I lied. I know I said that June was going to be “Fictional
Richard Month,” but that was before Richard Dawson died on Saturday, June 2.
Because my dad enjoyed watching re-runs of the 1970s version of Match Game on the Game Show Network, I
intended to do a post about Dawson (who sat in the center position in the first
row). Since he has passed on to the great game show in the sky, there’s no time
like the present to extol his Match Game
prowess.
But first, some shocking news: Richard Dawson was not
born Richard Dawson! His birth name was Colin Lionel Emm; he eventually took
Richard Dawson as his stage name and later legally changed it.
Richard was born in November 1932 in Hampshire England;
his father was American and his mother was English. At age 14 he ran away to
join the Merchant Marine (that sounds so Victorian); after his discharge, he
took up acting and the stage name Richard Dawson.
Dawson’s first big success was as Corporal Peter Newkirk
on Hogan’s Heroes. I must admit that
I have never seen this show, but I have heard of it, so I know it was pretty
popular in its time. After that, Dawson did a stint on The New Dick van Dyke Show before finding his niche – game shows.
Richard was regular on Match Game ’73
and was well-liked by contestants and audiences. He was often chosen by
contestants to participate with them in the final round, wherein the contestant
and Richard’s answers had to match exactly. From the episodes I have seen,
Richard was pretty funny and could be counted on not to come up with overly
obscure answers. Unlike some of the celebrities, he had a knack for selecting
the most common, most average answer, which was the point of the show. It made
sense that so many contestants picked him for the final round – they had a good
chance of winning with him.
In July 1976, Richard began hosting Family Feud. He continued to participate on Match Game until 1978, after which he focused exclusively on Family Feud. It was a good move – Family Feud had great ratings success
and Richard won the 1978 Daytime Emmy for Best Game Show Host. Richard
continued to host Family Feud until
the show was cancelled in 1985. During his time on the show, he kissed all of
the female contestants for good luck, which was apparently something he picked
up from his mother (although presumably she was kissing him and not random females).
According to Wikipedia, Richard’s trademark kissing “was one of the things that
made the show appear to be a warm and friendly program, and he soon garnered
the nickname The Kissing Bandit.” Nickname aside, I find this hilarious
proof that the late 1970s and 1980s were a simpler time. If a game-show host
today was kissing all of his female contestants, I think people would find that
sketchy, not “warm and friendly.” But, hey, maybe Richard could get away with
it because he was European (he became a naturalized US citizen in 1984).
Richard appeared as a parody of game-show hosts in the
film The Running Man, a decent
performance in an otherwise pretty-shitty movie (to paraphrase Roger Ebert). He
also hosted the revived Family Feud
from 1994 to 1995; he was asked to appear in the first episode of the current
iteration, but he declined. He was well and truly retired.
During his hosting stint in the ‘90s, Richard did not
kiss the female contestants because he had promised his wife and daughter that
he wouldn’t. He was able to get away with all that kissing in the 1970s because
he was divorced. Richard was married for a time in the 1960s and had two sons
with his first wife. After they divorced he gained custody of the boys and didn’t
remarry until 1991. When he did remarry it was to a woman he had met in 1981
when she was a contestant on Family Feud
(which is a little bit weird, as she was probably pretty young in 1981 – but maybe
not!).
Richard died at age 79 on 2 June 2012 in Los Angeles. He
had esophageal cancer. He left behind a widow, two sons, one daughter, and five
grandchildren.
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