Richard Kind Biography

Richard John Kind (born November 22, 1956) is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You (as Dr. Mark Devanow) and Spin City (as Paul Thomas Lassiter).

Early life

Kind was born to a Jewish family, in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Alice, a homemaker, and Samuel Kind, a jeweler who formerly owned La Vake's Jewelry in Princeton, NJ. Together with his younger sister, Joanne, he grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Richard attended Pennsbury High School with fellow thespian, Robert Curtis-Brown. Kind is a 1974 graduate of Pennsbury High School and a 1978 graduate of Northwestern University where he was in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He is also an alumnus of The Second City Chicago and lives in Santa Monica.

Career

Kind portrayed Dr. Mark Devanow on Mad About You throughout the show's run, although after he took the role of Paul Thomas Lassiter on Spin City, he appeared on Mad About You with less frequency. Kind and Michael Boatman were the only two actors to appear in every episode of Spin City. While these are his two highest profile TV appearances, his first big break on television was as a member of the ensemble cast of Carol Burnett's brief return to sketch comedy, "Carol and Company," which ran for two seasons beginning in 1990 on NBC.

Kind created the role of Addison Mizner in Stephen Sondheim's Bounce, and has appeared on Broadway in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000), The Producers (2002), and Sly Fox (2004). He also appeared as the "Jury Foreman" in the film The Producers (2005) and played the lead role of Max Bialystock in a Hollywood Bowl production from July 27"29, 2012.

His voice credits include Larry the Anaconda in The Wild, "Clark" in the "Clark & Lewis Expedition" radio commercials for Horizon Air (with Patrick Warburton as "Lewis"), Molt in Disney/Pixar's A Bug's Life, Van in Disney/Pixar's Cars and Cars 2, the narrator for Disney's Go Baby, and Tom (Jasper) the cat's voice in Tom and Jerry: The Movie. He has a recurring role on the Disney Channel series Kim Possible, where he plays Frugal Lucre. He guest stars in The Penguins of Madagascar as Roger the Alligator in the episodes "Haunted Habitat", "Roger Dodger", "Gator Watch", "April Fools", and "The All Nighter Before Christmas" and "Operation: Neighbor Swap". He also plays the role of Gumbo in an episode of Chowder on Cartoon Network. In 2000 he did the voice of Mr. Dobbins in Tom Sawyer.

He also had a minor role as Gary Meyers, an archaeologist who translated the symbols on the Stargate prior to James Spader's character involvement in the 1994 movie, Stargate. He appeared in four episodes of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm between 2002 and 2009 as Larry's cousin Andy. In 2006, he guest starred on Stargate Atlantis as Lucius Lavin, in the episodes "Irresistible" and "Irresponsible," making him the only actor to appear in both the original Stargate film, and in Stargate Atlantis (as different characters).

Kind had a recurring role in Scrubs as Mr. Harvey Corman, an annoying hypochondriac, who claimed that having the same name as Harvey Korman did not "get as much action as you may think". He also played a notable role on USA's crime comedy Psych as Hugo, an astronomer who killed a partner for credit for the discovery of a planet ("From the Earth to the Starbucks"), and later on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a wealthy philanthropist who kills his sister-in-law and niece to protect the money he uses to fund his philanthropic work ("Privilege").

Actor/director George Clooney is a close friend, and was best man at Kind's wedding to Dana Stanley in 1999. Kind later went on to play the part of a casting director in Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Kind also played himself in the short-lived HBO series Unscripted, which Clooney executive produced and directed with Grant Heslov, as well as Argo, which was produced by both Clooney and Heslov. Kind has performed in radio/audio plays for the LA Theatre Works and the Hollywood Theater of the Ear, and served as a guest panelist on the 2000 revival of the television game show To Tell the Truth. Kind guest starred on the Disney Channel series Even Stevens, where he played the surly Uncle Chuck. He appeared in the film National Lampoon's Bag Boy in 2007. He also appeared in an episode of CBS' Two and a Half Men on November 12, 2007, and played Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts in Fairfield, Iowa.

Kind also starred in the independent black comedy feature, The Understudy in 2008. He also played a small role on TNT's hit show Leverage playing the part of a corrupt mayor in the second season two part finale. In 2007, Kind played a short, but memorable role in the indie film The Visitor as Richard Jenkins's neighbor, Jacob. In 2008, Kind performed the role of Voltaire in the New York City Opera production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide (operetta). Kind plays the major supporting role of Arthur Gopnik in the Coen brothers' dark comedy film, A Serious Man. He voiced Bookworm in Toy Story 3. He played the role of burnt spy Jesse's ex-boss, in three episodes of season 4 of Burn Notice as Marv, and had a small role in Clint Eastwood's Hereafter, as Christos Andryo, in 2010.

In 2011, Kind guest starred in an episode of the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine as Rod the Bod, and played a supporting dramatic role as Mr. Camp in the feature film Fancypants. He is the voice of "Clark" in the "Clark & Lewis Expedition" radio commercials for Horizon Air with Patrick Warburton as "Lewis". He starred in the HBO series Luck until its cancellation, and he is also the spokesman for On-Cor frozen foods. He also guest starred in Phineas and Ferb in the episode "Perry the Actorpus" as the Totally Tools executive. In 2012, he played a small role in the film Argo as screenwriter Max Klein. In February 2013, he made a guest appearance on Kroll Show.