Dick Elliott

Richard Damon Elliott (April 30, 1886 – December 22, 1961) was an American character actor who played in over 240 films from the 1930s until the time of his death.

A short, fat man, Elliott played Santa Claus on the Jimmy Durante, Red Skelton, and Jack Benny programs.

Elliott had a couple of memorable lines in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), notably when he scolded James Stewart's character, who was trying to say goodnight to Donna Reed, advising him: "Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?"

He appeared three times as Stanley on the CBS sitcom December Bride, as well as on two of ABC/Warner Brothers' western series, Sugarfoot and Maverick.

Elliott is perhaps best known as Mayberry's Mayor Pike in early episodes of CBS's The Andy Griffith Show, one of his last screen works.

Elliott as Mayor Pike on
The Andy Griffith Show , 1961