I didn’t see another thread. Mods can close this if it’s a duplicate.
Richard Anderson, who was best known for playing OSI chief Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, died yesterday at the age of 91. Goldman, who was discovered on television by Cary Grant in 1949 and went on to appear in 30 movies, became the first actor to play the same character in two shows on different networks when The Bionic Woman, which started on ABC alongside its parent show, The Six Million Dollar Man, was moved to NBC.
He was part of what was one of my greatest shows of my youth* (I still love the opening to this day) and possibly the first sci-fi show that captured my imagination.
Also in The Bionic Woman-This Six Million Dollar Man crossover “Kill Oscar” the Fembots (although some were male :dubious:) were very creepy to me, especially when their faceplates fell off revealing the electronics inside, followed by creepy music and/or sound effects.
The Bionic Woman was OK, but would have been better without that stupid dog.
*Well, fighting a robotic Bigfoot who protected aliens is pretty damn silly, but otherwise…
Anderson was a very good character actor. He had a steady career and pops up in quite a few old TV shows.
He had several guest roles in Big Valley with Lee Majors a decade before the Six Million Dollar Man.
The Big Valley
(TV Series 1966-1969)
Warden Garreck / Hen Matson / Nathan Springer / Mel Trevor / Travers (5 episodes, 1966-1969)
I checked the Archive of American Television. They have interviewed as many of the older producers, directors and actors as possible. Preserving an oral history of television’s early days.
I’m a bit disappointed they didn’t interview Richard Anderson. I’m not sure how healthy he was in the past few years.
I’ve been having a memorial tribute this morning: Forbidden Planet, The Night Strangler, and that episode of Columbo where his sister shoots him and says she thought he was a burglar. Sadly. Mr. Anderson gets killed in all of these.
But wasn’t it also bionic, though?
How cool is that?
(I must admit I can’t immediately recall its superpowers. Hearing, was it? There’d be an ear close-up, with that unique bionic superpower sound effect that’s next to impossible trying to articulate exactly what that sound is, IIRC.)
It’s not like it was a bionic vole or anything.
I’ll take a bionic dog over a normal dog any day of the week.*
*hmmmmm…getting possible hard-on over new possible signature.
Max - 4 bionic legs, bionic jaw, mentally unstable, ideal family pet.
Restored to sanity by Jaime’s dog-whispering talents. Isn’t that a TV trope, maiden calms violent beast, bringing out his finer qualities?
The bionic hearing was Jaime herself. Great show for anyone with an ear fetish. Ear close-up with the dong-dong-dong-dong-dong-dong (decreasing volume) sound.
I’ve seen Richard Anderson in a lot of old shows courtesy of all the retro networks. He was in Zorro as a friend of Don Diego’s. He played Ronny Howard’s father in an episode of I Spy