Richard Quine

Richard Quine

1920-11-12 – 1989-06-10 (age 68) Detroit, Michigan, USA
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Biography

Richard Quine (November 12, 1920 – June 10, 1989) was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director.

Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year. His screen acting credits include The World Moves On (1934), Jane Eyre (1934), Babes on Broadway (1941), My Sister Eileen (1942), and Words and Music (1948), among others. At MGM he became friends with Mickey Rooney and later directed several of Rooney's films.

During World War II, Quine served in the United States Coast Guard, He married actress Susan Peters in November 1943. After the war, he tried directing, first as co-producer and co-director on Leather Gloves (1948), with William Asher, before his first solo effort on the musical The Sunny Side of the Street (1951). His directing credits include Pushover (1954), My Sister Eileen (1955), Operation Mad Ball (1957), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), Strangers When We Meet (1960), and The World of Suzie Wong (1960).

He also produced such films as the comedy Paris, When It Sizzles (1964) with Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, How to Murder Your Wife (1965) with Jack Lemmon, Synanon (1966), and Hotel (1967).

By the late 1960s, his output fell, and in the 1970s, Quine made only a few disappointing films. Turning to television, he had in the 1954-1955 season created with Blake Edwards the first Mickey Rooney series, The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan, which aired on NBC. Quine later directed three episodes of Peter Falk's Columbo, including Dagger Of The Mind, an episode set in Britain which some UK fans of that series regard as an embarrassment. He also worked on, another, much less successful NBC Mystery Movie series, McCoy starring Tony Curtis.

His final work was on The Prisoner of Zenda (1979) with Peter Sellers, although he was briefly part of the crew for another Sellers film, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980), for which he received no credit.

His first wife, whom he married on 11 July 1943, was actress Susan Peters, who was crippled from the waist down on a hunting trip with Quine in 1945 when her 22-caliber rifle accidentally discharged. The bullet lodged in her spine. On 17 April 1946, the couple adopted an infant, whom they named Timothy Richard Quine. They divorced in 1948, and she died of the effects of anorexia nervosa in 1952, at age 31.

Quine was later engaged to Kim Novak, but the two did not marry. He also married actresses Barbara Bushman (with whom he had two daughters, Katherine and Victoria), Fran Jeffries, and Diana Balfour.

After an extended period of depression and poor health, Quine committed suicide by shooting himself in Los Angeles on June 10, 1989. A rifle injury eerily reminiscent of his first wife's hunting accident.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard Quine, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Photos

Known For

Cavalcade
Cavalcade

1933

as Undetermined Secondary Role (uncredited)

Twiggy
Twiggy

2025

as (archival footage)

Words and Music
Words and Music

1948

as Ben Feiner Jr.

Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre

1934

as John Reed

The Wackiest Ship in the Army
The Wackiest Ship in the Army

1960

as Narrator (uncredited)

Stand by for Action
Stand by for Action

1942

as Ensign Lindsay

For Me and My Gal
For Me and My Gal

1942

as Danny Hayden (uncredited)

Command Decision
Command Decision

1948

as Maj. George Rockton

The Clay Pigeon
The Clay Pigeon

1949

as Ted Niles

Life Returns
Life Returns

1935

as Mickey

The Flying Missile
The Flying Missile

1950

as Amn. Hank Weber

The World Changes
The World Changes

1933

as Young Richard (uncredited)

No Sad Songs for Me
No Sad Songs for Me

1950

as Brownie

Babes on Broadway
Babes on Broadway

1941

as Morton Hammond

Little Men
Little Men

1934

as Ned

King of the Underworld
King of the Underworld

1939

as Medical Student (uncredited)

My Sister Eileen
My Sister Eileen

1942

as Frank Lippincott

Counsellor at Law
Counsellor at Law

1933

as Richard Dwight Jr.

A Dog of Flanders
A Dog of Flanders

1935

as Pieter Vanderkloot

Tish
Tish

1942

as Theodore 'Ted' Bowser