Jerome Raphel

Jerome Raphel (b. 1925) is a former New York stage actor who appeared on Sesame Street in the "Mad Painter" films. The bald-pated Raphel appeared in seven of the ten inserts, as a favorite victim of the painter, even more often than Stockard Channing. He appeared in capacities ranging from baker to street cleaner.

Raphel was a veteran of the theater, and had performed with his "Painter" co-star Paul Benedict on stage in Waiting for Godot and other productions. On Broadway, he played Judge Hawthorne in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. He also played a shiftless musician in The Connection, a play about the intersection of jazz and drugs, and reprised the role for the 1962 film version (with Roscoe Lee Browne), earning his screen debut. His movie career was generally limited to obscure experimental and independent films, however, including Hallelujah the Hills, The Double-Barreled Detective Story (as Sherlock Holmes, again co-starring with Benedict), The Cool World, and Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here (with Robert Redofrd and John Vernon). Outside of Sesame Street, one of his few television appearances was a guest spot on Get Smart, appropriately cast as the head of "The League of Bald-Headed Men."