Richard Paul

Richard Paul (1940-1998) was a character actor and voice artist who was heard in several 1970s Sesame Street cartoon inserts produced by Fred Calvert.^[1]

Paul performed in comedy sketches on Los Angeles radio station KPFK in the late sixties, where he worked with the Firesign Theater (later joining them on their albums How Time Flys and Roller Maidens from Outer Space). He voiced episodic roles on Calvert's animated TV series I Am the Greatest and Emergency +4 and was also heard on Superfriends and in Ralph Bakshi's animated feature Coonskin. He appeared on-camera in guest parts on Maude and other shows before co-starring on the sitcom Carter Country (1977-1979) as blowhard mayor Teddy Burnside. The sitcom led to Paul becoming a regular celebrity game show panelist on Match Game, Password, The $10,000 Pyramid, and others.

Because of his resemblance to televangelist Jerry Falwell, Paul often played fictitious versions (on episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati and RoboCop, regularly on the short-lived 1985 sitcom Hail to the Chief, and in the 1988 movie Pass the Ammo with Tim Curry) and the man himself in The People vs. Larry Flynt and the TV movie Fall From Grace. He even played Falwell in voice and on the cover of a 1985 novelty song single "Hypocrites." He remained a frequent TV face, recurring on Murder, She Wrote (as another windbag mayor, Cabot Cove's Sam Booth) and Full House (sporadically as Danny's boss Mr. Strowbridge) and was a regular on other short-lived sitcoms (including Herbie, the Love Bug). He had guest roles on Happy Days (as Howard's brother), M*A*S*H, The Dukes of Hazzard, Gimme a Break!, Married... with Children, The Drew Carey Show, and Beverly Hills, 90210. Other film credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic, Eating Raoul (as Paul Bartel's boss), Beanstalk (with Stuart Pankin, as yet another mayor), and The Independent (with Jerry Stiller, released posthumously).