart, a podiatrist, near Boston, Massachusetts, on March 30, 1929. Dysart was raised in Skowhegan, Maine and Augusta, Maine. He attended Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine. At the encouragement of his mother, Dysart performed in summer stock at the Lakewood Theater near Skowhegan. He also worked at a local radio station. He earned both bachelor's (1956) and master's (1981) in speech communication from Emerson College in Boston, although his undergraduate education was interrupted due to his service for four years in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. At Emerson he performed on stage, and he was a class officer and student government vice-president. He was a brother of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity. He also studied at George Washington University. He returned for his master's degree later, completing it in 1981. Career Dysart's acting career began on the stage. He was a founding member of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, which began in 1965. He performed on Broadway in All in Good Time (1965) and A Place Without Doors (1970-1971), and a revival of The Little Foxes (1967–1968) as Horace Giddens, alongside Anne Bancroft. Dysart played the role of Coach in the original Broadway production of Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season, alongside Charles Durning and Paul Sorvino, from 1972 to 1974.