Richard Dysart

Richard Allen Dysart (March 30, 1929 – April 5, 2015) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as senior partner Leland McKenzie in the television series L.A. Law (1986–1994), for which he won a 1992 Primetime Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series after four consecutive nominations. In film, he held supporting roles in The Hospital, Being There (1979), The Thing (1982), Mask (1985), Pale Rider (1985) and Wall Street (1987).

Early life Richard Dysart was born to Alice (née Hennigar) and Douglas Dysart, a podiatrist, near Boston, Massachusetts, Dysart was raised in Skowhegan, Maine and Augusta, Maine. He was a brother of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity.

In 1979, Dysart portrayed a good-hearted physician treating a dying billionaire in the film Being There,

His other movie credits included roles in The Hindenburg (as Ernst A. Lehmann), He appeared in an episode of the 1976 television series Sara.

Personal life and death Dysart was married three times. The first two marriages resulted in divorce. He and his third wife, artist Kathryn Jacobi, were married from 1987 until his death. He had no children of his own, but had a stepson from his third wife and two step-grandchildren.

Selected filmography

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) – Accountant (uncredited) Petulia (1968) – Motel Receptionist The Lost Man (1969) – Barnes The Sporting Club (1971) – Spengler The Hospital (1971) – Dr. Welbeck All In The Family (1972) – Russ DeKuyper The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974, TV Movie) – Master Bryant The Terminal Man (1974) – Dr. John Ellis The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) – Father The Day of the Locust (1975) – Claude Estee The Hindenburg (1975) – Captain Ernst A. Lehmann It Happened One Christmas (1977, TV Movie) – Peter Bailey An Enemy of the People (1978) – Aslaksen Prophecy (1979) – Isely Meteor (1979) – Secretary of Defense Being There (1979) – Dr. Robert Allenby Bitter Harvest (1981) – Dr. Morton Freeman The Thing (1982) – Dr. Copper The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) – Dr. Daulton Lee Mask (1985) – Abe Malice in Wonderland (1985, TV Movie) – Louis B. Mayer Pale Rider (1985) – Coy LaHood Warning Sign (1985) – Dr. Nielsen Blood & Orchids (1986, TV Movie) – Harvey Koster Castle in the Sky (1986) – Uncle Pom (English version, voice) The Last Days of Patton (1986, TV Movie) – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower Wall Street (1987) – Cromwell Day One (1989, TV Movie) – President Harry S. Truman War and Remembrance (1989, TV Movie) – President Harry S Truman Back to the Future Part III (1990) – Barbwire Salesman Panther (1995) – J. Edgar Hoover Truman (1995, TV Movie) – Henry L. Stimson Todd McFarlane's Spawn (1997) – Cogliostro (voice) Hard Rain (1998) – Henry Sears Todd McFarlane's Spawn 2 (1998) – Cogliostro (voice) Todd McFarlane's Spawn 3: The Ultimate Battle (1999) – Cogliostro (voice) L.A. Law: The Movie (2002, TV Movie) – Leland McKenzie Proteus (2004, Documentary) – The Ancient Mariner (voice)