Richard Crenna

Richard Crenna (1926-2003) was interviewed for three-and-a-half hours in Los Angeles, CA. Crenna talked about his early years as a busy radio actor in Hollywood.  He spoke fondly about the radio community and his work with some of the top comic talents of the era. Crenna listed his various regular roles in radio including teenager “Oogie Pringle” in “A Date With Judy,” which he demonstrated briefly.  He described developing a sense of comic rhythm in radio that influenced his later work as an actor and director in television. He discussed in great detail his appearance as “Walter Denton” in the sitcom Our Miss Brooks, “Luke McCoy” in the rural sitcom The Real McCoys and “James Slattery” in the political drama Slattery’s People. Crenna also spoke of his work as a director, notably helming episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.  He described his later television work executive-producing Make Room for Granddaddy; and appearing in the miniseries Centennial, the sitcom All’s Fair, the sitcom It Takes Two, and the telefilm The Rape of Richard Beck, the latter of which won him an Emmy Award.  He also talked about his feature films, working with director Robert Wise in The Sand Pebbles and director Lawrence Kasdan in Body Heat.  He then talked about playing the role for which he is most identified, “Colonel Trautman” in the Rambo movies.  Finally, he briefly discussed his recurring character on the television drama series Judging Amy.   The interview was conducted by Henry Colman on April 3, 2002.