Richard Erdman

Richard Erdman ( John Richard Erdmann; June 1, 1925 – March 16, 2019) was an American character actor and occasional film and television director. He appeared in more than 160 films and television productions between 1944 and 2017, mostly in supporting roles. He is most known for his roles in the classic films Stalag 17 (1953) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). In his final years, Erdman found renewed fame through his portrayal of Leonard in the critically acclaimed comedy series Community (2009–2015). Early life Erdman was born John Richard Erdmann in Enid, Oklahoma. His parents divorced during his childhood. He, a sibling, and their mother moved to Colorado Springs when he was a teenager. He graduated from Palmer High School, where he would perform on stage. During his youth, he worked as a paper boy for the Colorado Springs Evening Telegraph. A stage director named Newton Winburne encouraged him to try his luck in Hollywood. Career Erdman started his career at Warner Bros. where he signed a studio contract. Two of his first roles were in the films Mr. Skeffington, starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains and Janie, starring Joyce Reynolds. After a few smaller roles he achieved success as a character actor in supporting roles. In a career that spanned seven decades, his best-known roles are that of the barracks chief Hoffy in Stalag 17, and the garrulous, tedious barfly McNulty in the Twilight Zone episode "A Kind of a Stopwatch". He also appeared in The Men (1950) with Marlon Brando and the film noir Cry Danger (1951) with Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming. In Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) he played Colonel Edward F. French, the officer who responded to the failure to transmit the warning to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In the CBS TV series Perry Mason he played as murder victim Arthur Binney in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Gilded Lily". He later played in "The Case of the Absent Artist" (1962), "The Case of the Antic Angel" (1964), and "The Case of the Vanishing Victim" (1966).