Richard Dawson (born Colin Lionel Emm; 20 November 1932 – 2 June 2012) was an English-American actor, comedian, game-show host, and panelist in the United States.

Dawson was well known for playing Corporal Peter Newkirk in Hogan's Heroes, as a regular panelist on Match Game (1973–1978), and as the original host of Family Feud (1976–1985, 1994–95).

[4] Colin and his older brother John Leslie Emm were evacuated as children during World War II to escape the bombing of England's major port cities in the south.

[5] At age 14, Emm ran away from home to join the British Merchant Navy, where he pursued a career in boxing, earning almost $5,000 in shipboard matches.

[6] During 1950 and 1951, Emm made several passages on the RMS Mauretania from Southampton to ports of call, including Nassau, the Bahamas, Havana, and New York City.

[14] In 1965, Dawson had a small role at the end of the film King Rat, starring George Segal, playing 1st Recon paratrooper Captain Weaver, sent to liberate allied POWs in a Japanese prison.

Following the cancellation of Hogan's Heroes, Dawson was a regular joke-telling panellist on the short-lived syndicated revival of the game show Can You Top This?

[citation needed] After Laugh-In was cancelled in 1973, game-show pioneer Mark Goodson signed Dawson to appear as a regular on Match Game '73, alongside Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and host Gene Rayburn.

[citation needed] Due to his popularity on Match Game, Dawson expressed to Goodson his desire to host a show of his own.

That same year, Dawson won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Game Show Host for his work on Family Feud.

[8] After Dawson left Match Game, his spot on the panel was filled with many other stars—most notably his best friend Bob Barker, who was then the host of The Price is Right.

[16] After receiving criticism for the practice (which also included a great deal of physical contact such as holding hands and touching), Dawson asked viewers to write in and vote on the matter.

The other featured an untimely monologue regarding the danger of flying on airplanes; it was replaced with a rerun because it would have aired the same night as the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in Chicago, which killed all 271 people aboard, as well as two on the ground.

Dawson parodied his TV persona in 1987's The Running Man opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, portraying the evil, egotistical game-show host Damon Killian.

[30] Dawson died of complications from esophageal cancer at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on 2 June 2012, aged 79.