Lord Richard Buckley (
Richard Myrle Buckley; April 5, 1906 – November 12, 1960) was an American stage performer, recording artist,
monologist, and hip poet/comic, who in the 1940s and 50s created a character that was, according to
The New York Times, "an unlikely persona ... part English royalty, part Dizzy Gillespie." Michael Packenham, writing in
The Baltimore Sun, described him as "a magnificent stand-up comedian... Buckley's work, his very presence, projected the sense that life's most immortal truths lie in the inextricable weaving together of love and irony -- affection for all humanity married to laughter." Buckley's unique stage persona anticipated aspects of the
Beat Generation sensibility, and influenced contemporary figures as various as
Dizzy Gillespie,
Lenny Bruce,
Wavy Gravy,
Del Close, and, even after Buckley's death,
Ken Kesey,
George Harrison,
Tom Waits,
Frank Zappa,
Robin Williams, and
Jimmy Buffett.
Bob Dylan, in his book
Chronicles, said "Buckley was the hipster bebop preacher who defied all labels."