Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian, actor and game show panelist.
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Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian, actor and game show panelist.
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Paul Lynde regularly topped audience polls of most-liked TV stars, and was routinely admired and recognized by his peers during his lifetime.
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Mel Brooks once described Paul Lynde as being capable of getting laughs by reading "a phone book, tornado alert, or seed catalogue".
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Paul Lynde was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, the son of Sylvia Bell and Hoy Corydon Lynde, who owned and operated a meat market.
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Fifth-born among six siblings, Paul Lynde had older sisters, Grace and Helen, older brothers, Richard Hoy and Coradon George and younger brother, John.
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Paul Lynde graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1944, where he played the bass drum in its high school band.
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Paul Lynde then studied speech and drama at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where his classmates included Cloris Leachman, Charlotte Rae, Patricia Neal, Jeffrey Hunter and Claude Akins.
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Paul Lynde made his Broadway debut in the hit revue New Faces of 1952 in which he co-starred with fellow newcomers Eartha Kitt, Robert Clary, Alice Ghostley and Carol Lawrence.
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Paul Lynde returned to Broadway in 1960 when he was cast as Harry MacAfee, the father in Bye Bye Birdie.
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Paul Lynde was a familiar face on many sitcoms, including The Phil Silvers Show, The Farmer's Daughter, The Patty Duke Show, The Munsters, The Flying Nun, Gidget, I Dream of Jeannie and F Troop; and variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show.
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In 1965, Paul Lynde made his debut appearance on Bewitched during the first-season episode "Driving is the Only Way to Fly".
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Paul Lynde made 10 appearances on Bewitched as the beloved character, the first being "The Joker is a Card".
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Paul Lynde starred in four failed television pilots in the 1960s:.
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In 1966, Paul Lynde debuted on the fledgling game show The Hollywood Squares and quickly became its iconic guest star.
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Paul Lynde eventually became disenchanted with being what he called "boxed into" The Hollywood Squares and he departed the series in 1979.
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Paul Lynde initially declined, but changed his mind when told he would receive co-star billing with host Peter Marshall.
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Paul Lynde returned to the series in the spring of 1980 and remained with the show until its cancellation in February 1981.
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Between 1969 and 1973, Paul Lynde did extensive voice work on animated cartoons, particularly those of Hanna-Barbera Productions.
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Paul Lynde was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe for the show.
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Contemporaneous media reports showed that viewers liked Lynde but not The Paul Lynde Show and liked another ABC show, Temperatures Rising, but disliked co-star James Whitmore.
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Paul Lynde's continuing popularity led to his being signed by ABC to host a series of specials from 1975 to 1979, including:.
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Paul Lynde remained a Life Member of the Beaux Arts Society from 1980 until his untimely death.
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In 1976, at the Sixth Annual American Guild of Variety Artists "Entertainer of the Year Awards", Paul Lynde received an award for being voted the funniest man of the year.
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Paul Lynde immediately turned his award over to host Jackie Gleason, citing him as "the funniest man ever".
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Paul Lynde lived there with his beloved dog, Harry MacAfee, until Harry died in 1977.
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Paul Lynde struggled with alcoholism and had numerous run-ins with the law, including frequent arrests for public intoxication.
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In July 1965, Paul Lynde was involved in an incident in which a friend, another young actor, accidentally fell to his death from the window of their hotel room in San Francisco's Sir Francis Drake Hotel.
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In October 1977, Paul Lynde was involved in an incident at his alma mater, Northwestern University, when he was the Grand Marshal for homecoming.
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Paul Lynde's vehicle had been broken into and his valuables stolen while he was inside the tavern.
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The arresting officer had been investigating a different car burglary and claimed Paul Lynde kept insisting that he "attend to Paul Lynde's complaint" instead.
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Stories circulated suggesting that Paul Lynde had a visitor at the time of his death who fled the scene, but evidence indicated the stories were false.
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Paul Lynde regularly activated his house alarm before retiring for the evening.
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Paul Lynde's cremated remains are interred at Amity Cemetery, in Amity, Knox County, Ohio, next to those of his brother Johnny and sister Helen.
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Authors Steve Wilson and Joe Florenski described Paul Lynde as "Liberace without a piano" and that to most 1970s-era viewers, he was "a frustrated bit player and character actor on a daytime game show".
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