Quite frequently, we the viewers assume that an actor or an actress has many of the same attributes, qualities, and characteristics as the characters that they play on TV shows and in movies. It really is hard to avoid, but it’s often untrue. Case in point, Richard Deacon, who was famous for playing annoying and difficult characters on TV, but in real life, was anything but. And his one regret was that he didn’t take greater pains to get the TV viewers of the world to see that.

How did Richard Deacon begin his career?

I think I first noticed Richard playing Ward’s work colleague and friend, Fred Rutherford, on Leave It to Beaver. Fred wasn’t someone that any of us would aspire to be; he loved to talk about his trips and, more specifically, himself. He seemed to have an inflated ego, was a bit pompous and unaware of his own peculiarities, and was very much tone-deaf to the feelings of others. He would get on Ward’s nerves, but for whatever reason, Ward tolerated Fred’s behaviors.

However, that’s nothing compared to the grump of a character that Richard played on The Dick Van Dyke Show when he gained fame as Mel Cooley, the producer of The Alan Brady Show and Brady’s brother-in-law.

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In a way, it’s hard to blame Cooley for being such a grump. Not only did he continually have to deal with the ego that is Alan Brady, but he had to put up with Buddy’s constant jabs, many of them having to do with his lack of hair. I laughed at those jokes as a kid, but now that my own hair is gone, it’s a little harder to see the humor in them.

Being a grump and the butt of Buddy’s jokes turned out to be fairly rewarding because, over the course of the show’s five seasons, The Dick Van Dyke Show won 15 Emmy Awards. Whenever a magazine such as TV Guide or People ranks the top television shows ever, The Dick Van Dyke Show usually finds a place toward the top of those lists.

What was Richard Deacon’s secret regret?

So, with all that said, after Richard’s passing, a close friend of his admitted that Richard had one regret which he did his best to keep secret — and it is an interesting one. You see, Richard simply wished that he had played more nice people on TV and in the movies. Yep — over 100 movie appearances and more than 1,000 episodes of various TV shows, and you know what? For the most part, as CBS News pointed out in 2014, Richard “was typically cast in the role of a humorless and foul-mood individual.”

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Truthfully though, that isn’t all that Richard was known for. Richard loved to cook. Because of that, he ended up having his own cooking program on Canadian television. On that show, Richard, being an early adopter with all sorts of technology, jumped on the microwave bandwagon and introduced his TV audience to new ideas around how to cook traditional dishes. The food he would prepare was elegant and super delicious, and the best part was he would get it done in a quarter of the time.

Eventually, Richard became almost as famous for his cooking as he had been during his heyday with television comedy, and even had a bestselling cookbook. But comedy was still in his blood, and as such, he made many guest appearances on various television shows during the seventies as well. I remember him best from his appearances on game shows such as Match Game with Gene Rayburn.

Whether he realized it or not, as time went on, Richard Deacon, the sourpuss, curmudgeonly grump from an era gone by, slowly exited the building, and the real Richard emerged. He was a true renaissance man: an accomplished actor, a wonderful chef, a terrific dancer, and most importantly, a warm, kind, and loyal friend to those who got close to him.

When Richard passed away in 1984, United Press International reported that Rose Marie, one of his co-stars from The Dick Van Dyke Show, said this about him: “I’ve lost someone very, very dear and very treasured, and I think our business has lost a great talent.”

And his personal manager said this about Richard: “He was the loveliest man, one of the kindest men I’ve ever known.”

I think Richard would’ve been pleased to have heard those things said about him, because at the end of the day, this was a man who not only had a very bald head, but a pretty darn big heart.