In Remembrance: Richard Cusack

     Richard Cusack, an advertising executive turned actor and writer whose children include actors John and Joan Cusack, has passed away from pancreatic cancer on Monday, June 2, 2003. He was 77.

     Cusack grew up in Manhattan and had served in the Army during World War II. He began his career as an advertising executive at the New York firm McCann-Erickson after graduating Holy Cross College in 1950. In 1966, he became creative director at Post, Keyes and Gardner in Chicago. Quitting the advertising business, he started Cusack Productions in 1970, making commercials and documentaries. His 1971 abortion documentary The Committee won an Emmy Award.

     Cusack fell into acting by accident when his friend Byrne Piven, the late Chicago actor and director and father of actor Jeremy Piven, wanted an authentic New Yorker to play a bell captain in a production of The Man in 605. The play moved to New York where director Tony Bill saw him and cast him as a school principal in My Bodyguard (1980). The movie also featured his daughter Joan in the cast. He would also appear in three films with son John- Class (1983), Eight Men Out (1988) and High Fidelity (2000).

     Cusack also appeared in such films as Crazy People (1990), While You Were Sleeping (1995) and Chain Reaction (1996). His last film was 2000’s Return To Me.

     Cusack also wrote many plays including Punto and The Last Word of the Bluebird. His play The Night They Shot Harry Lindsey with a 12mm Howitzer and Blamed It on Zebras, which was produced at Chicago's Body Politic, directed by Del Close with a still relatively unknown David Mamet in a minor role. He wrote the 1999 HBO film The Jack Bull, which featured son John in a starring role as an 1890s Wyoming horse trader.