That Guy Dick Miller

Mention the name Dick Miller to your average multiplex-goer and, chances are, they will draw a blank. However, over the course of a career that has stretched seven decades, and more than 170 roles, Miller has become a certified cult legend – and something of a go-to guy for any filmmaker wanting to send a celluloid love-letter to the more ‘informed’ movie geek. To some, he will be best known for his small, but central, roles in such major studio features as Spielberg’s 1941 (1979), The Terminator (1984), Gremlins (1984) and Scorsese’s After Hours (1985). For others, he will always be the B-movie legend who headlined a series of Roger Corman schlockers - including A Bucket of Blood (1959), The Terror (1963), The Trip (1967) and White Line Fever (1975). More recently, a fresh generation of fans have received a full-on fresher course in the great man’s cinematic achievements via this year's acclaimed documentary That Guy Dick Miller, which won funding to the tune of $40,000 on Kickstarter.

Speaking to the 86-year-old performer today, it quickly becomes evident that even he is surprised that people still want to celebrate his screen legacy. “It is a shock – a massive shock,” he laughs. “With the documentary it was never expected. I could not believe people were willing to invest in that – fans from all across the world. It took months to finish the project and I am so flattered. I really am.”

“Roger said to me, ‘Tell me what you do and why I should hire you,’” states Miller. “I said, ‘I’m a writer’ and Roger replied, ‘I don’t any need writers – what I need are some good actors.’ So, almost without thinking, I said ‘Actually, I’m an actor as well.'” — Dick Miller

Miller grew up in New York – the son of a working class family from The Bronx – and admits to being an avid reader during his childhood. He began to get some of his short stories published and, by his own admission, “was really only interested in pursuing that line of work.” He consequently veered out to Hollywood in his twenties to see if the studios might need someone that could pen screenplays. “Breaking into acting was not on my mind,” he laughs. “I spent a long time in Los Angeles trying to make a living as a writer but I was struggling. I learned about Roger Corman and decided to see if he might have something for me…”

At the time, Corman was establishing a cash-strapped Empire of no-budget monster movies and westerns. Ironically, whilst the meeting would change Miller’s life, it was not because it provided him with a chance to sell his first script. “Roger said to me, ‘Tell me what you do and why I should hire you,’” states Miller. “I said, ‘I’m a writer’ and Roger replied, ‘I don’t any need writers – what I need are some good actors.’ Well I was new to Los Angeles, I had just come from New York, and I needed a job. So, almost without thinking, I said ‘Actually I’m an actor as well’ [laughs]. I guess he liked my look because about a week later he put me in a picture – a western called Apache Woman. I did a lot of films with him after that – we have both been around since forever [laughs].”

Indeed, it was Corman who gave Miller his first leading role – playing the bumbling busboy Walter Paisley in his cheap, but cheerful, splatter send-up A Bucket of Blood. Reportedly shot in just five days, for just $50,000, the movie became a surprisingly fan favourite – something that cemented Miller’s vocation for his new career.

“After A Bucket of Blood I kind of got the feeling that I was becoming known around town,” he continues. “A Bucket of Blood let me play the main role in a picture. It might have been this thing that had no money behind it but I was still the lead [laughs]. In fact, I remember that was all Roger would tell me about it. I kept saying to him, ‘what kind of part if this?’ And he would just tell me, ‘it’s the lead, and that’s all that matters’ – probably because he was still working on the script [laughs].”

In addition, many years later Miller would receive a call from an aspiring filmmaker called Joe Dante. The director was embarking upon his debut picture, the esoteric celebrity send-up Hollywood Boulevard (1976) and, in homage to A Bucket of Blood, Miller would once again be cast as a character called Walter Paisley. Dante would repeat this trope when he hired the actor to star in The Howling (1981) and Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). 

“Joe has been a great friend - and I just did a little role in his latest film, Burying the Ex,” states the actor. “When we first met and he said I was going to be called Walter Paisley in his movie I said, ‘Joe, is this character related in some way to the guy I played in A Bucket of Blood?’ And he said, ‘No, not at all, I just like the name – it will be a little inside joke.’ Then other directors got in on this – I played Walter Paisley again in a movie called Night of the Creeps, for Fred Dekker, and another horror film called Chopping Mall. I did seven or eight parts under that name. I can tell if someone is a diehard fan when they know all the movies I did as Walter Paisley [laughs].”

Meanwhile, the relationship would spawn one of Miller’s most well-remembered roles –the jingoistic Mr. Futterman from Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). “Gremlins was a lot of fun to make,” he recalls. “Joe never wanted to do a sequel but he told me if he did I would be in it. It didn’t matter that I was killed at the end of the first one [laughs]. In fact, when we did Gremlins 2 in New York, I had an even bigger role than in the original movie. So I was thrilled.”

With his sizeable role in Gremlins winning him some added late-in-the-day praise Miller was also poised to attract a new generation of fans. Typically he would be cast as blue collar workers with a wide smile and a charming personality. Key cuts include turns as a bowling club owner in the Fame TV series, a pawn shop clerk in James Cameron’s The Terminator, a Brooklyn barman in Scorsese’s After Hours and a taxi driver in Dante’s Innerspace. “When I did After Hours someone told me that, in another life, I must have had that job,” he chuckles. “People have come up to me and said, ‘Dick, you really seemed at home in that role. Was that what you did before you became an actor?’ But generally that is the sort of thing I have had the chance to play – guys from suburbia, or the city, with everyday jobs, you know? Just your average Joe. I have never really questioned it though – when I was starting out I did little bits and pieces and I am just glad that I was kept around. I’ve had the chance to be in some great movies.”

Sure, Miller might always be ‘that guy’ to the less-discerning movie watcher. But for those who worship at the altar of B-movie mayhem he will forever, rightly, be respected as one of cult fandom’s most treasured names. He may never have meant it, but Dick Miller remains one of the few faces that can turn a genre flick into a must-see event. No wonder he’s in no hurry to take on retirement. 

For more information on Dick Miller go to http://www.thatguydickmiller.com.