Of all the Facebook-software-generated birthday greetings that came in today, I was especially moved by one from Dan Richter, who played “Moonwatcher” in 2001 A Space Odyssey.
I haven’t spoken to Dan face-to-face for a full 28 years, but we’ve kept up the correspondence. Of all the famous people I’ve met and regard on friendly terms, I suspect that 100 years from now more people will be familiar with Richter (or at least his legendary performance) than any present-day Hollywood hotshot you could name.
Be honest — how many people in the year 2121 will know or care who Chris Pratt was? Or Dwayne Johnson? Or any other quarter-of-an-inch-deep actor of note? How many people will recall who Ed Sheeran was? Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger, okay, but Sheeran?
Here’s an L.A. Times Calendar piece that I wrote in ’93 about Dan Richter, the ’60-era mime who played the bone-tossing Moonwatcher in Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The last time I linked to this piece was in July ’08. Here are three scans of the original article — #1, #2 and #3.
My father met Dan at a Connecticut AA meeting in ’92 or thereabouts, and at my dad’s suggestion I called a while later and visited Dan at this home in Sierra Madre for an interview. I remember he was dealing with chemotherapy at the time. He’s still with us and doing fine .
In 2012 Richter published a memoir — “The Dream Is Over” — mainly about a four-year period that he spent with John Lennon and Yoko One (’69 to ’73).
