Richard Dawson
British actor (1932–2012)
Richard Dawson (born Colin Lionel Emm; 20 November 1932 – 2 June 2012) was an English and American actor, comedian, game-show host, and panelist. He was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk in Hogan's Heroes, as a regular panelist on Match Game (1973–1978), and as the original host of Family Feud (1976–1985, 1994–1995).
Early life
Colin Lionel Emm was born in Gosport, Hampshire, England, on 20 November 1932. His father drove a removal van and his mother worked in a munitions factory. Colin and his older brother, John Leslie Emm, were evacuated from their home as children during World War II to escape the bombing of England's major port cities in the south. In a radio interview with Hogan's Heroes co-star Bob Crane, Emm (by this point, known by his changed name) recounted how this experience severely limited his school attendance, stating that he attended school regularly for only two years.
At age 14, Emm ran away from home to join the British Merchant Navy, where he pursued a career in boxing, earning almost $5,000 in shipboard matches. In 1950 and 1951, Emm made several passages on the RMS Mauretania from Southampton to ports of call, including Nassau, the Bahamas, Havana, and New York City. Following his discharge from the merchant service, Emm began pursuing a comedy career using the stage name Dickie Dawson; he later changed his alias to Richard Dawson, which he eventually adopted as his legal name.
Career
Comedy and variety artist in the UK
Dawson began his career in England as a stand-up comedian known as Dickie Dawson.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Richard Dawson” as british actor (1932–2012). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british actor (1932–2012). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1354328. VIAF identifies the subject as 229700263. The Library of Congress control number is n88132381. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2012, 1973 and 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Dawson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.