John Larch (October 4 1916-October 16 2005) was a prolific character actor whose stern visage and craggy features landed him many authoritarian-type roles such as police officers. He is famous for his role as the police chief in Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” movies as well as for his over one hundred television series guest star appearances. Two of his more memorable television roles include playing the ingratiating father of a young boy with lethal telekinetic powers in The Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life” and as a policeman undergoing a nervous breakdown in Naked City’s “Today the Man Who Kills Ants is Coming,” the latter scripted by The Six Million Dollar Man telepilot writer Howard Rodman.
He played Vail in "The Cheshire Project."