Dick Cusack

Dick Cusack was an American actor, playwright and documentary filmmaker who came to screen acting later in life. Born in New York City in 1925, he spent years as an advertising executive, winning a Clio Award, before turning to film work in 1970. His earliest parts were small, and he became best known for playing figures of authority, among them a Senate chairman, a chaplain or minister and a secretary of state. He appeared as a judge in the television movie Overexposed and in the features Things Change and Eight Men Out. Beyond acting, he made documentaries and ran his own production company, and the Evanston Arts Council honored him for turning a school into the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, home to the Piven Theatre Workshop. A play he wrote, Backoff Barkman, was staged after his death. He died in 2003.