A native from the Bronx, New York, Richard "Dick" Miller served in the U.S. Navy for a few years and earned a prize title as a middleweight boxer. He settled in Los Angeles in the mid 1950s where he was noticed by Roger Corman who cast him in most of his low budget horror films where he usually played unlikeable sorts beginning as a vacuum cleaning salesman in Not of This Earth. But his most memorable role is in a rare starring role in playing the mentally unstable, busboy/beatnik artist Walter Paisley, whose clay sculptures are suspiciously lifelike in A Bucket of Blood. But he is best remembered for a supporting role as the flower-eating Vurson Fouch in Corman's The Little Shop of Horrors. He then spent the next 20 years working in Roger Corman productions, and starting in the late 1970s Joe Dante flicks, appearing in credited and uncredited walk-on bits playing quirky chatterboxes which he stole every scene he appeared in. His role of Walter Paisley has been repeated many times such as a diner owner (Twilight Zone-The Movie) or a janitor (Chopping Mall). One of his best bits is the funny occult bookshop owner in The Howling. Being short (so he never played a romantic lead or a threatening villain), with wavy hair, long sideburns, a pointed nose, and a face as trustful as a used-car dealer's, he was, and still is to this day, an immediately recognizable character actor whose one-scene appearances in countless movies and TV shows guarantee audience applause.
Is always cast by Director Joe Dante in movies Dante directs. According to him, when he would interview for acting jobs at other studios, he would mention that he had been working at American International. They would respond by saying "I don't think we can use you." Appeared in two completely different, unrelated productions which showed an unpleasant future (in the 2020s) that were both based in California: the film _The Terminator (1984)_ and the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.