Richard Anderson

Richard Anderson (1926–2017) was an American actor who had a long career in film and television. Wide audiences know him for his character Oscar Goldman in two popular science fiction series of the 1970s, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.

He was born on August 8, 1926, in Long Branch, New Jersey. He spent his early childhood in New York, moving to California with his family when he was ten. He served in the US Army during World War II; After his discharge, he studied acting at the Actors' Laboratory in Los Angeles.

Cinema years

He signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1950 and appeared in nearly thirty films during his six years at the studio. The Magnificent Yankee (1950) and the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet (1956) are productions of this period. After leaving his contract in 1957, he took part in larger projects: Stanley Kubrick's anti-war film Paths of Glory (1957), Martin Ritt's The Long, Hot Summer (1958), and John Frankenheimer's political thriller Seven Days in May (1964), among them.

Television and Oscar Goldman

Anderson's real rise came on television. In the 1965-1966 season, he played homicide commissioner Steve Drumm in Perry Mason; He guested on TV series such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Fugitive, Ironside, Hawaii Five-O and Dynasty, and was also a regular cast member on Dan August. In The Six Million Dollar Man, which started in 1973, he played Oscar Goldman, the director of the agency to which the bionic agents are affiliated. She continued the same character in the spin-off series The Bionic Woman.

Richard Anderson died at his home in Beverly Hills on August 31, 2017, at the age of 91. He is remembered as an actor who built a bridge from the classical era of Hollywood to the golden age of television with his solid supporting roles, and whose name is most identified with the type of trustworthy boss.