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Richard Moll, the 6-foot-8 actor who delighted television audiences with a childlike charm in his role as the hulking bailiff on the NBC sitcom \u201cNight Court,\u201d died on Thursday at his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He was 80.<\/p>\n
His death was confirmed on Friday by his publicist, Jeff Sanderson. No cause was given by the family.<\/p>\n
In a career of more than four decades, Mr. Moll played a variety of roles on television shows and in films. But he was best known for portraying the baldheaded, wide-eyed Aristotle Nostradamus (Bull) Shannon on all nine seasons of \u201cNight Court,\u201d which ran from 1984 to 1992 and competed with other hit television sitcoms like \u201cThe Cosby Show\u201d and \u201cThe Golden Girls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bull Shannon\u2019s dimwitted persona offered an air of lighthearted innocence on the series, which was set inside a fictional municipal night court in Manhattan and starred Harry Anderson<\/a>, who played Judge Harry Stone and died in 2018, and John Larroquette as the prosecutor, Dan Fielding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Moll was \u201clarger than life and taller too,\u201d Mr. Larroquette, said Friday in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Richard Charles Moll was born on Jan. 13, 1943, in Pasadena, Calif. to Harry and Violet Moll. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964<\/a>, with a degree in history and passed over his father\u2019s wishes that he pursue a law career, to take up acting.<\/p>\n He started with theater work, performing in Shakespeare plays in California. His first television and film roles came in the late 1970s, and included a part in the 1977 movie \u201cBrigham\u201d and an appearance in an episode of the television series \u201cWelcome Back, Kotter\u201d in 1978.<\/p>\n \u201cProbably auditioning for \u2018Night Court\u2019 would be my first big break,\u201d Mr. Moll said in a 2010 interview<\/a> with MaximoTV. He noted that he had been asked if he was willing to shave his head for the part.<\/p>\n \u201cI said \u2018Are you kidding?\u2019 \u201d he recalled. \u201c\u2018I\u2019ll shave my legs for the part. I\u2019ll shave my armpits. I don\u2019t care.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After \u201cNight Court\u201d ended in 1992, Mr. Moll went on to do voice-over work on various cartoons, including roles as Two-Face, a disturbed villain with a disfigured mug on the \u201cAdventures of Batman & Robin\u201d on Fox, and as Scorpion, one of the many adversaries on \u201cSpider-Man: The Animated Series,\u201d on the same network.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Though largely known for his comedic work, including in movies such as \u201cScary Movie 2\u201d<\/a> and \u201cBut I\u2019m a Cheerleader,\u201d<\/a> Mr. Moll was also featured in horror and science-fiction films. His first major movie roles included the 1985 horror feature \u201cHouse<\/a>\u201d and the 1986 indie fantasy \u201cThe Dungeonmaster.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Mr. Moll worked as an actor and voice-over artist as late as 2018, according to IMDb<\/a>. His final notable appearance was in the 2010 live-action film \u201cScooby-Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster,<\/a>\u201d in which he played the mysterious lighthouse keeper Elmer Uggins.<\/p>\n Mr. Moll retired to Big Bear Lake in the Southern Californian mountains, where, according to his family, he reveled in the idyllic scenery and exercised his love of bird-watching.<\/p>\n He is survived by a daughter, Chloe Moll; a son, Mason Moll; his ex-wife, Susan Moll; and two stepchildren, Cassandra Card and Morgan Ostling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n