Richard Dysart obit

Richard Dysart, the Patriarchal Senior Partner of 'L.A. Law,' Dies at 86

He was not on the list.

Richard Dysart, the Emmy-winning actor who portrayed the cranky senior partner Leland McKenzie in the slick, long-running NBC drama L.A. Law, has died. He was 86.

Dysart, who also played Coach in the original 1972 Broadway production of Jason Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning That Championship Season, died Sunday at home in Santa Monica after a long illness, his wife, artist Kathryn Jacobi, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The acclaimed L.A. Law — created by Steven Bochco (who eventually handed off the series to David E. Kelley) and Terry Louise Fisher — aired for eight seasons from 1986 to 1994. For playing the founder of the firm McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak, Dysart was nominated for the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for four straight years, finally winning the trophy in 1992.

“I always had him in mind for that role,” Bochco said in a 2002 interview with the Archive of American Television. “He’s so avuncular. So I reached out to him. You know, Dick is sort of an old hippie. So he went into his closet and tried to find a lawyer outfit, and he came to meet us wearing a suit and tie. He was perfect.”

“We got together, mapped out the character’s past to give us a basis from which to work, and it’s all gone smoothly since then,” he said in a 1990 interview with The Seattle Times. “Sometimes I worry — it’s all been going too well — a role I love to play in a series that's about as good as you can get. Something’s wrong!”

Perhaps Dysart’s most memorable character arc on the show was when he was found in bed with power-hungry competitor Rosalind Shays (played by Diana Muldaur). He was one of the few actors to appear in every episode.

Dysart's range of authority ­figure parts ran right to the top. He limned Harry Truman in the CBS telefilm Day One and in the ABC miniseries War and Remembrance, both of which aired in 1989, and he was Henry L. Stimson, the 33rd U.S. president’s Secretary of War, in the 1995 HBO telefilm Truman, starring Gary Sinise.

Similarly, he played the Secretary of Defense in Meteor (1979).

Dysart also performed extensively in the medical­ (movie) field, performing enough doctor roles to, perhaps, qualify to practice. His two most memorable came in classic satires: in Paddy Chayevsky’s scathing The Hospital (1971), starring George C. Scott (a good friend), and in Being There (1979), as Melvyn Douglas’ doctor.

He also was a doctor who died a gruesome death in John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and a physician in such films as The Terminal Man (1974), The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) and Warning Sign (1985).

Dysart portrayed J. Edgar Hoover in the 1993 USA telefilm Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair and in Mario Van Peebles’ Panther (1995).

Dysart also excelled as cranky coots and shifty sorts. He portrayed a motel receptionist in Richard Lester's Petulia (1968); was the bad guy who battled Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider (1985); stood out as a power player in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987); and sold barbwire in Back to the Future III (1990).

Dysart was born March 30, 1929, in Boston and raised in Maine. Following high school, he attended the Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, for a year, served in the U.S. Air Force and attended Emerson College, where he graduated with a master's degree in speech communications.

At the time, he was interested in a career in radio (he became fascinated with the medium in first grade, when he was bedridden for a year because of rheumatic fever) but was soon tempted by acting. He moved to New York on a whim and was able to land minor roles on TV and a part in an off-Broadway production of The Iceman Cometh opposite Jason Robards.

In the mid-1960s, he joined the American Conservatory Theater and toured the country doing plays, then landed roles on Broadway in All in Good Time, The Little Foxes and A Place Without Doors.

He received a Drama Desk Award for his performance in That Championship Season.

Dysart’s credits include an eclectic array of movies, including The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974), The Day of the Locust (1975), The Hindenburg (1975), An Enemy of the People (1978), Prophecy (1979), Mask (1985), Warning Sign (1985) and Hard Rain (1998).

On television, he was top-notch in the telefilms The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), The People vs. Jean Harris (1981), as Dwight D. Eisenhower in The Last Days of Patton (1986) and as studio chief Louis B. Mayer in Malice in Wonderland (1985).

Survivors also include his stepson Arie and daughter-in-law Jeannine Jacobi, mother-in-law Lenore, brother and sister-in-law Nadine and John Jacobi and grandchildren Abby and Levi.

A private memorial is being planned. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, an outdoor theater in Topanga Canyon in the Los Angeles area.

Dysart and Jacobi had a second home in the forests of British Columbia. He was lured out of retirement for his last onscreen appearance, the L.A. Law reunion telefilm of 2002.

“They remain timely, with cases about points of law that are still current,” he said of watching L.A. Law reruns in a 2002 interview with The Bangor Daily News. “[The show] was also one of the fathers of yuppiedom. It was very much of the times, and very Los Angeles. It holds up as well as any series I know.”

Selected filmography

 

Actor

Proteus (2004, Documentary) - The Ancient Mariner (voice)

 2002 L.A. Law: The Movie (TV Movie)

Leland McKenzie

 1997-1999 Todd McFarlane's Spawn (TV Series)

Cogliostro

Show all 18 episodes

 1999 Todd McFarlane's Spawn 3: The Ultimate Battle

Cogliostro (voice)

 1998 Todd McFarlane's Spawn 2

Cogliostro (voice)

 1998 Hard Rain

Henry Sears

 1997 Todd McFarlane's Spawn (Video)

Cogliostro (voice)

 1995 A Child Is Missing (TV Movie)

Riley Hallihan

 1995 Truman (TV Movie)

Henry L. Stimson

 1995/I Panther

J. Edgar Hoover

 1995 My Secret Summer (TV Series)

Captain

 1992-1994 Batman: The Animated Series (TV Series)

Dr. Bartholomew

1986-1994 L.A. Law (TV Series)

Leland McKenzie

1993 Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair (TV Movie)

J. Edgar Hoover

 1993 The Wild West (TV Mini-Series)

- Dreamers & Wayfarers/Chroniclers (1993) ... (voice)

 1991 Mystery of the Keys (TV Movie)

 1990 Back to the Future Part III

Barbwire Salesman

 1989 War and Remembrance (TV Mini-Series)

President Harry S Truman

1989 Day One (TV Movie)

President Harry S. Truman

 1988 Mickey's 60th Birthday (TV Movie)

Leland McKenzie

 1988 Moving Target (TV Movie)

Arthur Cambridge

 1987 Wall Street

Cromwell

 1987 Six Against the Rock (TV Movie)

Warden James Johnston

 1986 The Last Days of Patton (TV Movie)

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

 1986 Castle in the Sky

Uncle Pom (Disney dub) (English version, voice)

 1986 Moses (Video short) (voice)

 1986 Blood & Orchids (TV Movie)

Harvey Koster

 1985 The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (TV Series)

- Moses (1985) ... (voice)

 1985 Warning Sign

Dr. Nielsen

 1985 Pale Rider

Coy LaHood

 1985 Malice in Wonderland (TV Movie)

Louis B. Mayer

 1985 Mask

Abe

 1985 The Falcon and the Snowman

Dr. Lee

 1984 The Smurfs (TV Series)

Additional Voices

1984 Challenge of the GoBots (TV Series)

Additional Voices (voice)

 1984 Insight (TV Series)

Sam

1984 American Playhouse (TV Series)

Lloyd Paul Stryker

1982 Missing Children: A Mother's Story (TV Movie)

Hunter Burgess

 1982 The Thing

Dr. Copper

 1981 The Seal (TV Movie)

 1981 Norma Rae (TV Movie)

Judge Elvin Allen

 1981 The People vs. Jean Harris (TV Movie)

Judge Russell R. Leggett

 1981 Bitter Harvest (TV Movie)

Dr. Morton Freeman

 1980 The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd (TV Movie)

Edwin Stanton

 1980 Bogie (TV Movie)

Jack Warner

 1980 Lou Grant (TV Series)

Mitchell Webster

1979 Being There

Dr. Robert Allenby

 1979 Meteor

Secretary of Defense

 1979 Churchill and the Generals (TV Movie)

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

 1979 Prophecy

Isely

 1978 First, You Cry (TV Movie)

Dr. Brennerman

 1978 Visions (TV Series)

 1978 An Enemy of the People

Aslaksen (as Richard A. Dysart)

 1978 Columbo (TV Series)

Max Duval

1977 It Happened One Christmas (TV Movie)

Peter Bailey

 1977 The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer (TV Movie)

 1977 The Andros Targets (TV Series)

Dr. Kipness

1976 Riding with Death (TV Movie)

Leonard Driscoll (flashback scenes)

 1976 Gemini Man (TV Mini-Series)

Leonard Driscoll

1976 Sara (TV Series)

Noonan

1976 Cannon (TV Series)

Hartford Dunne

1975-1976 Lincoln (TV Mini-Series)

Judge David Davis

1975 The Hindenburg

Captain Ernst Lehman (as Richard A. Dysart)

 1975 Doctors' Hospital (TV Series)

1975 McCoy (TV Series)

Boylin

- Bless the Big Fish (1975) ... Boylin

 1975 Doc (TV Series)

Helpman

1975 Maude (TV Series)

Mason Everhardt

1975 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (TV Movie)

Matt Drayton

 1975 The Day of the Locust

Claude Estee

 1975 Baretta (TV Series)

Wilmont Harmond

1974 The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder

Father (as Richard A. Dysart)

 1974 The Terminal Man

Dr. John Ellis

 1974 The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (TV Movie)

Master Bryant (as Richard A. Dysart)

 1972 Another World (TV Series)

Gil McGowan

1972 All in the Family (TV Series)

Russ DeKuyper

- Edith Gets a Mink (1972) ... Russ DeKuyper (as Richard A. Dysart)

 1966-1972 NET Playhouse (TV Series)

Calvin / Rich Man

1971 The Hospital

Dr. Welbeck (as Richard A. Dysart)

 1971 The Sporting Club

Spengler

 1969 The Lost Man

Barnes

 1969 CBS Playhouse (TV Series)

Jerry Arnst

1968 Petulia

Motel Receptionist

 1965 The Defenders (TV Series)

Mr. Westfall

1964 The Doctors and the Nurses (TV Series)

Ralph

1964 Mr. Broadway (TV Series)

Donovan

1963 Love with the Proper Stranger

Accountant (uncredited)

 1963 East Side/West Side (TV Series)

Tom Morgan

1959 Art Carney Special (TV Series)

1953 You Are There (TV Series)

Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold

The Pat Sajak Show (TV Series)

Himself

1988 Your Alcohol I.Q. (Video documentary short)

Himself