Paul Dooley
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
 |
Paul Dooley (born 22 February 1928; age 80) is the Emmy Award-nominated actor who played Enabran Tain in four episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Dooley began acting while attending college. During the early 1960s, he was part of a stand-up comedy act consisting of himself and Richard Libertini known as "Paul Dooley and Dick Liberti". Although the act split up after a short time, Dooley and Libertini went on to work on several films together, and Libertini himself also become a guest star on Deep Space Nine.
Having found success on the New York stage, Dooley moved into television in the 1960s, making appearances on such popular shows as The Defenders, Get Smart, and Bewitched. By 1970, he had begun breaking into feature film as well, with small roles in 1970's The Out-of-Towners (in which he and Richard Libertini played baggage handlers, with Graham Jarvis playing a mugger), 1974's Death Wish, and 1977's Slap Shot. In 1978, he landed his first major film role in Robert Altman's 1978 comedy A Wedding. This proved to be the first of many collaborations between Dooley and director Altman, making Dooley a part of the unofficial Altman acting troupe which also included the likes of Rene Auberjonois, Henry Gibson, Sally Kellerman, John Schuck, Ray Walston, Robert Fortier, and Bert Remsen (the latter two having also appeared in A Wedding).
The films for which Dooley re-teamed with Altman are 1979's A Perfect Couple (with Gibson), 1980's HealtH (also with Gibson, as well as Fortier and Alfre Woodard) and Popeye (in which Dooley plays the hamburger-loving Wimpy, co-starring with Fortier, Richard Libertini, and Ray Walston), 1987's O.C. and Stiggs (with Fortier and Walston), and 1992's The Player, in which Dooley appeared as himself. The latter film also featured appearances by fellow Star Trek performers Rene Auberjonois, Brian Brophy, Louise Fletcher, Teri Garr, Whoopi Goldberg, Joel Grey, Sally Kellerman, Malcolm McDowell, Bert Remsen, Dean Stockwell, Brian Tochi, and Ray Walston.
However, it was Dooley's role in Peter Yates' 1979 teen drama Breaking Away, starring fellow DS9 guest actor Dennis Christopher, which acquired him the most recognition. Dooley's performance as Christopher's father earned him an award as Best Supporting Actor from the National Board of Review. This film actually marked the second time Dooley played the son of Dennis Christopher's character; the first was in the aforementioned A Wedding. He played his father again in a 2003 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Dooley went on to co-star in such films as the 1983 McKenzie Brothers comedy Strange Brew, the 1984 John Hughes comedy Sixteen Candles, the 1993 comedy My Boyfriend's Back, the 1995 science fiction thriller Evolver (co-starring Q actor John de Lancie), 1997's Clockwatchers, the 1999 comedies Happy, Texas (with Ron Perlman and Scarlett Pomers) and Runaway Bride, the 2002 thriller Insomnia, and the Christopher Guest mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman (1996) and A Mighty Wind (2003, with Michael McKean, Ed Begley, Jr., and Bill Cobbs. He again worked with Guest on the 2006 film For Your Consideration, also starring Ed Begley, Jr. and Michael McKean. In addition, he voiced Sarge in the 2006 Disney/Pixar movie Cars and, most recently, played Mr. Spritzer in the acclaimed 2007 film version of Hairspray.
Besides his role as Tain on DS9, Dooley also had recurring roles on a number of other series, ranging from light-hearted shows such as ALF and Curb Your Enthusiasm to dramas such as ER and Once and Again (with William O. Campbell). One such recurring role led to his first Emmy Award nomination in 1994 for his portrayal of Martin Tupper's father on the HBO series Dream On. A second nomination followed in 2000 for his recurring role as Judge Philip Swackheim on The Practice. His most recent recurring character is that of Addison Prudy on Desperate Housewives, starring Teri Hatcher, Mark Moses, and his HealtH co-star Alfre Woodard.
Recurring roles aside, Dooley has also made one time appearances on shows such as Spenser: For Hire (starring future DS9 star Avery Brooks), The Golden Girls, Tales from the Darkside (in an episode with John Fiedler), Coach (as Luther Van Dam's brother), The Wonder Years (starring Olivia d'Abo), Mad About You (with Anne Ramsay), Millennium (with Megan Gallagher and Bill Smitrovich), Ally McBeal (with Anne Haney, Albert Hall, and Richard McGonagle), CSI (in an episode with Debra Wilson), and Boston Legal (starring William Shatner and John Larroquette, in an episode with Mark Moses, Michael Wiseman and Tom Virtue). Additionally, Dooley was a regular on the hit sitcom Grace Under Fire from 1994 through 1996 and was seen in the 1995 made-for-TV sci-fi/comedy Out There, along with Leslie Bevis, Bill Cobbs, Wendy Schaal, Carel Struycken, and Star Trek: Voyager star Robert Picardo.
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Trivia
Dooley and his former comic partner, fellow DS9 alum Richard Libertini appeared in four movies together: The Out-of-Towners (1970), Popeye (1980), Going Berzerk (1983, with Rosalind Chao and Kurtwood Smith), and Big Trouble (1986, with Warren Munson and Barbara Tarbuck). Dooley and Warren Munson also appeared in the 1993 film A Dangerous Woman, along with Richard Riehle and Brad Blaisdell.
