Richard Whorf was an American actor, author, director, and designer.
Richard was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to Harry and Sarah Whorf. Richard's older brother was the well-known American linguist, Benjamin Lee Whorf. Whorf began his acting career on the Boston stage as a teenager then moved to Broadway at age 21. He had a role in a production of Taming of the Shrew at the Globe Theatre in New York City. He moved to Hollywood and became a contract player in films of the 1930s and 1940s before becoming a director in 1944.
He appeared in Christmas Holiday, Blues in the Night, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Juke Girl, and Keeper of the Flame.
Whorf played a famous painter who had resorted to drinking in the 1960 episode "The Illustrator" of ABC's The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. He directed a number of television programs in the 1950s and 1960s, the best known being the CBS hit comedy The Beverly Hillbillies, starring Buddy Ebsen. He directed the short-lived 1959 syndicated adventure series, Border Patrol, and the 1964-1965 ABC sitcom, Mickey, starring Mickey Rooney. In the summer of 1960, he guest starred in one episode and directed other segments of the short-lived David McLean western series, Tate.
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