Die Hard

Background:

“I went into acting because I had nothing more sensible to do. However, once I began acting classes with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio in New York, I found it stimulating and rewarding.” Paul Gleason

American actor Paul Gleason (born in 1939, died in 2006) first came to fame as David Thornton on the ABC soap opera “All My Children,” a role he played from 1976 to 1978. He also played Lee Carothers #1 on CBN's “Another Life” (1982-1983) and Captain Dave Herzog on the short lived CBS drama “One West Waikiki” (1994). The New Jersey native guest starred in a number of TV series, among them “Mission: Impossible,” “The A-Team,” “Dallas,” “Miami Vice,” “21 Jump Street,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “Seinfeld,” “Nash Bridges,” “Melrose Place,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “Friends,” “Dawson's Creek,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Cold Case.” On the big screen, Gleason is perhaps best recalled for his performances in “Trading Places” (1983), “The Breakfast Club” (1985), “Die Hard” (1988), “Not Another Teen Movie” (2001) and “National Lampoon's Van Wilder” (2002). Gleason had also acted in several stage productions and served as a director and playwright. In addition, he published a book of poetry called “Uleta Blues.”

Gleason had been married twice and had three children. He died in 2006 of cancer (mesothelioma).

Baseball

Childhood and Family:

Paul Xavier Gleason was born on May 4, 1939, in Jersey City, New Jersey, but raised in Uleta. His father was George L Gleason, a restaurateur, professional boxer, iron worker, and roofing manufacturer, and his mother was Eleanor Gleason, a registered nurse. At age 16, he left home to explore the east coast. He later signed a professional baseball contract with the Cleveland Indians and played in two minor league seasons between 1959 and 1960. He also played for the Boston Red Sox. Paul attended North Miami High School in North Miami, Florida. He graduated from Florida State University in Tallahassee in 1966. While at college, he played football with fellow actors Robert Urich and Burt Reynolds. He later trained with Lee Strasberg at the famed Actors Studio in New York City before heading to Los Angeles, California.

On March 13, 1971, Paul married Candy Moore, but they divorced in 1978. The marriage produced one child. He was married to Susan Kehl from August 1995 until his death on May 27, 2006. He had two daughters, Shannon and Kaitlin, with Kehl.

Paul died at a Burbank, California, hospital on May 27, 2006, three weeks after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer linked to asbestos. He was buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles.

The Breakfast Club

Career:

A former professional baseball player, Paul Gleason did not turn his attention to acting until watching the movie “Splendor in the Grass” (1961) in 1961. The next year, he made his acting debut in the Ray Milland movie “Panic in Year Zero” (1962), where he had an unaccredited part as a gas station owner. He resurfaced three years later with a bit part in the 1965 comedy “Winter A-Go-Go,” by Richard Benedict. He went on to study with New York City’s Actors Studio and became involved off-Broadway as a director, writer and actor. While there, he worked with such reputable companies as Cafe LaMama and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Gleason made his off-Broadway debut in “Key Largo” in 1967 and his Broadway debut in Neil Simon's “The Gingerbread Lady,” opposite Maureen Stapleton (1971). He then appeared in a revival of “The Front Page” (1972), opposite John Lithgow and Richard Thomas and gained praise for his portrayal of McMurphy in the off-Broadway revival of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” (1973). He also directed the play “A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking” at the Westwood Playhouse in Los Angeles.

Gleason began appearing on television in the late 1960s with guest spots in “It's About Time,” “The Green Hornet,” “The Invaders” (all 1967), “The F.B.I.” (1968) and “Then Came Bronson” (1969). He went on to appear in episodes of “Adam-12” (1971-1974), “Mission: Impossible,” “Banacek” (both 1972) and “Columbo” (1975) before receiving a role on the ABC daytime soap “All My Children,” where he portrayed David Thornton from 1976 to 1978. After leaving the series, he made his TV movie debut in CBS' “Women at West Point” and his TV miniseries debut in ABC's “Ike” (both 1979). Throughout the 1970s, Gleason also received bit parts in several films, such as “Private Duty Nurses” (1971), “Where Does It Hurt” (1972), “Hit Man” (1972), “Little Laura and Big John” (1973), “Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze” (1975), “Vigilante Force” (1976) and Lewis John Carlino's “The Great Santini” (1979, starred Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner and Michael O'Keefe). More small roles followed in the early 1980s and he acted in Armand Mastroianni's “He Knows You're Alone” (1980) and Roger Spottiswoode's “The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper” (1981). He received his breakthrough screen role as Clarence Beeks in “Trading Places” (1983), a comedy helmed by John Landis that starred Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Ralph Bellamy. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical.

Gleason returned to soap operas when he played Lee Carothers on CBN's “Another Life,” a role he kept from 1982 to 1983. He followed it up with a string of guest appearances in such TV shows as “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” (1984), “Remington Steele” (1984), “Cagney & Lacey” (1984), “Call to Glory” (1984), “Hardcastle and McCormic” (1984), “Riptide” (1984), “Hill Street Blues” (2 episodes, 1984), “The A-Team” (1984) and “Magnum, P.I.” (1984). In 1985, Gleason supported Richard Crenna, Beverly D'Angelo and Vincent Baggetta in the TV film “Doubletake,” which received an Edgar Allan Poe nomination for Best Television Feature or Miniseries, teamed up with Penny Marshall, Richard Gilliland and Jonathan Silverman in the ABC TV film “Challenge of a Lifetime” and offered a notable turn as Jeremitt in the Emmy winning adventure “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.” In addition, he played the recurring role of Lt. Lee Spaulding on the prime time soap “Dallas” (3 episodes, 1985). The same year, Gleason landed the main role of Principal Richard Vernon in “The Breakfast Club,” a teen drama written and directed by John Hughes. The film received primarily favorable reviews from critics and grossed over $45 million at the box office.

During the remainder of the 1980s, Gleason made guest appearances in “Kate & Allie” (1986), “Miami Vice” (1986), “The Equalizer” (1986), “Gimme a Break” (1986), “Sidekicks” (1987), “Falcon Crest” (1987), “Beauty and the Beast” (1987), “Supercarrier” (1988), “Life Goes On” (1989) and “21 Jump Street” (1989). He also played the supporting role of Roland Hyde in the NBC TV film “Spooner” (1989) and appeared with Jon Cryer, Lynn Redgrave and JD Cullum in “Morgan Stewart's Coming Home” (1987), Hanna Schygulla, Deborah Harry and Alec Baldwin in Amos Kollek's “Forever, Lulu” (1987), Jason Lively, Tim McDaniel and Leonard Lansink in “Hollywood-Monster” (1987), and Nicolas De Toth, Sarah Buxton and Rawley Valverde in “Nightmare Beach” (1988). In addition, he acted with Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth McGovern and Alec Baldwin in John Hughes' “She's Having a Baby” (1988) and Roy Scheider, Karen Young and Lane Smith in “Night Game” (1989). However, he was perhaps best recognized during this period for portraying Wayne Hisler in the comedy film “Johnny Be Good” (1988) and as Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson in the blockbuster film “Die Hard” (1988), the first in the “Die Hard” film series, which starred Bruce Willis as John McClane. On stage, Gleason made his debut as a playwriting with “Bush,” which was performed at the Harold Clurman Theatre in New York City in 1982. He went on to write “Crowbar,” which was performed at the West Bank Theatre in New York City in 1984, and then “Batting Practice,” performed at the Raft Theatre in New York City in 1988.

The early 1990s saw guest appearances in “B.L. Stryker” “Father Dowling Mysteries,” “Hardball,” “Married People” (all 1990), “Fourth Story,” “L.A. Law,” “Tales from the Crypt” (all 1991), “Murder, She Wrote” (1991-1992), “The Wonder Years” (1992), “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” (1994) and “Seinfeld” (1994). He also received roles in the TV films “False Arrest” (1991), “Majority Rule” (1992) and “Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love” (1994). In addition, he portrayed Sergeant Frank Lackley in “Miami Blues” (1990), a crime film starring Fred Ward, Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh that was directed and scripted by George Armitage, and supported Jill Schoelen, Don Michael Paul and Sean Kanan in the Joel Bender directed drama “Rich Girl” (1991). He next costarred with Paul Le Mat and Geoffrey Lewis in Mike Marvin's “Wishman” (1992), played Father in “The Waiter” (1993) and worked with Andrew Divoff and Tracy Sebastian in Doug Ellin's “Running Cool” (1993). He also landed roles in “Loaded Weapon 1” (1993), “Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence” (1993), “Wild Cactus” (1993) and “Boiling Point” (1993).

In 1994, Gleason was cast as Captain Dave Herzog on the police drama “One West Waikiki,” which appeared on CBS between 1994 and 1996. The show received a 1995 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Series. The same year, he also acted in such films as “Nothing to Lose,” “In the Living Years,” “I Love Trouble” and “There Goes My Baby.” During 1995 to 1999, Gleason appeared in episodes of “Dark Skies,” “Lost on Earth,” “Boy Meets World” (as Dean Borak), “NewsRadio,” “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Grace Under Fire,” “Nash Bridges,” “Melrose Place,” “Chicago Hope,” “Veronica's Closet,” “The Drew Carey Show” and “Diagnosis Murder.” In addition, he was cast in several films, including Phillip J. Roth's “Digital Man” (1995), Brett Ratner's “Money Talks” (1997, starred Charlie Sheen, Chris Tucker and Heather Locklear), Bret Michaels' “No Code of Conduct” (1998, starred Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen and Mark Dacascos) and Phillip Rhee's “Best of the Best: Without Warning” (1998).

In the new millennium, Glason portrayed Jack in “The One That Could Have Been: Part 1 and 2” of the hit TV series “Friends” (2000), appeared as Kip Sherman in an episode of “Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction” called “Creepy Comics” (2000), was cast as the husband of Judee Morton in the movie “The Giving Tree” (2000), which starred Christina Applegate, Justin Lazard and Johnathon Schaech, and costarred with Peter Coyote, Nastassja Kinski, Fairuza Balk, Jeremy Piven and Ernie Hudson in the crime film “Red Letters” (2000). The next year, he worked in the films “Social Misfits” (with Tyrone Tann, Michael Bower and Gabriel Damon), “The Organization” (with T.J. Storm), “The Myersons” (with Dan Hedaya, Lesley Ann Warren and Robb Derringer) and “Not Another Teen Movie” (with Chyler Leigh, Jaime Pressly and Chris Evans) as well as guest starred in “The District” (as Peter Wendt), “Cursed” (as Principal Squires) and “Dead Last” (as Johnson the CIA Agent).

After starring with Brian Doyle-Murray and John Ducey in the TV movie “Sun Gods” (2002), Gleason was cast as Professor McDoogle in “National Lampoon's Van Wilder” (2002), a comedy directed by Walt Becker that starred Ryan Reynolds. He also appeared in episodes of “Fastline” (2002), “The Guardian” (2002), “Dragnet” (2003), “Dawson's Creek” (2003, as Larry Newman), “Malcolm in the Middle” (2004), “Drake & Josh” (2004), “Cold Case” (2005) and “George Lopez” (2005). Prior to his death in May 2006, Gleason played the role of Sheriff Halderman in “Abominable” (2006), a horror film directed by Ryan Schifrin that starred Matt McCoy, Haley Joel and Christien Tinsley. He was then cast as a corrupt mayor named James Paddington in his last film, “The Book of Caleb,” which was released in 2008.

Awards:
---