# Show me "Dead!" - Richard Dawson dead at 79 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937 "2012-06-03T14:49:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/1 "2012-06-03T14:49:01Z")
Breaking news ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/2 "2012-06-03T15:06:45Z")
I always loved him as Newkirk. And I had no idea that The Running Man was the last thing he’d done besides game shows. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/3 "2012-06-03T15:17:10Z")
They just stopped running Match Game '74/'75 on the GSN. It had been my morning routine. RD was smarmy at times but I liked him. [This Family Feud clip always cracks me up.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7mXp6tX5oo) ---
**Author:** ![coolbyrne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@coolbyrne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coolbyrne)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/4 "2012-06-03T15:20:16Z")
100 people surveyed, top 5 answers on the board, here is your question: Name me something Richard Dawson is famous for. 1. Family Feud (88) 2. Kissing women (5) 3. The Running Man (4) 4. Hogan’s Heroes (2) 5. The Match Game (1) ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/5 "2012-06-03T15:33:29Z")
He’ll always be a hero to me. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/6 "2012-06-03T15:40:26Z")
Another girlhood crush gone. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/7 "2012-06-03T15:48:49Z")
[More info.](http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/03/12033690-family-feud-star-richard-dawson-dies-at-79?lite) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/8 "2012-06-03T16:10:19Z")
Hubby loved him in The Longest Day. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/9 "2012-06-03T16:15:46Z")
There’s a funny clip of him on YouTube explaining that he was ordered to do a Cockney accent on “Hogan’s Heroes” instead of his native Liverpudlian because Americans wouldn’t be able to recognize/understand the latter. Not long afterwards, _A Hard Day’s Night_ was breaking all US box office records. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/10 "2012-06-03T16:24:05Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > [More info.](http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/03/12033690-family-feud-star-richard-dawson-dies-at-79?lite) > [@](#): > > Dawson hit fame playing a British prisoner of war in the the bizarre 1960s comedy show “Hogan’s Heroes,” which made out his Nazi captors as benevolent bumblers. Yeah, Major Hochstetter and General Burkhalter were such kindly characters! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/11 "2012-06-03T16:34:16Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Hubby loved him in The Longest Day. What role did he play? At which point in the film? Apparently it was a bit part, because he’s listed at IMDB as “uncredited.” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/12 "2012-06-03T16:35:45Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > There’s a funny clip of him on YouTube explaining that he was ordered to do a Cockney accent on “Hogan’s Heroes” instead of his native Liverpudlian because Americans wouldn’t be able to recognize/understand the latter. Not long afterwards, _A Hard Day’s Night_ was breaking all US box office records. Odd, since A Hard Day’s Night was released before the show aired. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/13 "2012-06-03T16:39:01Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Yeah, Major Hochstetter and General Burkhalter were such kindly characters! Did you know that virtually all the actors who played Germans on “Hogan’s Heroes” were Jewish (inlcuding Howard Caine, aka Hochstetter) and that some (including Robert Clary, aka LeBeau) had actually been in Nazi concentration camps? They all jumped at the chance to ridicule their former oppressors. Bob Crane once stated in an interview that the point of the series was to show how clever Allied prisoners of war were in outsmarting their captors. If you’ve ever read _The Great Escape_, you know what he was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/14 "2012-06-03T16:40:46Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > Odd, since A Hard Day’s Night was released before the show aired. I believe they had just finished filming the pilot for “Hogan’s Heroes.” Don’t take my word for it, look up the clip yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/15 "2012-06-03T16:54:23Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Did you know that virtually all the actors who played Germans on “Hogan’s Heroes” were Jewish (inlcuding Howard Caine, aka Hochstetter) and that some (including Robert Clary, aka LeBeau) had actually been in Nazi concentration camps? Yes, I did. What I was getting at is that I’m not sure the writer ‘got’ the show (or had seen it). Schultz was benevolent. Before the war he was a toymaker. He didn’t have an axe to grind, and just wanted the war to be over. There was a sad sack skinny guard who didn’t seem a bad sort. He wasn’t benevolent, but he wasn’t a bad guy either. Klink? I wouldn’t call him benevolent. He was a petty martinet. Maybe not quite so bad as a peacetime middle-manager, but not exactly kindly. Major Hochstetter and General Burkhalter were anything but benevolent. Hochstetter was downright nasty. Bunglers? Yes. Definitely. (Though Hochstetter seemed to be outmaneuvered more than incompetent.) But aside from Schultz, I wouldn’t call any of them ‘benevolent’. As for ‘bizarre’, I suppose one could see it as such if one thinks the German characters were cuddly. But they weren’t, so it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/16 "2012-06-03T16:57:58Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > [This Family Feud clip always cracks me up.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7mXp6tX5oo) I hadn’t seen that one, thanks. Pressure can do weird things to people. [This is my favorite.](http://youtu.be/lpSbeiPLB30) Dawson totally loses it at a contestant’s dumb answer and just can’t. stop. laughing! I feel sorry for that 2nd lady who has no idea what’s going on. I wish I could see her reaction at what he was laughing about, but I haven’t found a longer clip. RIP Richard. I watched Hogan’s Heroes, Match Game, Family Feud, saw Running Man, not to mention your stint as a panelist on [I’ve Got A Secret](http://youtu.be/Kd5TPKkifzI) (love this clip, it’s well worth watching), and loved all your incarnations. Here’s a young Richard Dawson on [The Dating Game](http://youtu.be/a-9EJxpMyjU)! (w a pre- **Incredible Hulk** Bill Bixby) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/17 "2012-06-03T17:04:14Z")
Always liked him. He was the less-creepy Peter Lawford. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/18 "2012-06-03T17:04:46Z")
Before Hogan he appeared on an episode of the Dick van Dyke Show playing ‘Racy’ Tracy Rattigan. He is absolutely inspired in this. Just watch this YouTube clip from the show where he does his Bird Impressions. It’s obvious that van Dyke and the others are in genuine fits of laughter as they watch him. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huZ6P2ClHAg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huZ6P2ClHAg) God rest you, mate. (He comes from my neck of the woods, near Portsmouth, England). NB Sound is a little out of sync but it doesn’t spoil the enjoyment. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/19 "2012-06-03T17:14:03Z")
He seemed like a pretty cool guy. RIP! ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937/20 "2012-06-03T17:22:39Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I believe they had just finished filming the pilot for “Hogan’s Heroes.” > > Don’t take my word for it, look up the clip yourself. He saud he was in New York to receive prizes for the show, so it must have aired already. Then his story implies that a network executive would not have heard of the Beatles until a Hard Days Night, even though they had alrady been on the Ed Sullivan show. Great story, just not true. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/show-me-dead-richard-dawson-dead-at-79/623937.md?page=2)