Paul Dooley

Episode notes

(Photo: Jesus Ambrosio / Maximum Fun)

Paul Dooley is a legend of showbiz.

He starred in hundreds of commercials when there were only a handful of television channels. He was in the original Broadway cast of The Odd Couple. He was in the Second City with Nichols and May. He was a regular in Robert Altman movies. Paul did standup on The Tonight Show. He co-created the groundbreaking children’s program The Electric Company.

Paul also played some iconic dads in films like Sixteen Candles, Runaway Bride and Breaking Away. Paul is now 95 and he’s still working. His book Movie Dad: Finding Myself and My Family, On-Screen and Off is about his seven decades in the business. It’s also about some of his heartbreaking trials off-screen.

Paul joins us to talk about his memoir and dives into his lengthy career including some more unusual gigs – like the time made money as a children’s clown. He also gets into what it was like to portray dads on the big screen while his own family was facing difficult circumstances.

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Huecias

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Daniel Arón Speer

Video Editor

Guests

Paul Dooley

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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