THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
US Marine Corps Promotional Video
Airdate: 1975/6
Role: Young Marine
Video 05/1174 available from
The Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections, Quantico, VA.
Produced by The US Marine Corps Public Affairs Unit 12-99
US Marine Corps Reserve and West Coast Motion Picture Unit
Camp Pendleton, California MH-11441
In a promotional video produced by the US Marine Corps, a group of active and retired Marines gathers to celebrate the history of the Marine Corps on its 200th anniversary. In one of his earliest roles, Richard played a young Marine in a series of vignettes that portrayed the evolution of the Marine Corps from its origin to the present day.
Although the Marine Corps Archives dates the video as 1976, it was filmed to commemorate the 200th birthday of the Marine Corps, celebrated on November 10, 1975, and was likely filmed before Richard began his role on General Hospital.
Richard Dean Anderson remembered his experience during filming:
It's a vague recollection on all of this stuff.
I got picked from a lineup of male-type specimens, a couple hundred or so. I read a couple of scenes with a few of the boys, and ultimately got the part.
The clearest memory I have of the experience is waiting for the sun to rise just a wee bit so we could start shooting. (Obviously an event planned without my approval. 3:15am call time. I mean, come on... Really?)
Anyway, while waiting and slithering down a hot pepper-laced breakfast burrito, I started to sense a "presence" around the truck, and, damned if I didn't catch actual movement near the shoreline.
What to my watering eyes did I see? But a gaggle of SEALs, walking upright, making a beeline, straight at lonely ole me. Scary-ish encounter.
I had been warned to not (not) talk to the SEALs if they happened among us. But they were curious, and ultimately, quite chatty!