Paxton Whitehead Dies: Stage Actor Who Also Played Foil To Rodney Dangerfield And Recurred On ‘Mad About You’ Was 85

Greg Evans
·3 min read
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Paxton Whitehead, the prolific and acclaimed actor whose career stretched from 17 Broadway productions, a recurring role on the hit 1990s sitcom Mad About You and a memorable turn as a snooty professor who takes an instant disliking to Rodney Dangerfield’s crude self-made man in 1986’s Back to School, died June 16 at a hospital in Arlington, VA. He was 85.

His death has been confirmed by his son Charles Whitehead, with many friends and colleagues sharing their memories on social media.

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Actor Dana Ivey wrote: “We first worked together in My Fair Lady in 1964, and the last time was in Importance of Being Earnest in 2010 — friends for 59 years. I loved him so. Heartbroken.”

Tony-nominated for his performance as Pellinore in the 1980 revival of Camelot, Paxton, born in English village of East Malling, made his Broadway debut in a short-lived production of Ronald Millar’s The Affair. His next Broadway show — Beyond the Fringe in 1962 — was a milestone for a new wave of British comedy, popularizing the work of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore with American audiences.

Subsequent Broadway credits include 1970’s Candida; There’s One in Every Marriage (1972); Chemin de Fer (1973); Habeas Corpus (1975); The Crucifer of Blood (1978), in which he played Sherlock Holmes opposite Glenn Close; Camelot (1980); Noises Off (1983); Run for Your Wife (1989); Artist Descending a Staircase (1989); Lettice and Lovage (1990) starring Maggie Smith; A Little Hotel on the Side (1992); My Fair Lady starring Richard Chamberlain and Melissa Errico (1993); Absurd Person Singular (2005); The Importance of Being Earnest (2011); and, most recently, the 2018 production of Bernhardt/Hamlet starring Janet McTeer.

Whitehead began a 10-year run in 1967 as artistic director of Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada. He also performed in a West End production of Heartbreak House, and early in his career was signed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

A familiar face on television for decades, Whitehead made appearances in Magnum, P.I., Hart to Hart, The A-Team, Silver Spoons, Caroline in the City, Ellen, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Frasier and two episodes of Friends as Rachel’s department store boss. Beginning in 1992, he played the recurring role of the comically snobbish neighbor Hal Conway in Mad About You. He also recurred in 1995’s Simon.

Film credits included 1987’s Baby Boom, starring Diane Keaton; 1986’s Jumpin’ Jack Flash, starring Whoopi Goldberg, and, perhaps most memorably, the 1986 Dangerfield vehicle Back to School. In the latter, Dangerfield, then at the peak of his movie popularity, played the crass but wealthy self-made businessman who, well into middle-age, decides to go to college. His enrollment is opposed by Whitehead’s pompous business school professor Dr. Barbay.

In a central scene, Dangerfield’s character repeatedly interrupts Dr. Barbay’s business lecture to offer hard-knocks advice about bribes and kickbacks (watch it below).

Whitehead is survived by son Charlews and daughter Alex.

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