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Richard Deacon (May 14, 1921 – August 8, 1984), born in Philadelphia, was an American television and motion picture actor.

He was a bald-pated and usually bespectacled character actor who often portrayed imperious authority figures. He made appearances on The Jack Benny Show as a salesperson. He had a brief role in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds and a larger role in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, having portrayed a physician in the "book-end" sequences added to the beginning and end of this film after its original previews. His best-known roles are Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Fred Rutherford on Leave It to Beaver (Mr. Baxter in the pilot episode, "It's a Small World") and as Roger "Cutes" Buell on The Mothers-in-Law. In the 1956 motion picture Carousel, adapted from the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, he had a bit role as the policeman who admonishes Shirley Jones (Julie) and John Dehner (Mr. Bascombe) about Gordon MacRae (Billy Bigelow) in the famous "bench scene". It was one of the few films in which he did not wear glasses. He also appeared as a guest on the 1970s game show Match Game, and played Horace Vandergelder opposite Phyllis Diller's Dolly Gallagher Levi in a touring production of the musical Hello, Dolly!.

In real life, he was a gourmet chef. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote a series of cookbooks and hosted a television series on microwave cooking. He would stand behind a desk and say to customers "I'm standing behind here because in a moment of spontaneity, I sold my pants".

Deacon died from cardiovascular disease at the age of sixty-three.

Posthumously, he was revealed to have been gay, and his interview with Boze Hadleigh was published in Hadleigh's Hollywood Gays (ISBN# 1-56980-083-9/PN1995.9.H55H33), pp.67-76, although during his lifetime he made no particular secret of his sexual orientation. "Most would be surprised. Only because what you see on TV -- a serious guy in a suit, unsmiling -- isn't how anyone thinks of gay males."http://wcbstv.com/slideshows/local_slideshow_338150921/view?slide=19

Richard Deacon was the bald, bespectacled character actor most famous for playing television producer Mel Cooley on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" from 1961 to 1966. In the first season of "Dick Van Dyke," he continued to appear on his previous series, "Leave it to Beaver," concurrently, playing Fred Rutherford on the latter show. Born on May 14, 1921 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the tall, bass-voiced Deacon took to the boards as a stage actor. At the beginning of his career, stage legend Helen Hayes told Deacon that he would never become a leading man but encouraged him to become a character actor. It was good advice, as Deacon's show business career lasted decades and only was terminated by his death. Because of his looks and authoritative voice, Decaon usually was typecast as a humorless or foul-tempered authority figure. He became a highly regarded supporting-player in motion pictures, complimented by many of the leading actors he played opposite of, including Jack Benny, Lou Costello, and Cary Grant. But it was in television that Deacon really thrived. It was his five-year gig on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," where earned television immortality playing the long-suffering brother-in-law of Alan Brady (the faux-TV star Dick Van Dyke and his companion writers, Morey Amsterdam and Rose-Marie wrote for), who was constantly harassed by Amsterdam's diminutive character Buddy Sorrell. After the show ceased production (still at the top of the ratings, Van Dyke had terminated the series in order to pursue movie stardom), Deacon co-starred on the TV situation comedy "The Mothers-in-Law" (1968) with Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden. (Deacon replaced original series co-star Roger C. Carmel as Ballard's husband in the second season after Carmel was fired from the series by producer Desi Arnaz for refusing to accept a pay-cut.) After the show was canceled, Deacon returned to work as a free-lance actor. Back on the boards, Deacon appeared in the long-running Broadway production of "Hello Dolly" as Horace Vandergelder opposite Phyllis Diller as the eponymous heroine in the 1969-70 season. Deacon continued appearing on television and in the movies until his death. In real life, Deacon was a gourmet chef. In the 1980s, he hosted a Canadian TV program on microwave cookery, and even wrote a companion book on the subject On the night of August 8, 1984, he was stricken by a heart attack in his Beverly Hills home. He was rushed to Cedars Sinai Hospital, where he died later that night. He was 63 years old.