Richard Moll, the 6-foot-8 actor who delighted tv audiences with a childlike allure in his function because the hulking bailiff on the NBC sitcom “Evening Court docket,” died on Thursday at his dwelling in Huge Bear Lake, Calif. He was 80.
His loss of life was confirmed on Friday by his publicist, Jeff Sanderson. No trigger was given by the household.
In a profession that spanned greater than 4 many years, Mr. Moll performed quite a lot of roles on tv reveals and in movies. However he was greatest recognized for portraying the baldheaded, wide-eyed Aristotle Nostradamus (Bull) Shannon on all 9 seasons of “Evening Court docket,” which ran from 1984 to 1992 and competed with different hit tv sitcoms like “The Cosby Present” and “The Golden Women.”
Bull Shannon’s dimwitted persona provided an air of lighthearted innocence on the sequence, which was set inside a fictional municipal night time courtroom in Manhattan and starred Harry Anderson, who performed Choose Harry Stone and died in 2018, and John Larroquette because the prosecutor, Dan Fielding.
Mr. Moll was “bigger than life and taller too,” Mr. Larroquette, stated Friday in a put up on X.
Richard Charles Moll was born on Jan. 13, 1943, in Pasadena, Calif. to Harry and Violet Moll. He graduated from the College of California, Berkeley, in 1964, with a level in historical past and handed over his father’s needs that he pursue a legislation profession, to take up performing.
He began with theater work, performing in Shakespeare performs in California. His first tv and movie roles got here within the late Seventies, and included a component within the 1977 film “Brigham” and an look in an episode of the tv sequence “Welcome Again, Kotter” in 1978.
“Most likely auditioning for ‘Evening Court docket’ can be my first massive break,” Mr. Moll stated in a 2010 interview with MaximoTV. He famous that he had been requested if he was prepared to shave his head for the half.
“I stated ‘Are you kidding?’ ” he recalled. “‘I’ll shave my legs for the half. I’ll shave my armpits. I don’t care.’”
After “Evening Court docket” resulted in 1992, Mr. Moll went on to do voice-over work on varied cartoons, together with roles as Two-Face, a disturbed villain with a disfigured mug on the “Adventures of Batman & Robin” on Fox, and as Scorpion, one of many many adversaries on “Spider-Man: The Animated Sequence,” on the identical community.
Although largely recognized for his comedic work, together with in films resembling “Scary Film 2” and “However I’m a Cheerleader,” Mr. Moll was additionally featured in horror and science-fiction movies. His first main film roles included the 1985 horror characteristic “Home” and the 1986 indie fantasy “The Dungeonmaster.”
Mr. Moll labored as an actor and voice-over artist as late as 2018, in accordance with IMDb. His last notable look was within the 2010 live-action movie “Scooby-Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster,” by which he performed the mysterious lighthouse keeper Elmer Uggins.
Mr. Moll retired to Huge Bear Lake within the Southern Californian mountains, the place, in accordance with his household, he reveled within the idyllic surroundings and exercised his love of bird-watching.
He’s survived by a daughter, Chloe Moll; a son, Mason Moll; his ex-wife, Susan Moll; and two stepchildren, Cassandra Card and Morgan Ostling.
