Richard Masur The Thing (1982)
Richard Masur (born November 20, 1948, in New York City) played Clark, the dog handler at U.S. Outpost 31, in The Thing (1982). He had the most credits on the call sheet — over a hundred film and television appearances by 1982 — and is the only cast member who later served as president of the Screen Actors Guild (1995–1999).
A New York character actor on a feature track
Masur trained at the Yale School of Drama and the New York University School of the Arts. His career through the 1970s was almost entirely television — guest spots on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, One Day at a Time (where he played David Kane, Ann Romano's love interest, for two seasons), Hawaii Five-O. He moved into film with Semi-Tough (1977), Who'll Stop the Rain (1978), and Heaven's Gate (1980). By the time of The Thing he was a recognizable face on prime-time television and a working second-billed character actor in features. (wikipedia)
Clark is the keeper of the dog the camp does not yet understand
Masur's role pivots on three scenes: the kennel-introduction beat 5, in which Clark takes the malamute toward the kennel area;b5 the kennel transformation beat 12, where he stands frozen at the door as the dog's body opens;b12 and the rec-room couch beat 33, where he refuses to be tied and is shot in the head by MacReady before the test can run.b33 The film's reveal in beat 34 — that Clark's blood passes — is the only direct evidence the audience gets that MacReady's actions, even at maximum stress, can include the killing of a man rather than a thing.b34
Masur has said the kennel scene is the one he is most proud of as an actor.
"I have a single line in that scene — I think it's 'Take it easy' — and the rest is watching. I had to communicate everything by the way Clark is failing to act. He is the only one of us who knows the dogs, and he is the one who can't move." — Richard Masur, The A.V. Club (Random Roles, 2014)
The dogs were Masur's responsibility off-camera
Masur was a working dog trainer outside the film — he had trained his own dogs from childhood — and Carpenter has said part of the reason for Masur's casting was that the camp's dog-handler character could be played by a man the malamutes recognized as a handler.
"Richard had real authority with those dogs. The malamutes worked with him because he was actually their handler some of the time. We could shoot the kennel walk in long takes because the dogs were doing what he asked them to do, not what a trainer off-camera was telling them." — John Carpenter, [The Thing DVD commentary] (1998) (DVD commentary, partial transcript at Outpost 31)
SAG presidency and the second career
Masur was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1995 and served two terms through 1999. He led the union through the 1996 actors' strike against TV-commercial producers and the 1998–1999 SAG-AFTRA negotiations, and was generally considered an effective and unusually engaged union president for a Hollywood-celebrity figurehead role. After leaving SAG he stayed working in film and television, with major roles in Encino Man (1992), My Girl (1991), License to Drive (1988), and a long string of guest credits.
Selected filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Semi-Tough | Phillip Hooper | |
| 1978 | Who'll Stop the Rain | Danskin | |
| 1980 | Heaven's Gate | Cully | |
| 1982 | The Thing | Clark | Carpenter |
| 1984 | Risky Business | Rutherford | |
| 1986 | Heartburn | Arthur Siegel | Mike Nichols |
| 1988 | License to Drive | Mr. Anderson | |
| 1991 | My Girl | Phil Sultenfuss | |
| 1992 | Encino Man | Mr. Morgan | |
| 1995 | SAG President — first term | ||
| 2008 | It's Complicated | Peter Lowe | Nancy Meyers |