Years active 1949–2008, 2016 Name Richard Beymer | Role Actor Height 1.88 m | |
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Full Name George Richard Beymer, Jr. Occupation Actor, painter, sculptor, novelist Education North Hollywood High School Parents George Richard Beymer, Eunice Beymer Awards Golden Globe Award for Best New Star of the Year – Actor Movies and TV shows Twin Peaks, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Longest Day, West Side Story, Hemingway's Adventures of a Youn Similar People Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris, Rita Moreno, Natalie Wood, Jerome Robbins Profiles | ||
Richard beymer discusses david lynch s directing style
George Richard Beymer, Jr. (born February 20, 1938) is an American actor who is best known for playing the roles of Tony in the film version of West Side Story (1962), Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and Ben Horne on the television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991, 2017).
Contents
- Richard beymer discusses david lynch s directing style
- A sweet dance by richard beymer
- Early life
- Acting career
- Filmmaking
- Books
- As visual artist
- Personal life
- Filmography
- References
A sweet dance by richard beymer
Early life
Beymer was born in Avoca, Iowa, to George Richard Beymer, a printer, and his wife, Eunice (née Goss). He and his family moved in 1940 to Los Angeles, California.
Acting career
In 1949 Beymer began acting in television in the TV series Sandy Dreams.
Beymer made his feature-film debut in Vittorio De Sica's Stazione Termini, released in 1953. He played in So Big (1953) and Johnny Tremain (1957), and achieved success in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and West Side Story (1961) before sharing a 1962 Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor with Bobby Darin and Warren Beatty. He had a significant role in the film The Longest Day (1962).
In 1961, he began a friendship with a then unknown Sharon Tate, who was working as an extra on a film he was starring in, Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man. Beymer encouraged her to pursue an acting career, and after she was introduced to his agent, Tate signed a contract with Filmways.
He took a summer away from Hollywood to volunteer in Mississippi for Freedom Summer canvassing for voter registration. He assisted Barney Frank in rescuing Freedom Democrat forms in a rental truck that had been confiscated from arrested Freedom volunteers in Canton, Mississippi on Freedom Day (July 16, 1964).
In 1957 he appeared on the syndicated American Civil War drama Gray Ghost in the episode "An Eye for an Eye". In 1958 he was cast as Joe Belden in the episode "Man Hunt" of the western aviation series, Sky King. He appeared in many guest roles in television series. These include three appearances on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Li Nalas in the episodes "The Homecoming", "The Circle", and "The Siege". In 1984 he played David Fenton, the husband of Mimi Rogers's character on the short-lived show Paper Dolls.
He had a role in the television series Twin Peaks in 1990, playing Ben Horne. He later played Dr. Matthew Sheridan in the 1996 made-for-TV movie A Face to Die For. Beymer reprised his role as Ben Horne in the third season of Twin Peaks in 2017.
Filmmaking
Beymer enrolled in New York's Actors Studio in 1963, but in 1964 became involved in Freedom Summer in Mississippi. During this time, he filmed the award-winning documentary A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer, documenting the efforts of volunteers registering African-Americans to vote.
The avant-garde film The Innerview, which he directed, produced, wrote the screenplay for and edited, won the Josef von Sternberg Award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival in 1974. His 2010 film, The Passing of a Saint, chronicles the funeral rites of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In April 2014 his film of a trip to India with David Lynch, It’s a Beautiful World, was released.
Books
In 2007 Beymer completed his first book, a self-published novel, Impostor: Or Whatever Happened to Richard Beymer?, a semi-autobiographical account of a young actor's struggle to find himself.
As visual artist
Beymer's photographs of Twin Peaks cast and crew were featured in the gallery of behind the scenes photos on the Definitive Gold Box Edition for Twin Peaks, released on October 30, 2007. He is also a painter and sculptor.
Personal life
As of 2010, Beymer resided in Fairfield, Iowa, where he continued to make films and to write, sculpt, and paint. He practices Transcendental Meditation, to "cool out".