Richard Dix (July 18, 1893 – September 20, 1949) was an American motion picture actor who achieved popularity in both silent and sound film. His standard on-screen image was that of the rugged and stalwart hero.
Born Ernest Carlton Brimmer in St. Paul, Minnesota, he had studied to be a surgeon but took most of the leading roles while studying drama in school. After dropping out of the University of Minnesota after one year, he got a job at a bank. He took up with a local stock company, which led to acting work in New York City.
He moved to Hollywood, where he began a career in Western movies. One of the few actors to successfully bridge the transition from silent films to talkies, Dix's best-remembered early role was in Cecil B. Demille's silent version of The Ten Commandments (1923). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Yancey Cravat in Cimarron, in 1931, in which he shared top-billing with Irene Dunne. Cimarron was based on the popular novel by Edna Ferber, and took home the Best Picture award at The Oscars that year. Around this time Dix was seen in another RKO adventure, The Lost Squadron.
Another memorable role for Dix was in 1935's British production of a futuristic film entitled The Tunnel. It is of note that an original poster for this film was catalogued with an estimated value of between $2000 - $3000 by Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas in the Summer of 2006.
Dix later starred in The Great Jasper and Blind Alibi in the late 1930s. Dix's popular RKO Radio Pictures co-star in Blind Alibi was Ace the Wonder Dog. Dix's human co-stars in that film were Whitney Bourne, Eduardo Ciannelli, and the film was directed by Lew Landers. Blind Alibi's screenplay was by Lionel Houser, Harry Segall, and Ron Ferguson.
In the 1940s he starred in The Whistler, the first of a series of eight "Whistler" films for Columbia Pictures. He retired from acting after making the second to last movie in the Whistler series, The Thirteenth Hour. He died two years later in 1949 of a heart attack and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. He was survived by his three children from his two marriages.
Dix has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1610 Vine Street.
Decades after his death, Dix was also immortalized with a punning mention in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles:
Fought, Indians, fought drought, fought locusts, fought Dix. Remember when Richard Dix came in here and tried to take over this town?
