Richard Moll, Bull the Bailiff on ‘Night time Court docket,’ Dies at 80

Richard Moll, the fun-loving actor who portrayed the towering and tenderhearted bailiff Aristotle Nostradamus “Bull” Shannon on all 9 seasons of the favored NBC sitcom Night time Court docket throughout its authentic run, has died. He was 80. 

Moll died peacefully Thursday at his house in Massive Bear Lake, California, his publicist introduced.

Appropriate for his 6-foot-8 body, Moll performed an abominable snowman alongside Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach within the comedy characteristic Caveman (1981), and he was a scary, decomposing Vietnam veteran within the horror movie Home (1986).

Moll additionally did plenty of voiceover work, with an everyday gig because the immortal bodyguard Norman on the syndicated collection Mighty Max and turns as Harvey Dent/Two-Face for 3 Batman cartoons.

Moll had a shaved head — he did that to play the warrior Hurok within the sci-fi movie Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983) — when he auditioned for the function of Shannon on Night time Court docket, created by Reinhold Weege.

“They stated ‘Richard, the shaved head appears good. Will you shave your head for the half?” he recalled in a 2010 interview. “I stated, ‘Are you kidding? I’ll shave my legs for the half. I’ll shave my armpits, I don’t care.’”

With Night time Court docket being nominated thrice for the Emmy for excellent comedy collection, Moll got here up with a catchphrase — “Oooo-kay” — as he appeared on all however one of many present’s 193 episodes from 1984-92 alongside the likes of Harry Anderson, John Larroquette, Charlie Robinson and Markie Put up.

Moll was not concerned with the Larroquette-toplined Night time Court docket reboot that returned to NBC for the 2022-23 season.

Charles Richard Moll was born in Pasadena on Jan. 13, 1943. His mom, Violet, was a nurse and his father, Harry, a lawyer.

A historical past and psychology main on the College of California at Berkeley, he graduated in 1964, then labored as a deputy probation officer in Alameda County and in girls’ hosiery at a retailer in San Francisco.

He got here to Los Angeles in 1968 to pursue appearing however discovered the going robust at first. He obtained to play a cannibal in a Hertz business reverse Don Adams after which Joseph Smith in a 1977 biopic about Brigham Younger earlier than touchdown components in episodes of Welcome Again, Kotter, and The Rockford Recordsdata.

In 1979, Moll was forged as a gangster within the two-part Comfortable Days episode “Fonzie’s Funeral,” and that led to appearances on two different Garry Marshall-created reveals, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy.

He stuffed out his résumé with work in movies together with Onerous Nation (1981) and Ralph Bakshi’s American Pop (1981) and on such TV reveals as The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, B.J. and the Bear, Buck Rogers within the twenty fifth Century, T.J. Hooker, Alice and The Dukes of Hazzard earlier than touchdown on Night time Court docket.

Bull was going to be “very hard-edged,” he informed Individuals journal in 2003, “however I believe they noticed one thing in me to make him so much softer.” On the Manhattan Municipal Prison Court docket, his character sweetly bonded with feminine bailiffs Selma Hacker (Selma Diamond, who died between seasons two and three), Flo Kleiner (Florence Halop, who died between seasons three and 4) and Roz Russell (Marsha Warfield).

Moll additionally performed himself in 1987 on a two-part episode of NBC’s The Information of Life and recurred as The Drifter on the 1999-2002 Nickelodeon comedy 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd.

He additionally confirmed up on Highlander, Babylon 5, Married … With Kids and Anger Administration and within the movies The Flintstones (1994), However I’m a Cheerleader (1999) and Scary Film 2 (2001).

An avid fowl watcher and nature lover, Moll was married and divorced twice; his second spouse, Susan, was a daughter of Milton Berle’s third and final spouse, Lorna Adams. Survivors additionally embrace his kids, Chloe and Mason, and his stepchildren, Cassandra and Morgan.