Biography
Long a stage and TV supporting player, actor Liam Dunn came to the public's attention relatively late in life as the mildly corrupt mayor of Big Town on
Buck Henry's short-lived TV superhero spoof Captain Nice (1967). He did so well playing this waffling ageing politico that he spent virtually the rest of his career as a stock player in the films of
Buck Henry's former co-writer
Mel Brooks. Following his first film,
Catch-22 (1970), Dunn was well-served as sanctimonious western clergyman Reverend Johnson in Mel Brooks'
Blazing Saddles (1974). Liam Dunn worked for Brooks again in the small role of a medical-college "guinea pig" in
Young Frankenstein (1975), and as an ancient newspaper vendor literally buried in the pulpish product of his trade in
Silent Movie (1976). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide