Paul Dooley

Paul Dooley
Credits
Role	TV Man
Biographical Information
Birth Name	Paul Lee Brown
Birthdate	February 22, 1928
Birthplace	Parkersburg, West Virginia, United States

Paul Dooley portrayed the TV Man in the third season episode, "Oedipus Hex" (1966).

Biography

Paul Dooley was an American actor and screenwriter. He was born Paul Lee Brown on February 22, 1928 in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Son of Peter James Brown, a factory worker, and Ruth Irene (née Barringer), a homemaker, he enjoyed listening to comedians on the radio, especially Jimmy Durante. He was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. When he was in high school, he often performed at fairs as a clown named Dooley. In the mid-1950s, he legally changed his surname to match his clown persona, as there was already a Broadway actor named Paul Brown.

In 1946, he joined the United States Navy and served for two years before returning home and graduating from West Virginia State University in 1952. Soon after, he moved to New York to try his luck in the entertainment industry. He initially found work as a clown for children's birthday parties. After few minor roles on stage, Mike Nichols gave him his first break by casting him in Neil Simon's 1965 hit comedy The Odd Couple on Broadway. Dooley appeared as Oscar's poker crony, Homer "Speed" Deegan and understudied Art Carney, who portrayed Felix Unger; when Carney left the play later on, Dooley assumed the role of Felix.

At this time, Dooley started a stand-up comedian career for five years, eventually landing on The Tonight Show, and was a member of the Compass Players and The Second City troupe in New York City. Fellow members of The Second City at that time were Alan Arkin and Alan Alda.

Dooley also worked as a writer. He created and was one of the head writers on The Electric Company, produced by the Children's Television Workshop for PBS. Dooley wrote "runners", a series of short sketches with 8 or 10 characters that were broadcast over the course of several weeks. He found out years later that Carl Reiner had recommended him for the job. Some of the characters Dooley created for The Electric Company included Easy Reader (Morgan Freeman) and Fargo North, Decoder (Skip Hinnant), as well as the soap opera spoof Love of Chair.

Dooley formed a company with Andrew Duncan and Lynne Lipton called All Over Creation to create commercials for radio and television. They produced around 500 TV commercials and 1,000 radio spots. A character named Paul the Gorilla that appeared in television commercials was named after him.

In the early 1960s, Paul Dooley began appearing in films and television and was still active in the mid-2020s at over 95 years old.

He collaborated on six films by Robert Altman. He played Snooks Brenner in A Wedding (1978), Alex Theodopoulos (the lead) in A Perfect Couple (1978), Wimpy in Popeye (1980), and Dr. Gil Gainey in HealtH (1980), for which he also co-wrote the screenplay. He also portrayed Randall Schwab in O.C. and Stiggs (1985), and appeared as himself in The Player (1992).

He played supporting roles in many other films, including Robert Mulligan's 1982 Kiss Me Goodbye, Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas's 1983 Strange Brew, John Hughes's 1984 Sixteen Candles, John Cassavetes's 1986 Big Trouble, Christopher Nolan's 2002 Insomnia, Christopher Guest's 2003 A Mighty Wind, Martin Bergman's 2011 Thanks, and Mark David, Mark Elias & Stoney Westmoreland's 2023 Boy Makes Girls.

He was best know for playing Ray Stohler in Peter Yates's 1979 Breaking Away, for which he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the National Society of Film Critics and won the Best Supporting Actor Award from the National Board of Review.

He also voiced the character Sarge in John Lasseter's 2006 animated film Cars and all of its sequels.

Finally, for his role as Mr. Spritzer in Adam Shankman's 2007 Hairspray, he shared a Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture with Nikki Blonsky, Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, Allison Janney, Elijah Kelley, and James Marsden.

On television, he guest starred on over ninety television series, including East Side/West Side, The Defenders, Get Smart, NET Playhouse, American Playhouse, Faerie Tale Theatre, Sesame Street, The Golden Girls, ALF, Thirtysomething, Square One Television, Evening Shade, Mad About You, The Ben Stiller Show, Tales of the City, L.A. Law, My So-Called Wife, Ellen, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Tracey Takes On..., Ally McBeal, Once and Again, ER, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, Huge, Parenthood, Young & Hungry, The Good Doctor, The Kids Are All Right, Life in Pieces, and Modern Family.

He was best known for his recurring roles as Dick Hale on Coming of Age (1988-1989), John Shirley on Grace Under Fire (1994-1996), Enabran Tain on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1994-1997), and most notably as Mickey Tupper, a gay father, during seasons three, four and five of Dream On (1992-1994), and as Judge Philip Swackheim during seasons three, four and seven of The Practice (1999-2002). For the latter two roles, he was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 1994 and 2000, respectively.

Paul Dooley married Donna Lee Wasser on September 19, 1958. They had three children, Robin, Peter, and Adam. They divorced in 1983. He married actress and screenwriter Winnie Holzman, whom he first met at an improv acting class in New York, on November 18, 1984. They have one daughter, Savannah, and live in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles.

In 2022, Dooley published his memoir, titled Movie Dad: Finding Myself and My Family, On Screen and Off.

Sources

• Paul Dooley on the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on March 6, 2025. Updated on June 12, 2025.
• Paul Dooley on Wikipedia. Retrieved on June 12, 2025.