Richard Dawson (born Colin Lionel Emm; 20 November 1932 – 2 June 2012) was an English and American actor, comedian, game-show host, and panelist. He was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk in Hogan's Heroes, as a regular panelist on Match Game (1973–1978), and as the original host of Family Feud (1976–1985, 1994–1995).
Early life
Colin Lionel Emm was born in Gosport, Hampshire, England, on 20 November 1932. His father drove a removal van and his mother worked in a munitions factory. Colin and his older brother, John Leslie Emm, were evacuated from their home as children during World War II to escape the bombing of England's major port cities in the south. In a radio interview with Hogan's Heroes co-star Bob Crane, Emm (by this point, known by his changed name) recounted how this experience severely limited his school attendance, stating that he attended school regularly for only two years.
At age 14, Emm ran away from home to join the British Merchant Navy, where he pursued a career in boxing, earning almost $5,000 in shipboard matches. In 1950 and 1951, Emm made several passages on the RMS Mauretania from Southampton to ports of call, including Nassau, the Bahamas, Havana, and New York City. Following his discharge from the merchant service, Emm began pursuing a comedy career using the stage name Dickie Dawson; he later changed his alias to Richard Dawson, which he eventually adopted as his legal name.
Career
Comedy and variety artist in the UK
Dawson began his career in England as a stand-up comedian known as Dickie Dawson. Possibly his first television appearance occurred on 21 June 1954, at age 21, and was featured on the Benny Hill Showcase, an early BBC Television programme focused on "introducing artists and acts new to television".
Dawson also had at least four BBC Radio programme appearances during 1954, including two bookings on the Midday Music Hall on BBC Home Service and two spots on How Do You Do, a BBC Light Entertainment broadcast billed as "a friendly get-together of Commonwealth artists."
In 1958, Dawson appeared alongside his future wife, Diana Dors, on BBC TV's A to Z: D, a programme featuring entertainers with names beginning with the letter D. The following year, he made four appearances on BBC TV's Juke Box Jury, three of them alongside Dors, to whom he was by then married.
Actor and comedian in the US
After his move to the US in September 1961, Dawson began hosting a late-night talk show, the Mike Stokey Show, on Los Angeles television station KCOP-TV. On 8 January 1963, Dawson appeared on The Jack Benny Program, season 13, episode 15, as an audience member seated next to Benny, barely recognisable in glasses and false moustache. That same year, Dawson made a guest appearance on The Dick Van Dyke Show (season two, episode 27) playing "Racy" Tracy Rattigan, a lecherous flirt who was the summer replacement host on the Alan Brady Show. He was credited as Dick Dawson.
In 1965, Dawson had a small role at the end of the film King Rat, starring George Segal, playing 1st Recon paratrooper Captain Weaver, sent to liberate allied POWs in a Japanese prison. Dawson had by then moved to Los Angeles. He gained fame in the television show Hogan's Heroes as Cpl. Peter Newkirk from 1965 to 1971. Dawson had a minor role in Universal's Munster, Go Home!. A year later, he released a psychedelic 45-rpm single including the songs "His Children's Parade" and "Apples & Oranges" on Carnation Records. In 1968, Dawson was in the film The Devil's Brigade as Private Hugh McDonald.
Following the cancellation of Hogan's Heroes, Dawson was a regular joke-telling panelist on the short-lived syndicated revival of the game show Can You Top This? in 1970 and joined the cast of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In that same year.
After Laugh-In was cancelled in 1973, game-show pioneer Mark Goodson signed Dawson to appear as a regular on Match Game '73, alongside Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and host Gene Rayburn. Dawson, who had already served a year as panelist for Goodson's revival of I've Got a Secret, proved to be a solid and funny player, and was the frequent choice of contestants to participate in the Head-To-Head Match portion of the "Super-Match" bonus round, in which the contestant and a panelist of the contestant's choice had to match exactly. Dawson was chosen in the bonus round so frequently that they eventually made a rule change where the celebrity partner was randomly selected for the player. During Dawson's time on Match Game, he most often occupied the bottom centre seat, only sitting elsewhere (in the top centre seat) during one week early in the show's run.
Family Feud host and TV stardom
Due to his popularity on Match Game, Dawson expressed to Goodson his desire to host a show of his own. In 1975, during Dawson's tenure as one of Match Game's regular panelists, Goodson began developing a spin-off game show, Family Feud, based on the "Super Match" portion of Match Game. Goodson specifically saw the show as a vehicle for Dawson, due to his popularity among Match Game contestants. Family Feud debuted on 12 July 1976, on ABC's daytime schedule. Family Feud was a break-out hit, eventually surpassing the ratings of Match Game in late 1977. In 1978, Dawson left Match Game due to a combination of the recent introduction of the "Star Wheel"—which affected his being selected for the Head-To-Head Match portion of the show's "Super Match" bonus round—and burnout from his regular appearances on both Match Game and Family Feud. That same year, Dawson won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Game Show Host for his work on Family Feud. After Dawson left Match Game, his spot on the panel was filled with many other stars—most notably his friend Bob Barker, who was then the host of The Price is Right.
One of Dawson's trademarks on Family Feud, kissing the female contestants, earned him the nickname "The Kissing Bandit". Television executives repeatedly tried to get him to stop the kissing. After receiving criticism for the practice (which also included a great deal of physical contact such as holding hands and touching), Dawson asked viewers to write in and vote on the matter. The wide majority of the roughly 200,000 responses favoured the kissing. On the 1985 finale, Dawson explained that he kissed female contestants for love and luck, something his mother did with Dawson himself as a child.
From 1974 to 1975, Dawson hosted the revival of the Masquerade Party with Jay Stewart announcing.
Dawson was a frequent guest host for Tonight Show host Johnny Carson, hosting 14 times during 1979. Dawson was a contender for the role of Tonight Show host in the event that Carson left the show, a move that Carson was seriously considering during 1979–80. Carson ended up remaining as host until 1992. Two of the few Carson-era Tonight Show episodes that did not air on the night they were intended were guest hosted by Dawson. During one, actress Della Reese suffered a near-fatal aneurysm midinterview during taping; the remainder of the episode was cancelled. (Reese later recovered.) The other featured a prescient monologue regarding the danger of flying on aeroplanes; it was replaced with a rerun because it would have aired the same night as the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in Chicago, which killed all 271 people aboard, as well as two on the ground. The episode was aired several weeks later.
Dawson also had a few roles as a voice actor, working with Hanna Barbera and having the lead role in Treasure Island (1973) where he voiced Long John Silver. From 1973 to 1974 he had a reuccuring role as Richard Richardson on The New Dick Van Dyke Show.
Later years
Dawson parodied his TV persona in 1987's The Running Man opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, portraying the evil, egotistical game-show host Damon Killian. Dawson received rave reviews for his performance. Film critic Roger Ebert (who gave the film a thumbs down) wrote, "Playing a character who…