Background
Whorf, Richard was born on June 4, 1906 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Harry Church and Sarah Edna (Lee) Whorf.
Whorf, Richard was born on June 4, 1906 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Harry Church and Sarah Edna (Lee) Whorf.
Student in public schools Winthrop.
Richard"s older brother was linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf. Whorf began his acting career on the Boston stage as a teenager then moved to Broadway at age 21. He had a role in a production of Taming of the Shrew at the Globe Theatre in New York City.
He moved to Hollywood and became a contract player in films of the 1930s and 1940s, before becoming a director in 1944.
Whorf played a famous painter who had resorted to drinking in the 1960 episode "The Illustrator" of American Broadcasting Company"s The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. He directed a number of television programs in the 1950s and 1960s, the best known being the Columbia Broadcasting System hit comedy The Beverly Hillbillies, starring Buddy Ebsen.
He directed the short-lived 1959 syndicated adventure series, Border Patrol, and the 1964-1965 American Broadcasting Company sitcom, Mickey, starring Mickey Rooney. In the summer of 1960, he guest starred in one episode and directed other segments of the short-lived David McLean western series, Tate.
Whorf"s hobby was painting - he sold his first painting at the age of fifteen for United States$100.
Many of his small town landscape paintings reflected his American worldview and seemed to be inspired by painters like Grant Wood and Norman Rockwell. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Hollywood Hills, Los Los Angeles
Member Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, American Federation Radio Artists, Scenic Artists, Sons of the American Revolution, Screen Producers Guild, Screen Directors
Married Margaret H. Smith, May 13, 1929. Children: Peter Lee, David Baker, Christopher Troy.