George Dickerson

George Dickerson was an American actor, writer, and poet from Topeka, Kansas, who earned a degree at Yale in 1955 and studied there with Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks. He spent years in publishing and journalism, at Macmillan, Time, The New Yorker, and Story, and while reviewing books for Time he drew attention to young writers including John Irving, Cormac McCarthy, and Don DeLillo. Two of his short stories were picked for The Best American Short Stories, in 1963 and 1966. He turned to acting later, playing Detective Williams in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) and Police Commander Swanson on Hill Street Blues. His film roles included Space Raiders (1983), After Dark, My Sweet (1990), No Mercy (1986), Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987), and Death Warrant (1990), and he guest starred on Three's Company, Charlie's Angels, L.A. Law, and Sledge Hammer! A collection, Selected Poems, was published in 2000.