Paxton Whitehead, the distinguished English actor and theater mainstay known for playing stuffy types in films and TV shows including Back to School, Mad About You and Friends, has died. He was 85.
Whitehead died Friday at a hospital in Arlington, Virginia, his son, Charles Whitehead, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Whitehead earned a Tony nomination for his turn as Pellinore in a 1980 revival of Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot opposite Richard Burton and appeared 16 other times on Broadway from 1962-2018.
Notably, he starred as Sherlock Holmes in 1978-79’s The Crucifer of Blood, which ran for 236 performances at the Helen Hayes Theatre, co-starred Glenn Close and was nominated for four Tonys, winning one.
He also was in Broadway productions of My Fair Lady with Richard Chamberlain, Lettice and Lovage, Noises Off and The Importance of Being Earnest.
After years on the stage, Whitehead made his movie debut in Back to School (1986), in which he portrayed Dr. Philip Barbay, dean of the business school at Grand Lakes University and the boyfriend of literature professor Diane Turner (Sally Kellerman) — that is, before Rodney Dangerfield’s Thornton Melon arrives on the scene.
He also recurred as the uptight across-the-hall neighbor Hal Conway on NBC’s Mad About You from 1992-99 and as Mr. Waltham, Rachel’s boss at Bloomingdale’s, on NBC’s Friends in 1998.
In a 2017 interview, Whitehead said he enjoyed acting in farces the most. “Everybody says [they] are difficult to do, but it depends,” he said. “You either have a knack for it or you don’t. I think it is hard for some people. I found it not so difficult. I don’t know. I just seemed to respond to it.”
The son of a lawyer, Francis Edward Paxton Whitehead was born on Oct. 17, 1937, in Kent, England. He began his career in small touring companies before being signed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1958.
“When I was younger, I would try very hard to get the vocal point right,” he said. “If I felt the rhythm and sound of the character — if I got that right, and usually the difference is very subtle — then I think everything else seemed to follow, the movement and so on.”
It wasn’t long before his work took him to the U.S., where in 1961 he directed Doric Wilson’s first play to be performed, an off-off-Broadway production of the comedy And He Made a Her at the Caffe Cino.
The following year, he made his own Broadway debut in Ronald Millar’s The Affair, then had a long run touring and on Broadway in Beyond the Fringe.
In 1967, Whitehead succeeded Barry Morse as artistic director of Shaw Festival, held in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada and dedicated to the works of George Bernard Shaw, developing it into an international event and pushing through plans for the purpose-built Festival Theatre.
He served until 1977, appearing in many productions as an actor and welcoming the likes of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Indira Gandhi and Pierre Trudeau. Later, he appeared regularly at the Old Globe in San Diego.
Whitehead’s other stage work included turns in Heartbreak House in the West End and performances in The Harlequin Studies opposite Bill Irwin, Noel Coward’s Suite in Two Keys and Neil Simon’s London’s Suite.
In 1987-88, he starred as the suffering butler Albert Dudley on the syndicated comedy Marblehead Manor.
Whitehead also was seen in such films as Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986), Baby Boom (1987), The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993), My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), The Duke (1999), Kate and Leopold (2001) and The Aristocrat (2009) and on TV on Magnum, P.I., The A-Team, Hart to Hart, Ellen, The West Wing, Frasier, 3rd Rock From the Sun, Dinosaurs and Murder, She Wrote.
In addition to his son, survivors include his daughter, Alex.
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June 19, 2023 at 11:52PM
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Paxton Whitehead, Stage Veteran and ‘Back to School’ Actor, Dies at 85 - Hollywood Reporter
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