Dick Kallman
Dick Kallman (July 7, 1933 – February 22, 1980) was an American actor.
Not to be confused with Dick Kollmar.
Dick Kallman
July 7, 1933
February 22, 1980 (aged 46)
Actor
Steven Szladek
(1954-1980, their murders)
Early life[edit]
Kallman was born in Brooklyn in New York City, into wealth. His father, Alvan Kallman, a former barnstorming pilot, was owner of the Savoy-Plaza Hotel in New York City, The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in New Hampshire, and the St. Johns Hotel in Havana.[1][2] Kallman's mother, Zara Whitman Kallman, had been a Broadway actress.[3]
Career[edit]
After working on the New York stage where he won a Theater World Award for his performance in the 1951 Broadway musical Seventeen,[4] Kallman
starred in the title role of the 1965–1966 television sitcom Hank. He returned to Broadway, taking over the leading role in the musical Half a Sixpence.[5] As a singer, he released several albums of pop standards, including Hits & the Misses and Speak Softly, and in conjunction with his TV series, Hank Sings and Dick Kallman Drops in as 'Hank'. He performed one of his songs on an episode of Hullabaloo.[6]
Kallman played non-recurring roles in TV series such as The Jack Benny Show, Bachelor Father and Medical Center. He also acted in episodes 110 and 111 of Batman, playing Little Louie Groovy, a takeoff on record producer Phil Spector. Groovy is a victim of a robbery at his apartment by the team of Catwoman and The Joker.
Personal life[edit]
Kallman had from youth exhibited an appreciation of fine antique furnishings and an acumen for business.[1] Kallman formed a music publishing company in 1966.[3] By the late 1970s, he had retired from show business and was a wealthy antiques and art dealer and living with Stephen Szladek, his life partner, in a Manhattan apartment.
Kallman and Szladek were murdered by three intruders in 1980 during a robbery of the art, antiques and jewelry in their apartment.[7][8][9] The killers were later caught and convicted.[8] A fictionalized account of Kallman’s life, Up With the Sun by Thomas Mallon, was published by Knopf in Feb., 2023.[10]