Royce D. Applegate

Royce Dwayne Applegate (December 25, 1939 – January 1, 2003) was an American actor and screenwriter who was first billed as Roy Applegate. Born in Midwest City, Oklahoma, his most visible role was that of Chief Petty Officer Manilow Crocker on the first season of the television series seaQuest DSV. Applegate portrayed Deputy Crawford in Stir Crazy (1985). In that year, he also appeared in two episodes of Diff'rent Strokes, playing family man-turned-kidnapper Donald Brown, a father who kidnaps character Sam McKinney in order to replace his own dead son. Applegate was a top-billed ensemble cast member in the 1987 Richard Fleischer-directed, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World- and Midnight Madness-esque screwball comedy film Million Dollar Mystery, playing the dim-witted roadside desert diner proprietor Tugger. Applegate twice co-starred under the direction of The Coen Brothers, appearing in both O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Intolerable Cruelty (2003), the latter of which was his final screen role, and released posthumously. He portrayed Confederate General James L. Kemper in two films, Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and Generals (2003). On New Year's Day 2003, Applegate died in his Hollywood Hills home in a fire just one week after his 63rd birthday.