Dickerson as FBI Agent Chet Blakemore, Miami Vice. Courtesy Miami Vice Wiki.
| George Dickerson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 25, 1933 Topeka, Kansas, USA |
| Occupation | writer |
| Nationality |
 American |
George Dickerson (July 25, 1933 - January 10, 2015) was an American poet, prose writer, and actor.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Dickerson was born July 25, 1933, in Topeka, Kansas, to Elizabeth (Naumann) and George Graf Dickerson, a lawyer,[1] parents with whom he did not have a good relationship. He has a brother, 5 years his junior.
As a child, he lived in Michigan, the South Side of Chicago, Queens, New York, and Virginia. Since 1965, he has lived in the same apartment in Manhattan, New York City, once rented by critic James Agee (with whom Dickerson claims to have spiritual contact).[2]
Dickerson served in the U.S. Army from December 1953 to the fall of 1954.[2] He graduated from Yale University in 1955, after studying with novelist and poet Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks, advocates of New Criticism.
Career[]
Remembering George Dickerson....
After working a teaching job in Vermont, Dickerson read his poems at venues with Beat poets such as Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, and Ted Joans. His poetry was praised by novelist Norman Mailer.
He maintained long term friendships with many well-known artists, including songwriter Leonard Cohen, actor Richard Widmark, playwright Arthur Miller, actor Roscoe Lee Browne, opera soprano Leontyne Price, Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister, Norma Ellis, John Farrar, and ex-Poet Laureate Mark Strand.[2]
By 1960, Dickerson was working at the Macmillan Publishing Company.[2] He then worked at Time magazine, The New Yorker,[1] and Story magazine. While reviewing literature for Time, Dickerson helped to promote the careers of such young writers (at that time) as John Irving, Cormac McCarthy, Donald Barthelme, Robert Stone, and Don DeLillo.
His short story "Chico" appeared in The Best American Short Stories of 1963,[1] and was praised by poet e.e. cummings. His short story A Mussel Named Ecclesiastes appeared in The Best American Short Stories of 1966.[1]
In the 1970s, after a decade in the literary world, Dickerson worked as Press Secretary and speech writer for U.S. Congressman Robert Steele (R-Connecticut), and Head of Press and Publications for UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) at its headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon,[2] where he experienced the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 and 1976.
Dickerson returned from Lebanon to the United States and became an actor, taking roles in the television series Hill Street Blues, as Police Commander Swanson,[1] and playing Detective Williams in David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet[3] He also starred on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow,[1] as well as local theater and independent films, such as Broken Giant, Ties to Rachel, and Stranger in the Kingdom. He had major roles in films like Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, Psycho II, and After Dark, My Sweet. Dickerson also guest starred on episodes of shows like Three's Company, Charlie's Angels, Little House On The Prairie, L.A. Law, and Sledge Hammer.
After his time in Lebanon, Dickerson suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and suffered a decades-long bout of writer's block. By the mid-1990s, Dickerson began to write poetry again.
He was published in The New Yorker, Mademoiselle, The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, and Penthouse.[1] A book of his, Selected Poems, was published in 2000, by Rattapallax publishing company and journal, which he helped to found.[2] Dickerson has also written drama, including a 1-man play, A Few Useless Mementos For Sale.
Dickerson was a member of SAG, AFTRA, Actors' Equity, the Dramatists' Guild, the Author's Guild, the Academy of American Poets, and AMPAS.[2]
Private life[]
Dickerson was married 4 times and has 5 children: 2 daughters by his first wife, a son by his 3rd wife, a daughter by his 4th wife, and a son born out of wedlock with a Finnish journalist; Finnish film director Dome Karukoski. He was also romantically involved with 1960s supermodel Veruschka.[2]
Dickerson speoke 5 languages: English, French, German, Arabic, and Italian. While not religious, he claims a belief in God. He suffers from Crohn's Disease.[2]
Dickerson was a Democrat and only once voted Republican, for former New York City mayor John V. Lindsay. Of his politics, Dickerson said, 'I wasn’t involved in the Civil Rights movement. That is a failure on my part. I wasn’t really political until I started writing about world affairs for Time. I didn’t see my Black friends as black and they sensed that, so the subject didn’t come up between us, as hard as that may be to believe. We talked about what close friends talk about when there are no issues between them ... struggles with their writing, with their wives".[2]
Dickerson died after a long illness in early 2015, surrounded by the people closest to him. His death was made public by his son Dome via Facebook on January 13, 2015.[4]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Selected Poems, 1959-1999. New York: Rattapallax Press, 2000.
- The Cause. Headwaters Press, 2001.
Anthologized[]
- The Best American Short Stories of 1966. Houghton Mifflin, 1966.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Poets & Writers.[5]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "George Dickerson." Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television. Gale. 2008. Retrieved from Biography Research Center on September 24, 2008.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Cosmoetica, The Dan Schneider Interview 13: George Dickerson, 9 July 2008
- ↑ Janet Maslin. "'Blue Velvet,' Comedy of the Eccentric'. New York Times. September 19, 1986. Retrieved on September 24, 2008.
- ↑ "George Dickerson, Actor in David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet,' Dies at 81". The Hollywood Reporter. January 17, 2015. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/george-dickerson-dead-blue-velvet-764565.
- ↑ George Dickerson, Poets & Writers, Web, Feb. 10, 2013.
External links[]
- Poems
- "Song for Suzanne"
- Poems by George Dickerson (8 poems)
- Audio / video
- Books
- George Dickerson at Amazon.com
- About
- George Dickerson at Poets & Writers
- George Dickerson at the Internet Movie Database
- George Dickerson Film Reference page
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