Richard Reeves (actor)


Richard Reeves, also billed as Dick Reeves, was an American character actor best known for playing henchmen and thugs. He performed in hundreds of film and television roles between the 1940s and 1960s.

Early life and film career

Richard Jourdan Reeves grew up in an affluent section of Queens, New York, the elder of two children of bank executive Walter Reeves and his wife, the former Marie Titsink. He studied music in school; and then, at the age of 18, he worked as a seaman, spending much of his time in the 1930s aboard ships that plied the New York-Havana route. In April 1942, shortly after the United States entered World War II, Reeves enlisted in the U.S. Army and by war's end had risen to the rank of sergeant in the 1208 Service Command Unit. After the war, he resumed his efforts to get more film work as an actor in Los Angeles, where by the late 1940s and early 1950s he became a busy supporting player in various movie productions.

Television

Beginning in the early 1950s, Reeves began to perform on a variety of television series. His height, heavy build, and general "tough guy" appearance led to his being frequently cast as bullies, robbers, and mob enforcers in modern crime dramas, as well as in many Westerns and sitcoms. He, for example, portrayed those types of characters in five episodes of the Adventures of Superman between 1952 and 1956. Reeves appeared in scores of other series as well in the 1950s and 1960s, such as I Love Lucy, Mr. Ed, The Roy Rogers Show, Four Star Playhouse, Batman, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Sugarfoot, Maverick, Tales of Wells Fargo, TV Reader's Digest, Date with the Angels, My Favorite Martian, Annie Oakley, and Fury. In 1955 Reeves appeared as Cliff Bartow on the TV western Cheyenne in the episode "Border Showdown."

Death

Reeves died of cirrhosis at age 54. He is buried in Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California.

Selected filmography