Dick Elliott (1986 - 1961)

In the thirties, forties, and especially the 1950's, if a director wanted a short, fat actor to play a windy storekeeper or a raucous conventioneer, he might well cast Dick Elliott. He was one of those actors who, whenever he appeared on screen, often for less than a minute, the audience would think, "Oh, it's that guy." Yet few would ever know his name. Elliott appeared in over 240 films. He was most often cast as judges, mayors, newspaper reporters, policemen, and blowhards, usually one who can't stop talking except when he'd burst into a loud laugh that bordered on a cackle.

 He was born Richard Damon Elliott on April 30, 1886, in Salem, Massachusetts.He began performing in stock in 1931 and was on stage for nearly thirty years before his film debut in 1933's Central Airport. He played Ned Buntline in Annie Oakley with Barbara Stanwyck in 1935;  Marryin' Sam in L'il Abner in1940; the judge in Christmas in Connecticut in 1945 again starring Barbara Stanwyck; and as a whiskey drummer in The Dude Goes West in 1948 with Eddie Albert. Dick Elliott also appears in It's a Wonderful Life from 1946 as the man on the porch  who tells Jimmy Stewart to stop jabbering and go ahead and kiss Donna Reed. 

Television provided a  whole new world of roles for Dick Elliott. He appeared in dozens and dozens of TV shows, including Dick Tracy (in which he had a recurring role as Chief Murphy) My Little Margie, The Adventures of Superman, I Love Lucy, I Married Joan, December Bride, Wagon Train, and Rawhide. He will always be remembered as Mayor Pike on The Andy Griffith Show. 

Dick Elliott died during the second season of The Andy Griffith Show, on December 22, 1961, in Burbank, California, at the age of 75 and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.