Farewell Richard Dawson
I woke to the unfortunate news of the passing of Richard Dawson, the King of the Family Feud. It may see odd to those of you who have gotten to know me and my likes or dislikes over the last couple years that I would comment on this, but there are a couple reasons for it hitting home. First of all, watching Family Feud as a kid was one of the few things we actually did as a family that did not actively involve feuding. Something about the way the show ran and the structure of the questions really appealed to my dad, and he like having my sister, mom, and me around to show off how smart he was with the questions. I won’t say watching it was something we all looked forward to, but when it was on we could all pass a pleasant evening together.
The second reason, of course, stems from his playing one of the greatest unsung movie villains of all time, Damon Killian of the Running Man. Go back and watch it again and you will see how civilly sinister he really could play it. A big part of the success of his roll (in my mind, at least) was the brutal contrast from the heart warming good guy he was on Family Feud. Kind of like if Gandhi took a role as a serial killer. (Nobel Peace Prize image courtesy of he Funny T Shirt category)
Anyway, I’m very sorry he’s gone. He lived to be 79, and had a recurring role on Hogan’s Heroes when he was younger. I will miss him.
Dave
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.