All Hail Richard Gaines!

Hello!

Welcome to Also Starring Richard Gaines, a fan's attempt to find out more about one of his favorite character actors.

I've been a fan of Richard Gaines since I first knew his name. I was watching Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" (my vote for his best movie, "Sunset Boulevard" be damned) and noticed his two-scene performance as Nagel, the ludicrously hard-boiled, over-the-top New York newspaperman. He's one of the few people I've ever seen steal a scene from Kirk Douglas, which is a quite a feat!

Then I saw "Double Indemnity" again on the big screen, and was thrilled to notice that he plays the buffoonish head of the insurance office where Edward G. Robinson and Fred MacMurray work. A connection! This lead me to track him down on IMDB, and watch more of his movies. It also lead me to produce this (also linkable here if the youtube link doesn't load - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EehpUtqd34k):



However, there's almost no information available about him online. Since he worked for several different studios, it's clear that he wasn't just a flunky for central casting. He often got top billing in the credits of films, so clearly he was something of a name back in the day, even playing Col. George Washington in Cecil B. Demille's lurid "Unconquered." I read somewhere that he was a New York theater actor, but apart from that and the fact that his parts got worse and worse into the 1950s, I don't know much about him.

Let's start a new Richard Gaines Revolution! Email or post any information you have about Richard Gaines, and we'll save this talented actor from obscurity! "From now on it's full steam ahead!...That is, with reservations."