Career
The New Jersey native"s early career was spent toiling in television in series such as Bonanza, Room 222, Alias Smith and Jones, Mannix, and Gunsmoke. Dunn"s breakout role was as the judge (and Barbra Streisand"s father) in the 1972 film What"s Up, Doc?, in which he was noticed by Mel Brooks, who was in the process of forming a stock company of actors. Dunn went on to appear in Brooks films, Blazing Saddles as "Review
Johnson", Young Frankenstein as "Mr.
Hilltop", and as the "Newsvendor" in Silent Movie. He frequently portrayed characters who were verbally and/or physically abused in a slapstick way.
In Spring 1976, it is said Liam Dunn collapsed on the set of Disney"s The Shaggy Doctorate.A. (1976), during the filming of the roller rink sequence, and died soon after on April 11, 1976, from emphysema in Granada Hills, California. John Fiedler was brought in to complete the role as dog catcher.
Though only 59 at his death, Dunn always looked much older, and was cast accordingly.