Richard Masur (Actor)

Richard Masur at a screening of Palindromes in New York City. (Photo: Peter Kramer / Getty Images)

A reliable character player of stage, screen and TV since the mid-1970s, Richard Masur has long been a familiar if unremarkable face. With his large mobile features, boyish demeanor and fairly indeterminate age, Masur has played a wide variety roles in most popular genres. In features, he has regularly shifted from comedy (the bewildered Dad of Sean Astin in "Encino Man" 1992) to drama ("The Man Without a Face" 1993), from Western ("Heaven's Gate" 1982) to sci-fi ("The Thing" 1982; "My Science Project" 1985), alternately lovable (the amiable Uncle Phil in "My Girl" 1991 and "My Girl 2" 1994) and venal (a NYC PR man intent on sprucing up the image of Nicaraguan dictator Somoza in "Under Fire" 1983). Masur's film roles tend to be fairly small but occasionally indelible such as his portrayal of an unflappable admissions recruiter for Princeton who comes to interview young Tom Cruise at an inopportune time in "Risky Business" (1983). Recent feature credits include playing the used car salesman husband of Julie Kavner in the framing story of Billy Crystal's "Forget Paris" and Michael Keaton's construction boss in "Multiplicity" (both 1995). All in all, however, TV has afforded Masur greater opportunities to shine.

The NYC native was raised in Yonkers, the son of a druggist father and high school teacher mother. As a college freshman, Masur began as a pre-med majoring in anthropology. Accompanying a friend to an audition for a school play, he was asked to read and won the part. Masur soon switched his major to Theater Arts, and later pursued his study of acting at the Yale School of Drama. He racked up stage experience as an actor and technical director at the Hartford (CT) Stage Company. In 1973, Masur originated a role in the New Haven production of the rugby drama "The Changing Room" before moving with the show to Broadway. TV writer-producer Norman Lear saw Masur in a performance and invited him to do a guest shot on "All in the Family". Masur made his TV acting debut on February 2, 1974 playing a mentally challenged delivery boy who becomes smitten with Gloria (Sally Struthers). He moved from NYC to Los Angeles six months later.

In the fall of 1974, Masur made a memorable guest shot on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". By the following year, he was co-starring as the harried manager of "Hot L Baltimore" (ABC, 1975). This quickly led to work as a regular on the first season of "One Day at a Time" (CBS, 1975-76), and a recurring role on the "MTM" spin-off "Rhoda" (CBS, 1975-76). 1976 marked Masur's debut in TV-movies in "Having Babies", an ABC medical drama. Though a frequent series guest star and the star of several busted sitcom pilots, he would receive most of his best roles in "social problem"-oriented TV-movies.

Masur proved chilling as a producer of child pornography in the well-received "Fallen Angel" (CBS, 1981). He continued to gravitate toward serious subjects with a supporting role in the lauded child abduction docudrama "Adam" (NBC, 1983) which he reprised for the sequel "Adam: His Song Continues" (NBC, 1986). Masur garnered an Emmy nomination playing the defense attorney of battered wife-turned-murderess in "The Burning Bed" (NBC, 1984). As a change of pace, he proved comfortable battling supernatural evil with the rest of the ensemble in the miniseries "Stephen King's 'It'" (ABC, 1990) as he was in the far more ambitious award-winning "And the Band Played On" (HBO, 1993). Masur's more recent telefilm highlights include a supporting role in "My Brother's Keeper" (CBS, 1995), an AIDS drama, and in "Hiroshima" (Showtime, 1995).

Segueing to directing, Masur helmed an Oscar-nominated live-action theatrical short "Love Struck" (1986). He subsequently garnered a Directors Guild of America Award nomination for helming "Torn Between Two Fathers" (ABC, 1989), a presentation of "ABC Afternoon Specials". Masur's other directing credits include episodes of "The 'Slap' Maxwell Story", "The Wonder Years", and "Picket Fences" (a series on which he played the recurring role of reactionary postal worker-turned-mayor Ed Lawson).

Masur was elected third vice-president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1993 and served as president from 1995 to 1997.