Richard Edson (born 1954, New Rochelle, New York) is an American actor and musician.

He was the earliest drummer of Sonic Youth, from 1981 to 1982. During that time he also played drums for Konk.

After quitting that group, Edson turned to acting. He has appeared in over 35 movies and is probably best remembered for his portrayal as one of two disreputable parking garage attendants in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, who responds with "What country do you think this is, man?" to Ferris's condescending "Speak english?". Edson is also fondly remembered as the affable Eddie in Jim Jarmusch's cult film Stranger Than Paradise, who quips to Willie (played by John Lurie) "You know, it's funny; You go to some place new and everything just looks the same." He also had roles in Do the Right Thing, Good Morning Vietnam and Platoon. In 1995, Edson appeared in the third season finale of Homicide: Life on the Street.

Edson acted the lead role in three films directed by Raphael Nadjari: The Shade (1999), I am Josh Polonski's Brother (2001) and Apartment #5c (2002).

In 2003, he appeared in the music video for Cave In's single, "Anchor." Edson played the central character of the video, a depressed man walking down the street with his feet encased in cement blocks.

Edson appeared in a 2007 TV commercial for The Travelers Companies Inc., in which he portrays the human personification of risk.

The great character actor Richard Edson's first feature film role came in Jim Jarmusch's 1983 cult hit "Stranger Than Paradise", where he played 'Eddie', one of the main characters. Edson then had small but memorable roles in other big hits such as "Desperately Seeking Susan"(1985), John Hughes' "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), Oliver Stone's great Vietnam-movie "Platoon" (1986), Barry Levinson's "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987) and in 1989, Edson starred in Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing". In 1993 he played 'Spike', one of the evil King Koopa's henchmen in "Super Mario Bros.", and in 1995 he had a part in the engaging Sci-Fi Thriller "Strange Days". More recently, he has appeared in the remake of "Starsky & Hutch" (2004), the dubious horror-flick "Frankenfish" (2004) and is currently starring with Tom Arnold in "The Kid & I" (2005). In addition to his film success, Edson has had a fascinating career in music, being the original drummer in the New York post-punk band, Sonic Youth and spending three years as drummer for the rhythmic dance band, Konk. It was his involvement in Konk and the New York art scene that caught Jim Jarmusch's eye and led to his being cast in "Paradise". Edson currently lives in Los Angeles where in addition to acting he is very active in music, writing and photography.