Dennis Patrick was a well-respected American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 character actor

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

 best known for his works in television shows such as Jason McGuire and Paul Stoddard in Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements...

, Somerset

Somerset (TV series)

Somerset is an American television soap opera which ran on NBC from March 30, 1970 until December 31, 1976. The show was a spinoff of another NBC serial, Another World.-Overview :...

, Vaughn Leland in Dallas

Dallas (TV series)

Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...

, movies such as Joe

Joe (film)

Joe is a 1970 drama film starring Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick, and Susan Sarandon in her film debut. The film was directed by John G. Avildsen.-Plot:...

. He also was a well-respected stage actor, winning the Theatre World Award for his starring role in "The Liar," and later playing Jean Paul Marat on Broadway in the American stage production of Marat Sade. In 1959, he guest-starred in an episode of Bruce Gordon

Bruce Gordon (actor)

Bruce Gordon was an American actor best known for playing Frank Nitti in the ABC television series The Untouchables....

's NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 docudrama

Docudrama

In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....

 about the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors (1958 TV series)

Behind Closed Doors is an American drama series set during the Cold War hosted by and occasionally starring Bruce Gordon in the role of Commander Matson. The series, which aired on NBC from October 2, 1958, to April 9, 1959, focuses, among other themes, on how the former Soviet Union stole American...

.

He was born Dennis Patrick Harrison in Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 where he graduated from North Catholic High School in 1935. He was married to actress Barbara Cason

Barbara Cason

Barbara Cason was an American character actress. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she began her career appearing in theatre and on local television in Memphis during the 1950s, where she notably co-founded and ran the Front St. Theatre.She relocated to New York City in 1967, becoming active in theatre...

 from 1970 until her death in 1990. He played the character of Sheriff Patterson in the film House of Dark Shadows

House of Dark Shadows

House of Dark Shadows is a 1970 feature-length horror film directed by Dan Curtis based on his Dark Shadows television series. Filming took place at Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, New York with additional footage at nearby Sleepy Hollow Cemetery: parts of the locals appeared on the Dark Shadows series as...

 (1970). Dennis also played on a episode of Lost in Space "The Golden Man" (1966) as Keema. At age 84 he died in a fire

Fire

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....

 at his home in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

.

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