This page on Dick (Richard) Wyler is from information sent into the Site by its Readers.

THE REAL CAFE RACERS

'The Coffee Bar Cowboy'

Name:  Richard Troy Wyler  (Richard Stapley)
Birth date:  20.June 1923 
Birth Place:  Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex England
Date of Death :  5th March 2010  (86)
Place of Death :  Palm Springs, California, USA
Nationality:  English  (naturalised American)
Gender:  male
Actor, Author, Motorcycles Racer.

In the foreground is a special set up, based on a limited budget and a lot of goodwill. The motorcycle owes it's life based on a Norton "Model 7" with a 500cc, twin-cylinder engine (manufactured from 1949 to 1955). The frame was manufactured with a solid rear end, with the suspension being provided by a sprung hub.

Behind the Norton is the curious aspect of the boy in the saddle. It is the well-known Triumph enthusiast, American actor Richard Wyler, who had moved to live in London and became the protagonist of a popular television series called "The Man from Interpol".

Not only was he an avid Triumph fan, but at that time he kept a very appreciated column in one of the most famous British motorcycle magazines under the title "Dick Wyler's Coffee Bar Column".

On weekends he also raced in club races with a Greeves 250cc "Silverstone " and was often in the company of TT specialist and speed racer, Joe Dunphy on the British circuits. Dick was also supplier of special racing parts such as forks, handlebars, brakes and pads) .

At one time Dick purchased the motorcycle shop from Fred Neville along with Fred's Ajay 7R which he campaigned in a number of races.  Dick always had the look of the film & T/V star about him. With his handmade fitted leathers and sun glasses.

The following is a lift from a write-up by IMDb with corrections. 

'Richard Stapley, aka Richard Wyler, not only enjoyed great success as an actor and writer on both sides of the Atlantic but managed to do it under two names as well. Dick, as he was commonly called was said to be a descendant of a Sir Richard Stapley, noted in history for signing the death warrant of King Charles 1'

Editors Correction: (The person noted in history for signing the death warrant of King Charles 1 was Anthony Stapley (1590–1655), not a Sir Richard Stapley.

           Anthony Stapley was born in the small village of Framfield in Sussex, he attended Christ’s College, Cambridge, and Gray’s Inn. His family had held land in East Sussex since the late 15th century and, around 1620, they brought Patcham Place from Richard Shelley, (ancestor of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley). Despite his strong Roundhead leanings, Stapley married Ann, the sister of Lord Goring, a staunch Royalist solider; they had three sons and one daughter. Between 1625 and 1628, Stapley was elected MP for New Shoreham and Lewes and, over the next few years, emerged as one of the leading Puritans in Sussex. He was elected to both the Short and Long Parliaments as MP for Sussex.

           Anthony Stapley was a 17th-century Member of Parliament and a staunch supporter of the Parliamentarian cause during the English Civil War. He was one of the 59 commissioners who sat in judgement during the trial of Charles I. He was present when the sentence was pronounced and signed the death warrant on January 29, 1649. Anthony Stapley died in 1655, before the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Because he was already dead, he escaped prosecution and execution as a regicide; however, his estate was subject to confiscation. His son, Sir John Stapley, managed to regain favour with  King Charles II by expressing regret for his father's actions and participating in a Royalist conspiracy against Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, for which he was knighted at the Restoration. This was the heritage line that Dick came from.

         There was a Richard Stapley, who was a businessman and philanthropist, who  lived much later (1842-1920) and founded an educational trust. The other individual, Sir Richard Stapley (1843-1920), was a successful London businessman and philanthropist who established the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust in 1919 to help students with limited financial means attend university. He has no connection to the execution of Charles 1. (Editor).

In the 1970s, Richard was well-known on the small screen as the man in the aeroplane's bath in the 'Imperial Leather' commercials. The "Cussons Imperial Leather airplane" refers to the iconic 1970s/80s TV commercial where a wealthy family enjoys luxurious baths in matching tubs aboard a private jet (often a Concorde), with the wife saying, "Tahiti looks nice," and the husband calling down to the pilot, "Simon, Tahiti," to which Simon replies, "Roger, wilco," promoting the soap as affordable everyday luxury. This memorable advert, featuring a plush bathroom on a plane, created a lasting association with opulence and the brand, even inspiring modern remakes.

In 1946, he wrote his first novel, I'll Wear It On My Head," which was published in England, and sailed for America, armed with letters of introduction to Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne from his friends John Gielgud and Cathleen Nesbitt.

Through the Lunt’s, he landed a lead in a Broadway play, "Darling, Darling, Darling," in which he was spotted by a talent scout and signed to star in "The Challenge" for the small Eagle Lion studio. MGM bought his contract and he quickly co-starred with Lana Turner and Gene Kelly in "The Three Musketeers" and in "Little Women" with June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Margaret O'Brien and Elizabeth Taylor.

He was menaced by Boris Karloff in the cult classic "The Strange Door," and made a dashing action hero in such films as "Charge of the Lancers" with Paulette Goddard and Jean-Pierre Aumont, "King of the Khyber Rifles" with Tyrone Power, "The Iron Glove" with Robert Stack, "Jungle Man-Eaters" with Johnny Weissmuller, "Target Zero" with Charles Bronson and "D-Day The Sixth of June" with Robert Taylor.

Between movies, he was a frequent guest on TV dramatic shows and returned to Broadway in two plays, "Second Threshold" at the Morosco and the Theatre Guild's production of "Jane" with Edna Best and John Loder.

Stapley also teamed up with composer Dickson Hughes to write a musical revue, "About Time," and three songs for the film "The Restless Breed," starring Anne Bancroft. They were then commissioned by Gloria Swanson to write a musical version of "Sunset Boulevard," in which she hoped to make a stage comeback. Production plans fell through, but Swanson did perform one of the songs, "Those Wonderful People Out There in the Dark," in a major production number on the Steve Allen TV show.

Disheartened by the whole Swanson incident and ready for a change, he returned to England, where he was offered the starring role in a new TV series, "The Man From Interpol," with the new screen name of "Richard Wyler". The show was a tremendous success throughout the world, but he also found himself type-cast in that one role. He took two years off and bought three racing motorbikes and was soon competing with such champions as Mike Hailwood, Phil Read, Jim Redman and Luigi Taviri.

He returned to films in "The Barbarians" with Jack Palance and continued to star in a series of European action films including "Identity Unknown," "The Rattler Kid," "The Exterminators," "The Bounty Killer," "Two Pistols and a Coward," "The Girl From Rio" with George Sanders and Shirley Eaton and the popular spy picture "Dick Smart."

While shooting "Connecting Rooms" with Bette Davis and Michael Redgrave, he showed the producer, Dimitri de Grunwald, a short story he'd written that was published in a collection that included stories by John Lennon and Romain Gary. Grunwald, who'd formed a new production company with Sir Peter Hall and Robert Bolt (writer of "Dr. Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia"), optioned the story as their first movie project.

Since then, Stapley, reverting back to his birth name, combined acting with his new love of writing and for 10 years was even featured in three long-running commercials for Imperial Leather soap, which was chosen as one of the best-ever British TV ads and also shown in selected U.S. cities.

A chance meeting with Monte Cook at an acting audition led to their collaborating on the novel "Naked Legacy," which Stapley wrote based on Cook's life story. Stapley also completed an additional novel, "Tomorrow Has Been Cancelled," as well as his memoirs, "To Slip and Fall in L.A." A new musical, "Swanson On Sunset," was also written with former partner Dickson Hughes, based on their adventures while writing the ill-fated musical version of "Sunset Boulevard." A private demo recording of the complete score, featuring Swanson in her original role of "Norma Desmond" was recently released on CD by Stage Door Records.

Obituary 

Richard Troy Wyler 1923 - 2010 RIP

06/08/2010, 11:38 AM

Richard Wyler born Richard Stapley in Westcliffe. Essex on 20th June 1923, served in the RAF during WW2 moving to Hollywood in the 1940's where he appeared in a number of films alongside Boris Karloff & Tyrone Power. He took the surname Wyler when he moved back to the UK the early 1960's starring in the TV series The Man From Interpol. Alongside his acting career Wyler was also racing Greeves on short circuits in the UK, & in company with Joe Dunphy did a Greeves publicity tour on Greeves roadster 250 & 325 Sports Twins (950 UNO & 171 VEV) in 1961. He also wrote in the motor cycle press with Richard Wyler's Coffee Bar Column. In his later years he moved into TV commercials, including one for Imperial Leather soap. He died on Friday 5th March 2010 with kidney failure at Palm Springs, California aged 86

John Wakefield
GRA Member