Is understanding human behavior important to being a good actor? If so,
then it's no surprise that Richard Paul is eminently qualified for his
successful acting career. A native Californian with a BA in public
affairs from Claremont Men's College, now Claremont McKenna College,
Richard earned an MA in psychology from California State University at
Los Angeles. He then began work toward a Ph. D. at the University of
Arizona. The following years were a curious mixture of psychology and
acting: from playing Doolittle in "My Fair Lady, " to traveling back
and forth between Arizona, and Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk,
California, where he served his internship in Clinical Psychology, and
worked as a staff psychologist.
Falling in love in a mental hospital may seem unusual, but that is where he met his future wife Patty, a
student worker there. He developed his own unique program there--acting
lessons for the patients. At night, Richard went to L.A.'s radio
station KPFK to appear on Firesign Theater. He worked on two albums
with the group, "Roller Maidens from Outer Space" (playing Ozzie Nelson
among several voices) and "As Time Flies, " now Firesign classics.
No matter where he was working or studying during those years, Richard
returned every summer to the Pomona Valley Shakespeare Festival
directed by Jesse Swan first in Balch Auditorium at Scripps, then at
Garrison Theater, where he immersed himself in the great characters of
Falstaff, in Henry IV, part 1; Toby Belch in Twelfth Night; Friar
Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet; Bottom in Midsummer Nights Dream;
Baptista in Taming of the Shrew with the best Petruchio he's ever seen,
Mike Connolly; Arnolphe in the Amorous Flea, and a variety of other
roles.
In 1968 Richard married Patty, and together they spent the
requisite early years struggling to make a living, with Richard doing
commercials, voice-overs, and working on the doctorate--torn between
two careers. The turning point came when Richard accepted a nine month
road engagement starring in "W.C. Fields, 80 proof, " a two-man show.
The die was cast, and with Patty's support, Richard chose a career as a
performer, "A decision I've never regretted--well, only twice a week."
In the years that followed, Richard did a number of voice-overs for
cartoons including Mickey Mouse and Uncle Remus for Disney. Early
on-camera roles included "Maude, " "Mary Hartman, " and "Mitzi Gaynor's
Roarin' in the Twenties, " where he reprised the Fields role. A lunch
break interview during filming of a dog food commercial led to the
costarring role of Mayor Teddy Burnside ("your mayor by a landslide")
in ABC-TV's "Carter Country, " where his order to "Handle it! Handle
it!" became a national catch phrase. The series ran 2 years.
Richard starred with Shirley Hemphill in "One in a Million" (another ABC
series), and costarred in 1982 with Dean Jones in "Herbie the Love Bug"
on CBS. Recent stage roles include the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of
Oz, " with Cathy Rigby; Mayor Shinn in the "Music Man" with John
Davidson; Jimmy in "No, no, Nanette, " and the Governor in "The Best
Little Whorehouse in Texas" with Ruta Lee. How did Richard Paul get
Milos Forman to cast him in the role of Jerry Falwell in the award
winning "The People vs. Larry Flynt?" Preparation helps. Richard has
had a lot of practice playing preachers: from the pleasant parson who
tried to censor "WKRP, " to the televangelical adversary of Patty Duke
on "Hail to the Chief, " to the man who finally married "Scarecrow and
Mrs. King, " to his critically acclaimed previous portrayal of Falwell
in "Fall from Grace." with Bernadette Peters.
Richard worked on two other movies in 1996 in addition to "The People vs. Larry Flynt." He
played a diamond smuggler in "The Glass Cage" with Eric Roberts, and a
college dean in a leading role in "Mind Games." Director Paul Bartel
cast Richard as comic heavies in the cult classic "Eating Raoul" and in
"Not For Publication." He went to Yugoslavia to star with Eva Gabor in
"Princess Academy." In 1997 he appeared on "Rosanne" and "Drew Carey, "
Richard and Patty lived in Studio City.
His other interests included singing (an operatic tenor), writing, walking, and dieting forever. For
seven years he volunteered every week as a reader for the Braille
Institute's Recording program. An animal lover, Richard has also
volunteered his time for years to Actors and Others for Animals. Still
interested in psychology, he was a licensed Marriage and Family
Therapist, and served on the Mental Health Advisory Board to the Los
Angeles County Board of Supervisor. A Universal Life Church minister,
Richard confesses: "I married my wife once, but I married her brother
twice."
