Veteran character actor Richard B. Shull was born on February 24, 1929 in Evanston, Illinois and raised in the Midwest. He attended the University of Iowa, then served with the U.S. Army in 1953. Finding work as a stage manager following his release, he finally made his Broadway debut in the Marx Brothers musical bio "Minnie's Boys" starring Shelley Winters on Broadway in 1970. His hangdog demeanor, puffy features and bemused manner proved an excellent scene stealer in comedy roles and he moved easily into film and TV in mid-career. Following his film debut in the very obscure Watch the Birdie (1965), Richard came into his own starting in 1971 with regular roles in such movies as Le dossier Anderson (1971), Klute (1971), Faits l'un pour l'autre (1971), Slither (1973), Hail (1972), Hollywood Cow-Boy (1975), Le bus en folie (1976), Splash (1984), À la recherche de Garbo (1984), Fais comme chez toi (1992), Descente à Paradise (1994) and, his last, Parties intimes (1997) with Howard Stern. On TV, he was probably best known for his title role on the silly, short-lived series Holmes et Yoyo (1976) as Det. Alexander Holmes, opposite John Schuck who played Yoyo, a robotic cop. The recipient of a Tony nomination for his Broadway work on "Goodtime Charlie" in 1975, Richard's later career included such theater notables as "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" (1985), for which he won an off-Broadway Obie award, and the ever-popular "Victor/Victoria" starring a resurgent Julie Andrews, in 1995. Married four times, Richard was appearing in the stage production of "Epic Proportions" in New York when he suffered a fatal heart attack on October 14, 1999 at age 70.
