Richard Haydn

British actor Richard Haydn worked as a plantation owner and a ticket seller before becoming a successful actor with roles in family-friendly films like "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Sound of Music." Haydn, who developed a unique on-screen habit of over-enunciating his words and speaking in a nasally tone of voice, made his film debut as the scheming title character in the 1941 romantic comedy "Charley's Aunt," and gained considerable notice for his turn as a butler wrongly accused of murder in "And Then There Were None," based on the Agatha Christie novel about a group of dinner guests who discover a killer among them. He provided the indignant voice of the hookah-smoking Caterpillar in the classic animated Disney film "Alice in Wonderland," and portrayed arts patron Max Detweiler in the Oscar-winning film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music." In addition to his work on live theater anthology shows like "Playhouse 90" and "G.E. True Theater," Haydn memorably portrayed a machine-averse food critic in an episode of "The Twilight Zone," and appeared on the popular sitcom "The Dick Van Dyke Show" as his signature radio character: poetry and fishing enthusiast Edwin Carp. He also directed several films, most notably the assumed identity romantic comedy "Miss Tatlock's Millions," and published a book entitled "The Journal of Edwin Carp."