Biography
Richard Michael Wessel (April 20, 1913 β April 20, 1965) was an American film actor who appeared in more than 270 films between 1935 and 1966. He is best remembered for his only leading role, a chilling portrayal of strangler Harry "Cueball" Lake in Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946), and for his appearances as comic villains opposite The Three Stooges. Wessel was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His burly frame established him as a character player in feature films of the 1930s and '40s. At first he was a bit player; in Laurel and Hardy's Bonnie Scotland (1935), he was a blacksmith's assistant (with no dialogue). Gradually his roles became larger and he was given a few lines of dialogue, as in Yankee Doodle Dandy where he played a veteran soldier. His first featured roles came in 1941, for comedy producer Hal Roach.
In 1946 Dick Wessel began working in Columbia Pictures' two-reel comedies, often with writer-director Edward Bernds. Wessel became one of Bernds's favorites, and Bernds wrote his scripts with parts for Wessel in mind. Wessel became a fixture in Columbia shorts, as a comic foil for The Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Hugh Herbert, Gus Schilling and Richard Lane, Sterling Holloway, Harry Von Zell, Billie Burke, and Eddie Foy, Jr. When character actor Eddie Acuff left the Blondie series, Bernds hired Dick Wessel to replace him as the hapless mailman perennially flattened by Dagwood Bumstead in his rush-hour run for the bus. In 1955 director Bernds remembered Wessel and wrote him into the Bowery Boys comedy Bowery to Bagdad.
Wessel continued to play character roles in feature films. In 1946 he landed his only leading role, as a villain opposite Morgan Conway's portrayal of Dick Tracy. Dick Tracy vs. Cueball casts Wessel as Cueball, ex-convict with shaven head, who steals valuable jewels and murders anyone in his way while he tries to reclaim them. Wessel is Mr Cracker, the affable bartender serving James Stewart in Harvey, 1950). In Frank Capra's comedy Pocketful of Miracles, based on a Damon Runyon story, he's a New York mug masquerading as the governor of Florida.
Wessel also appeared on television. From 1959 to 1961, Wessel co-starred as Carney Kohler in all forty-two episodes of the NBC western television series Riverboat. In 1959, he appeared as police captain Bob Rattigan in the episode "Rattigan and the Cat" of the syndicated Border Patrol series. He also appeared in the syndicated crime drama Sheriff of Cochise. He was cast as Charlie in the episode "A Kind of a Stopwatch" of CBS's The Twilight Zone. He also guest starred in the CBS sitcom/drama Hennesey and on the ABC sitcom, Our Man Higgins. In 1961 he guest-starred in the series finale of The Investigators.
Wessel and his wife, Louise, had a daughter. He died of a heart attack at his home in Studio City, California on his 52nd birthday.
Filmography
all 183
Movies 141
TV Shows 42
The Ugly Dachshund (1966)
Daniel Boone (1964)
Who's Minding the Store? (1963)
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963)
Petticoat Junction (1963)
The Fugitive (1963)
Arrest and Trial (1963)
Grindl (1963)
Wives and Lovers (1963)
Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
Ben Casey (1961)
Dr. Kildare (1961)
87th Precinct (1961)
All in a Night's Work (1961)
The Twilight Zone (1959)
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959)
Riverboat (1959)
Bonanza (1959)
Rawhide (1959)
77 Sunset Strip (1958)
Man with a Camera (1958)
Lawman (1958)
Peter Gunn (1958)
Tricky Chicks (1957)
Zorro (1957)
Trackdown (1957)
Perry Mason (1957)
The Thin Man (1957)
Wagon Train (1957)
The Desperados Are in Town (1956)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Broken Arrow (1956)
Hey, Jeannie! (1956)
Andy Goes Wild (1956)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Fury (1955)
Frontier (1955)
Navy Log (1955)
Gunsmoke (1955)
G.I. Dood It (1955)
Bowery to Bagdad (1955)
Fling in the Ring (1955)
December Bride (1954)
Father Knows Best (1954)
Studio 57 (1954)
Lassie (1954)
Public Defender (1954)
The Lone Wolf (1954)
The Danny Thomas Show (1953)
Champ for a Day (1953)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
The Life Of Riley (1953)
Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952)
The Abbott and Costello Show (1952)
The WAC From Walla Walla (1952)
The Ford Television Theatre (1952)
Young Man with Ideas (1952)
Heebie Gee-Gees (1952)
Rancho Notorious (1952)
Love Is Better Than Ever (1952)
Trouble In-Laws (1951)
Reunion in Reno (1951)
Texas Carnival (1951)
The Red Skelton Show (1951)
An American in Paris (1951)
Corky of Gasoline Alley (1951)
Flying Leathernecks (1951)
The Texas Rangers (1951)
Her First Romance (1951)
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951)
The Scarf (1951)
Life with Buster Keaton (1951)
Gasoline Alley (1951)
Watch the Birdie (1950)
Harvey (1950)
The Jack Benny Program (1950)
Father of the Bride (1950)
The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)
Beware of Blondie (1950)
Dizzy Yardbird (1950)
Blondie's Hero (1950)
His Baiting Beauty (1950)
Punchy Cowpunchers (1950)
Sands of Iwo Jima (1950)
On the Town (1949)
Thieves' Highway (1949)
Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949)
Slattery's Hurricane (1949)
Canadian Pacific (1949)
Tulsa (1949)
The Green Promise (1949)
Unknown Island (1948)
Billie Gets Her Man (1948)
Hollow Triumph (1948)
Pitfall (1948)
Dig That Gold (1948)
Flat Feat (1948)
The Fuller Brush Man (1948)
Eight-Ball Andy (1948)
Two Nuts in a Rut (1948)
Radio Romeo (1947)
High Wall (1947)
Wife to Spare (1947)
Hectic Honeymoon (1947)
Merton of the Movies (1947)
Wife Tames Wolf (1947)
Nervous Shakedown (1947)
It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)
Fright Night (1947)
Hot Heir (1947)
Do or Diet (1947)
13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
Blondie's Big Moment (1947)
Andy Plays Hookey (1946)
Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946)
Slappily Married (1946)
So's Your Antenna (1946)
Pardon My Terror (1946)
Black Angel (1946)
In Old Sacramento (1946)
Young Widow (1946)
Blonde Alibi (1946)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Silver Spurs (1943)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
False Faces (1943)
Three Hearts for Julia (1943)
King of the Cowboys (1943)
The Traitor Within (1942)
Fall In (1942)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
X Marks the Spot (1942)
Sunset Serenade (1942)
Friendly Enemies (1942)
Romance on the Range (1942)
About Face (1942)
Joe Smith, American (1942)
Brooklyn Orchid (1942)
Dangerously They Live (1941)
Steel Against the Sky (1941)
Red River Valley (1941)
They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
Dangerous Lady (1941)
Manpower (1941)
Desert Bandit (1941)
The Great Train Robbery (1941)
Flight Command (1940)
The Border Legion (1940)
So You Won't Talk? (1940)
City for Conquest (1940)
The Howards of Virginia (1940)
Flowing Gold (1940)
They Drive by Night (1940)
Brother Orchid (1940)
Castle on the Hudson (1940)
Cafe Hostess (1940)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Hitler: Beast of Berlin (1939)
Dust Be My Destiny (1939)
They All Come Out (1939)
I Stole a Million (1939)
The Cowboy Quarterback (1939)
Missing Daughters (1939)
An Hour for Lunch (1939)
Blackwell's Island (1939)
They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
Hawk of the Wilderness (1938)
Submarine Patrol (1938)
The Crowd Roars (1938)
Racket Busters (1938)
Over the Wall (1938)
Borrowing Trouble (1937)
The Game That Kills (1937)
White Bondage (1937)
Border Cafe (1937)
San Quentin (1937)
They Gave Him a Gun (1937)
Round-Up Time in Texas (1937)
Fury (1936)
Half Shot Shooters (1936)
Small Town Girl (1936)
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell (1936)
In Spite of Danger (1935)
Ratings
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1913-04-20
Deathday1965-04-20 (52 years old)
Birth PlaceMilwaukee, United States of America
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
Also Known AsDick Wassel, Richard M. Wessel , Richard Wessel , Dick Wessell, Richard Wessell
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