# Richard Sanders (actor)

Richard Sanders (born August 23, 1940) is a retired American actor and screenwriter. He played quirky news anchorman Les Nessman on the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982). Most of his acting career has been on television.

## Early life and education

Sanders was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of Thelma S. and Henry Irvine Sanders. After graduating from Leavenworth High School in Leavenworth, Kansas, he was enrolled in the Fine Arts Department at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now known as Carnegie Mellon University) as an acting major. There, he was a classmate of René Auberjonois and Aubrey Wilson, among others.

## Career

After graduating from college, Sanders studied Shakespearean theatre in England on a Fulbright Scholarship, and served a stint with the Peace Corps in the states of Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
Sanders joined Gordon Jump and Frank Bonner in reprising his original WKRP role on The New WKRP in Cincinnati in the early 1990s. He has guest-appeared on other television shows, including Lou Grant, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Alice, Newhart, Murder, She Wrote, Designing Women, and Married... with Children, and has also acted in the mini-series Roots: The Next Generations, the animated series Inhumanoids, the horror film Lovers Lane, and the Robert De Niro/Cuba Gooding Jr. film Men of Honor.
Besides being an actor, Sanders is a screenwriter, having written, among other works, several episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati. In 1993, he starred in the computer game Day of the Tentacle as the voice of Bernard Bernoulli.

## Personal life

Sanders resides in Woodinville, Washington. He is married to Marilynn Marko-Sanders.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1977 | Billy Jack Goes to Washington | Jerry |
| 1980 | The Nude Bomb | German Delegate |
| 1983 | Valley Girl | Drivers' Ed Teacher |
| 1991 | Neon City | Dickie Devine |
| 1994 | The Beans of Egypt, Maine | Lee, Earlene's Father |
| 1997 | Black Circle Boys | Mr. Dunkel |
| 1999 | Anoosh of the Airways | Burton Lloydhammer |
| 1999 | Lovers Lane | Dr. Jack Grefe |
| 2000 | Men of Honor | Donny Moor, The Bartender |
| 2000 | Nowheresville | Duane |
| 2006 | Expiration Date | Municipal Cemetery Administrator |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1971 | They've Killed President Lincoln! | Dr. Leale | Television film |
| 1974 | Lincoln: Trial by Fire | Minister John Adams | Television film |
| 1974 | The Doctors | The Bartender | 4 episodes |
| 1977 | McCloud | Matt Clayton | Episode: "London Bridges" |
| 1977 | Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn | Travis | Television film |
| 1977 | Good Against Evil | The Doctor | Television film |
| 1977 | Lou Grant | Richard T. Harvey | Episode: "Hostages" |
| 1977 | Barnaby Jones | Joe Keller | Episode: "The Wife Beater" |
| 1977 | Kojak | Drunk | Episode: "A Strange Kind of Love" |
| 1977 | Rafferty | Reverend Campbell | Episode: "The Wild Child" |
| 1977 | The Rockford Files | Samuel Romney | Episode: "The Mayor's Committee from Deer Lick Falls" |
| 1978 | Ruby and Oswald | FBI Agent Kelley | Television film |
| 1978 | Keefer | Bemmel | Television film |
| 1978 | The Gypsy Warriors | German Scientist | Television film |
| 1978 | Bud and Lou | The Doctor | Television film |
| 1978–1982 | WKRP in Cincinnati | Les Nessman | 88 episodes |
| 1979 | Roots: The Next Generations | Captain | Episode: "Part III (1914–1918)" |
| 1979 | Ike | Correspondant | Episode: "Part II" |
| 1979 | Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker | Mr. Fogarty | Television film |
| 1980 | Trouble in High Timber Country | Lester | Television film |
| 1980 | Fantasy Island | The Race Track Announcer | 2 episodes |
| 1982 | ABC Weekend Special | Mr. Lester Little | Episode: "The Joke's on Mr. Little" |
| 1982 | Gloria | Barry Farnum | Episode: "The Taxman Cometh" |
| 1983 | It Takes Two | Arthur Frain | Episode: "Anniversary" |
| 1983 | The Invisible Woman | Orville | Television film |
| 1983 | Alice | Arnold | Episode: "Alice's Blind Date" |
| 1983 | Goodnight, Beantown | Chester | Episode: "Peace on Earth" |
| 1984 | Simon & Simon | Ed Laughlin | Episode: "The Wrong Stuff" |
| 1984 | Newhart | Cecil Breech | Episode: "Leave It to the Beavers" |
| 1984–1985 | Spencer | Benjamin Beanley | 13 episodes |
| 1984-1987 | Murder, She Wrote | Gerald Richards, Arnold Megrim | 2 episodes |
| 1985 | Berrenger's | Frank Chapman | 8 episodes |
| 1985 | Who's the Boss? | Bob Wormser | 2 episodes |
| 1986 | Riptide | Pierce Fenner | Episode: "A Matter of Policy" |
| 1986 | Knots Landing | Harry Nold | Episode: "The Legacy" |
| 1986 | ALF | Hogarth | Episode: "Pennsylvania 6-5000" |
| 1986 | Inhumanoids | Dr. Derek Bright | Voice, 8 episodes |
| 1986-1989 | Growing Pains | Dr. Rosenfeld, Luther | 2 episodes |
| 1987 | Easy Street | Ravenkeep | Episode: "The Mad Gardener" |
| 1987 | Nothing in Common | Dooley | Episode: "Gone Fishing" |
| 1987 | Married... with Children | Mr. Conner | Episode: "Sixteen Years and What Do You Get" |
| 1987–1988 | You Can't Take It with You | Paul Sycamore | 4 episodes |
| 1988 | The Law & Harry McGraw | Burton Rumley | Episode: "Beware the Ides of May" |
| 1988 | Duet | Bob | Episode: "Funny Valentine" |
| 1988 | Perry Mason: The Case of the Avenging Ace | Chester Lackberry | Television film |
| 1989 | Night Court | City Auditor Clark Edwards | 2 episodes |
| 1989 | The Magical World of Disney | Dr. Dark | Episode: "The Absent-Minded Professor: Trading Places" |
| 1990 | 227 | Dean Thurston | Episode: "Nightmare on 227" |
| 1990 | Charles in Charge | Professor Smalley | Episode: "Let's Quake a Deal" |
| 1990 | Coach | Warren Graustark | Episode: "The Break-Up" |
| 1990 | Designing Women | Dr. Elliot Newhouse, Elmer Peace | 2 episodes |
| 1990 | Gravedale High | Ben Franklin | Episode: "Goodbye Gravedale" |
| 1991–1993 | The New WKRP in Cincinnati | Les Nessman | 46 episodes |
| 1995 | Simon & Simon: In Trouble Again | Dr. Budwig | Television film |
| 1997 | Unhappily Ever After | Mr. Peabody | Episode: "Teacher of the Year" |
| 1999 | Batman Beyond | Mr. Deakins | Voice, episode: "Spellbound" |
| 2000 | The John Report with Bob | Bob's Dad | Episode #1.2 |
| 2001 | The Fugitive | Judge | Episode: "And in That Darkness" |
| 2002 | Rose Red | Mr. Stanton | 2 episodes |