Richard Dawson
Dawson onHogan's Heroes, 1968
Born	Colin Lionel Emm (1932-11-20)20 November 1932 Gosport, Hampshire, England
Died	2 June 2012(2012-06-02) (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, US
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Occupations	Actor comedian game show host panellist
Years active	1954–1995, 2000
Spouses	Diana Dors ​ ​ (m. 1959; div. 1967)​ Gretchen Johnson ​ (m. 1991)​
Children	3, includingMark

Richard Dawson (bornColin Lionel Emm; 20 November 1932 – 2 June 2012) was an English-American actor, comedian, game-show host, andpanellist. He was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk inHogan's Heroes, as a regular panellist onMatch Game (1973–1978), and as the original host ofFamily Feud (1976–1985, 1994–1995).

Colin Lionel Emm was born inGosport, Hampshire, England, on 20 November 1932^[1] to Arthur Emm (born 1897) and Josephine Lucy Emm (née Lindsay; born 1903).^[2][3] His father drove a removal van and his mother worked in a munitions factory.^[4] Colin and his older brother, John Leslie Emm, were evacuated as children duringWorld War II to escape the bombing of England's major port cities in the south. In a radio interview withHogan's Heroes co-starBob 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.^[5]

At age 14, Emm ran away from home to join theBritish Merchant Navy, where he pursued a career in boxing, earning almost $5,000 in shipboard matches.^[6] In 1950 and 1951, Emm made several passages on theRMSMauretania from Southampton to ports of call, includingNassau,the Bahamas,Havana, and New York City.^[7] 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.^[8]

Dawson began his career in England as a stand-up comedian known as Dickie Dawson.^[1] Possibly his first television appearance occurred on 21 June 1954, at age 21, and was featured on theBenny Hill Showcase, an earlyBBC 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 theMidday Music Hall onBBC Home Service and two spots onHow 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, onBBC TV'sA to Z: D, a programme featuring entertainers with names beginning with the letter D. The following year, he made four appearances on BBC TV'sJuke Box Jury, three of them alongside Dors, to whom he was by then married.^[9]

After his move to the US in September 1961, Dawson began hosting a late-night talk show, theMike Stokey Show, on Los Angeles television stationKCOP-TV.^[10][11] On 8 January 1963, Dawson appeared onThe Jack Benny Program, season 13, episode 15, as an audience member seated next to Benny, barely recognisable in glasses and false moustache.^[12] That same year, Dawson made a guest appearance onThe Dick Van Dyke Show (season two, episode 27) playing "Racy" Tracy Rattigan,^[13] a lecherous flirt who was the summer replacement host on the Alan Brady Show. He was credited as Dick Dawson.^[14]

In 1965, Dawson had a small role at the end of the filmKing Rat, starringGeorge Segal, playing 1st Reconparatrooper Captain Weaver, sent to liberate alliedPOWs in aJapanese prison. Dawson had by then moved to Los Angeles. He gained fame in the television showHogan's Heroes as Cpl. Peter Newkirk from 1965 to 1971.^[15] Dawson had a minor role inUniversal'sMunster, Go Home!. A year later, he released a psychedelic45-rpm single including the songs "His Children's Parade" and "Apples & Oranges" on Carnation Records. In 1968, Dawson was in the filmThe Devil's Brigade as Private Hugh McDonald.

Following the cancellation ofHogan's Heroes, Dawson was a regular joke-telling panellist on the short-lived syndicated revival of the game showCan You Top This? in 1970 and joined the cast ofRowan & Martin's Laugh-In that same year.^{[citation needed]}

AfterLaugh-In was cancelled in 1973, game-show pioneerMark Goodson signed Dawson to appear as a regular onMatch Game '73, alongsideBrett Somers,Charles Nelson Reilly, and hostGene Rayburn. Dawson, who had already served a year as panellist for Goodson's revival ofI'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 panellist of the contestant's choice had to match exactly. During Dawson's time onMatch 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.^{[citation needed]}

Due to his popularity onMatch Game, Dawson expressed to Goodson his desire to host a show of his own. In 1975, during Dawson's tenure as one ofMatch Game's regular panellists, Goodson began developing a spin-off game show,Family Feud, based on the "Super Match" portion ofMatch Game. Goodson specifically saw the show as a vehicle for Dawson, due to his popularity amongMatch 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 ofMatch Game in late 1977. In 1978, Dawson leftMatch 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 bothMatch Game andFamily Feud. That same year, Dawson won aDaytime Emmy Award for Best Game Show Host for his work onFamily Feud.^[8] After Dawson leftMatch Game, his spot on the panel was filled with many other stars—most notably his best friendBob Barker, who was then the host ofThe Price is Right.^{[citation needed]}

One of Dawson's trademarks onFamily Feud, kissing the female contestants, earned him the nickname "The Kissing Bandit". Television executives repeatedly tried to get him to stop the kissing.^[16] 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.^[17] 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.^[1][18]

Dawson was a frequent guest host forTonight Show hostJohnny Carson, hosting 14 times during 1979.^[19] Dawson was a contender for the role ofTonight Show host in the event that Carson left the show, a move that Carson was seriously considering during 1979–80.^[20] Carson ended up remaining as host until 1992. Two of the few Carson-eraTonight Show episodes that did not air on the night they were intended were guest hosted by Dawson. During one, actressDella Reese suffered a near-fatalaneurysm midinterview during taping; the remainder of the episode was cancelled. (Reese later recovered.) The other featured an untimely 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 ofAmerican 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 parodied his TV persona in 1987'sThe Running Man oppositeArnold Schwarzenegger, portraying the evil, egotistical game-show host Damon Killian. Dawson received rave reviews for his performance. Film criticRoger Ebert (who gave the film a thumbs down) wrote, "Playing a character who always seems three-quarters drunk, he chain-smokes his way through backstage planning sessions and then pops up in front of the cameras as a cauldron of false jollity. Working the audience, milking the laughs and the tears, he is not really much different [from] most genuine game-show hosts—and that's the film's private joke".^[21]

Before Dawson was cast as Killian,Chuck Woolery was originally considered for the role, but was unavailable and Schwarzenegger suggested Dawson because he and Dawson were close friends.

Dawson hosted an unsold pilot for a revival of the classic game showYou Bet Your Life that was to air on NBC in 1988, but the network declined to pick up the show. In 1990, he auditioned to host the syndicated game showTrump Card; the role went toJimmy Cefalo.

On 12 September 1994, Dawson returned toFamily Feud, hosting what became the last season of the show's second run (1988–1995) after previous hostRay Combs was fired due to spiralling ratings. During his second tenure as host, Dawson did not kiss female contestants because of a promise he had made to his young daughter to kiss only her mother. The show's ratings never recovered under Dawson and the final episode aired on 26 May 1995, after which Dawson officially retired.Family Feud remained out of production until being revived for a third run in 1999 with new hostLouie Anderson, who asked Dawson to make a special appearance on the first episode to give Anderson his blessing. Dawson turned down the offer, wanting no further involvement with the show.^[22]

In 2000, Dawson narratedTV's Funniest Game Shows for the Fox Network in what would prove to be his final public performance.

On 7 June 2012, at the time of Dawson's death,GSN aired a four-hour marathon of Dawson's greatest moments onMatch Game andFamily Feud, including the first episode of his 1994–95Feud tenure.^[23]

With his first wife, actress Diana Dors, Dawson had two sons:Mark and Gary.^[24][25] The marriage ended with a divorce granted in Los Angeles in April 1967,^[26] and Dawson gained custody of both sons. He had four grandchildren.^[27] Dawson became a naturalised US citizen in 1984.^[28]

On retiring, Dawson remained in Beverly Hills, California, where he had lived since 1964. Dawson met his second wife, Gretchen Johnson (born 22 September 1955), when she was a contestant onFamily Feud in May 1981, and they got married in 1991. Their daughter was born in 1990. Dawson announced the birth and showed a picture of his daughter during the inaugural episode of his second stint as host ofFeud in 1994 as he was greeting a contestant who had been a contestant onMatch Game when he was a panellist. The episode was featured on the 25th anniversary ofFamily Feud as number two on theGame Show Network's top 25Feud moments.^[29] Dawson appeared with his daughter on at least two episodes of the show in 1995, including one taped on his birthday.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Dawson participated in various movements, including theSelma to Montgomery marches andGeorge McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign.^[30]

On 2 June 2012, Dawson died of complications fromoesophageal cancer at theRonald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, at age 79.^[1][16][31] Dawson is interred in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.^[32]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toRichard Dawson.

• Richard Dawson atIMDb
• Richard Dawson at theTCM Movie Database
• Richard Dawson discography atDiscogs
• Richard Dawson atFind a Grave
• Richard Dawson atThe Interviews: An Oral History of Television

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