October 22, 2002

With the passing in the last year of icon John Agar, the title of World's Greatest Living B-Movie Actor has now been passed on to another. There are perhaps a few candidates for this mantle, but one man's career work places him far above the rest of the trash-film crowd and makes him the clear choice in this low-grade contest. That man is Dick Miller, an actor with an unparalleled lifetime output in the cinema of shoddiness.

Young Richard Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York in the late '20s, entered the Navy during World War Two and followed that up with some college studies in the Big Apple. In subsequent years he worked a succession of jobs, one of which was as a talk show host for a local TV station that helped lead to some stage and movie work. Fatefully, his first screen role would be under the direction of the man who would help set the actor upon a career course of parts in movies of low repute, Roger Corman.

Though Miller's first movie role was as the Native American Tall Tree in the 1955 Apache Woman, by his third film he had moved into what would become more familiar territory with an appearance as Army Sergeant Neil in Corman's ludicrous Venusian invasion film, It Conquered the World. From here, Miller would continue to work with Corman through the '60s and '70s, carrying his way through the heyday of the B-movie era with parts in gangster, drug, rock-and-roll and monster movies. He was a flower-eater in Little Shop of Horrors, a murderous artist/waiter in Bucket of Blood, a vacuum cleaner salesman in Not of This Earth, The Leper in The Undead and Rigger in The Wild Angels. He also turns up in The Terror, X, Ski Party, The Trip and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (among others!). Suffice it to say that there are few actors in the history of the movies whose have had the sort of run that Miller put in during this 13-year period from 1955 to 1968.

As the Swingin' Sixties drew to a close, however, the actor took a short break from film and didn't return until 1972. When he did come back, it was in characteristic style in a decidedly non-classic film leeringly called Night Shift Nurses. He continued to add to his lifetime laurels with parts in such celluloid gems as Candy Stripe Nurses, Big Bad Mama, Cannonball and Game Show Models. Somewhat later he managed, after 82 movie appearances, to turn up in what might be considered his first role in an honest-to-goodness legitimate Hollywood movie, that of the Palm Club owner in Martin Scorsese's New York, New York. Additionally, this somewhat lost decade closed with a couple of Miller's most memorable parts; as the police chief in Rock and Roll High School and as sleazy resort owner Buck Gardner in Joe Dante's brilliant freshwater Jaws rip-off, Piranha.

One might think that this kind of 25 year slice of movies might be enough of an acting life for any man, but by taking his everyday guy persona and wedding it to the reputation he built up through his amazing foundation of B-movie work, Miller kept working through the end of the century. He became a regular in the movies of Joe Dante (The Howling, Matinee, Gremlins, Explorers et al) but would also appear in another Scorsese movie (After Hours), as well as Chopping Mall, Night of the Creeps and Amazon Women on the Moon. There were also parts during this time that would expose him to a far larger swath of the film-going public than any of his previous ventures, such as his brief appearance as a pawnshop clerk in James Cameron's seminal 1984 film, The Terminator. One later bit of work that unfortunately never saw the light of day was a bit as Monster Joe in Tarantino's wildly overrated Pulp Fiction that was sadly left on the cutting-room floor.

It seems, though, that at the present time this giant of the bad film may finally have more or less wrapped his nonpareil career, as the last four years show only small parts in Small Soldiers (1998) and Route 666 (2001) for mainstream appearances. When taking stock of the man's body of work to this point, however, what seems obvious is that this regular Joe of an actor somehow managed to put together a lengthy career that has made him famous worldwide, even though the type of movies he has tended to be in are mostly held in low regard by the public and critics alike. Many more reputable thespians have had much shorter periods of fame, and it's a testament to Miller's workmanlike talent and steady presence that he stuck around as long as he did. Having over 40 years of activity on-screen is no easy feat, and Dick Miller can now satisfyingly fade into the sinking sunset, well assured that his legacy is preserved for posterity. With over 180 trashy films under his belt in a spectacular career that spanned nearly every minor movie genre, he is undoubtedly now the world's greatest living B-movie actor, as well as one of the most recognizable character actors of the last 50 years. As screen legacies go, that's an impressive and entertaining achievement to leave behind as your heritage. And who knows? Perhaps we have not yet seen the last that Dick Miller has to offer.

View other columns by Chris Hyde