Richard Mulligan Dies

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/28/1997 at 12:00 AM EST

Actor Richard Mulligan, 67, who starred on TV's "Soap" and "Empty Nest" and played the memorably batty movie director (who made Julie Andrews go topless) in the 1981 Hollywood lampoon "S.O.B.," died in his Southern California home on Tuesday after a lengthy battle with cancer, his publicist announced. The lanky Mulligan had been in show business for nearly four decades. From 1977-81, he played the stepfather to the Billy Crystal character on the satirical "Soap," and from 1988-95 he was Dr. Harry Weston, a widower with three grown daughters, on "Empty Nest." Both portrayals won him Emmys.