Mary Tyler Moore Actor Richard Schaal Dies at 86
Richard Schaal, who appeared on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-offs Rhoda and Phyllis, has died at the age of 86, The Los Angeles Times reports. According to his daughter Wendy, the actor passed away at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills on Tuesday.
Schaal ran a construction company before joining the second-ever cast of the Chicago improv troupe Second City. He went on to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago Improv Festival in 2010.
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"His whole body was an instrument," said his daughter Wendy, who is a voice actress on American Dad. "He was the one who really took off on working in the space. That was where the work could make the visible invisible. In his workshops, he would teach performers to explore what would happen to their body when handling objects."
Schaal played four characters on Mary Tyler Moore: twin brothers Howard and Paul Arnell, Dino and Chuckles the Clown.
Throughout the '60s and '70s he had recurring guest-starring roles on Dick Van Dyke, That Girl and Bob Newhart. He notably appeared in the films Slaughterhouse-Five, Once Bitten and The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.
Schaal was married three times, the second of which was to Valerie Harper, the star of Mary Tyler Moore and Rhoda. Schaal is survived by his daughter.
