He was David Thayer Hersey from an upper crust Winchester, Massachusetts
family. After secondary school he began attending Harvard University.
Along with several students he founded the Brattle Theatre Company in
1946. After working closely on Brattle with fellow Harvard graduates
and his father,Thayer Frye Hersey, David took the stage name Thayer
David in honor of his father.
Thayer David was tall and heavy-set with a prominent beetling brow and
protruding lips (a somewhat intimidating demeanor) which inevitably
bound him to character roles. But he had no false illusions about
leading man roles and whatnot other than applying a consummate passion
for being a good actor in those parts allotted him. To this he brought
a forceful if pursed and imperious voice and a knack for developing
voice characterizations to fit any part.
By late 1950 he was on Broadway in a revival of the comedy play "The
Relapse" Through most the 1950s he was busy with theater roles rounded
with returns to Broadway for the next two decades in some great dramas,
including stepping in as a replacement to play Cardinal Wolsey in "A
Man for All Seasons" (1961-63). Like many a trained actor looking
beyond the stage, David saw the potential of the small screen as a new
acting vehicle. By 1957 he had launched his TV career amid the
television playhouse phenomenon which had been established by 1950. He
would revisit perennially through most of the 1960s, but he had about
the same time been discovered by filmdom as well.
His first role was in the quite well done
So enden sie alle (1957), part of
the body of serious dramas that
Mickey Rooney (as the machine
gun-happy 1930s gangster) was amassing since his early days as one of
Hollywood's biggest juvenile stars. David next film had the clumsy and
long forgotten title
Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben (1958),
but it was a much more substantial part with young
John Gavin as German friends who
become World War II officers and confront humanity versus the Nazi war
mentality. As was usual with his roles, David was the veiled (if not
overt) antagonist-always intellectual but with a brutish shadow. Within
a year the chance to play a really melodramatic villain came with his
casting in the film version of
Die Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde (1959)
from the novel by the visionary French 19th century sci-fi author
Jules Verne. Although the film substantially
strayed from the novel, the latter plodded along, while the script was
fast-paced and engaging. And where there was no villain except nature
herself, the film had David as the self-serving-downright nasty - Count
Saknussem. With James Mason heading
the cast and-then-teen heartthrob
Pat Boone drawing in as well a young
female audience, the film and its special effects made for a rousing
good time.
Into the 1960s David's opportunities focused most on television. And
among these was a fad TV acting goal of being a guest super villain on
the highly popular and inventive The Wild Wild West (1965 to 1969).
David had the even better fortune of being cast in two episodes (1967
and 1969). In the meantime David had hit some more substantial TV pay
dirt. The smash daytime horror soaper Dark Shadows had premiered in
1966, and David was in on the ground floor as perfect for several
characters to emerge through the series run (1966 to 1971). He played
seven characters in the course of the show, the most prominent being
Professor T. Elliot Stokes. He reprised this role in the substantially
more potent in-a-nutshell film version of the story
Schloss der Vampire (1970),
considered by horror aficionados as one of best blood and gore vampire
romps. David returned in the studio-butchered and thus unsuccessful
film sequel
Das Schloss der verlorenen Seelen (1971)
as his eighth characterization, the Reverend Strack. In all cases David
was intimately involved and delighted in meshing makeup and costumes
with the voices he invented for all these roles (most of which he
developed) for the series.
If not from an already dependable track record, David's longevity on
the series marked him as a veteran trooper in the casting halls of
Hollywood. But he later recalled that his time invested in doing voice
over commercials could often come close to DS production schedule
conflicts. His commercial work marked the inevitable practical side of
acting. Even the best known actors and actresses have stooped to such
business over art, for the money is always good.
David was thereafter quite in demand through the decade of the 1970s in
both film and TV. Although he might be best recalled from the era as
the crooked fight manager in historic
Rocky (1976), his most character of
character roles was by far his Dragon in the
Clint Eastwood adventure/thriller
Im Auftrag des Drachen (1975).
Based on the novel by American author
Rod Whitaker who used the pseudonym
Trevanian to come off European, there is much name wordplay, for
instance, Dragon's full name in the novel is Uras S. Dragon (say it
fast). David's Dragon is head of CIA-like shadow hit unit which
employed Eastwood's character, and Dragon is an extreme albino (can't
tolerate normal environment). David gives him a rather strident rasping
voice with a hint of menace that along with his nearly colorless eyes
and figure bathed in the dramatic red light of an infrared-controlled
environment easily makes him the most memorable character in the film.
David guest-starred on some of the most watched episodic fare of the
1970s, and he was especially busy between 1975 and 1977. Amid two to
three films per year he made the rounds of TV production at the major
studios. Universal had continued using his talents during this period
when this contributor met and worked with Thayer David in early 1977.
He was an engaging person who enjoyed good conversation - the more
obscure the better - and a good cigar. Among outside pursuits he was
also a rare book collector with varied interests and enjoyed
entertaining at home.
A big man, he was nonetheless at that time overweight and the demands
of production visibly put a strain on him - he looked ill. But an actor
must work, and he carried on into the next year and lost some weight as
well. It was then that Paramount television offered him a potentially
great opportunity. This was the lead role in the TV pilot movie for a
series on the preoccupied but brilliant, corpulent - and most
important, rich - detective Nero Wolfe. The script was good, and Thayer
lent his accumulated and considerable characterization talents to make
Wolfe his own, although his loss of weight was now much more noticeable
and was rumored to be cancer. The success of the TV pilot looked
promising, as would the subsequent go-ahead for the series. But in one
of the ironic twists of fate, Thayer David suddenly died of a heart
attack, perhaps a complication of the purported advancing cancer - he
was only 51 years old. The pilot was shelved for over a year, ending up
premiering as a late night TV offering (Dec 1979). A Nero Wolfe series
did appear (1981), but it was short-lived.
One can only wonder if Thayer David had remained hale. A Nero Wolfe
series with such a dedicated and creative actor may have thrived with a
long run - the Holy Grail of any actor - the dream of security and the
opportunity to contribute thoroughly to on-going success. Oh well - the
stuff of dreams - posterity has to settle for the filmed record of
Thayer David as is - and that is a very substantial offering indeed.
