My first obit of 2017 and it's going to take a while. That's because Dick Gautier did so much in his career.
You may know him best as the star of the short-lived sitcom, When Things Were Rotten, or as the recurring character of Hymie the Robot on the long-running sitcom, Get Smart. He was on dozens of other sitcoms as a guest star and sometimes as a regular. Mr. Terrific was one of the latter. His was often the first name to come to mind when some producer said, "We need a real good-looking guy who can do comedy."
He was also a stage actor, most notably the original Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie. If you wanted to hear a hilarious mix of bitterness and admitted denial, you only had to ask him if he was bothered he didn't get the role in the movie.
He was also a screenwriter and a stand-up comedian and a cartoonist and a very good joke-teller…a very funny man. Now and then, he even played Superman or Batman in a sketch of a commercial. (Some folks referred to him as "The guy you get when you can't afford James Garner." The first time I heard that someone was considering turning Will Eisner's great comic book The Spirit into a TV show, I was told, "They're hoping to get Jim Garner, which means they'll probably end up with Dick Gautier." Years later when a pilot was finally made, "they" got neither.)
He was serious about his cartooning, by the way. He even published several "how-to" books about caricatures and the few times I got to really talk one-on-one with him, that's what we talked about. I always thought he had the talent to be another James Garner but given the choice, would have preferred to be Mort Drucker.
I have, of course, a story. When we were doing Garfield and Friends, I needed an actor for one episode to play two roles — an unctuous game show host and a snotty French waiter. If this had been live-action, I would have hired Dick for the latter so I booked him to do both voices. When he came in, we talked about cartooning for about three minutes, then he asked about his parts. I told him about the waiter and he went immediately into the perfect attitude and accent. Okay, fine.
Then I told him about the game show host and said, "Chuck Woolery on Love Connection." He nailed it instantly, adding the proper soupçon of oiliness. I was impressed with how instantly he nailed both characters…and then it was into the studio.
This was a seven-minute Garfield cartoon and we recorded those very fast. Most shows would take 30-60 minutes for a seven-minute cartoon. All the actors though were sharp, their first reads were fine and as far as I, the director, was concerned we had everything needed in about thirteen minutes. Dick was not in the other cartoons we were recording that day so I told him he could leave, thanked him for a great job and had my assistant get him to sign the paperwork.
He looked kind of odd but he signed and left without saying much. I suppose if I hadn't been so preoccupied with prepping the next thing we'd record, I would have paid more attention to it.
Twenty minutes later, I get a call from Dick's agent. "What was wrong with Dick?" he asked. I said nothing was wrong with Dick. He was perfect. The agent said, "Well, he's sitting here in my office, concerned. He said you let him do one take, then threw him out. He's sure you hated what he did and got rid of him so you could get someone else to come in and redo his lines."
I said, "Put him on." The agent did and I told Dick, "I'm using what you did. I threw you out because I had everything I needed. You did it right the first time."
He said, "That's such a relief to hear. I was just disappointed because, you know, when I left you, I was out of work again. I was just hoping it would last longer. And besides, I still had three and a half hours on the parking meter outside."
Dick was 85 and he passed last night at an assisted living facility where he'd been for some time, fighting a long illness. Here's an obit from the Hollywood Reporter but if you really want to know about him, read the four-part interview our pal Kliph Nesteroff did with him. Here's Part One and you should be able to find your way to the others from there. He was a very clever, nice man.