Kind, Richard

Dates

• Existence: 1956    

Biography

American actor Richard Bruce Kind was born on November 22, 1956, in Trenton, New Jersey, to mother Alice (née Berson) and father Samuel Kind, a jeweler. He and his younger sister Joanne were raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Pennsbury High School in 1974, and from Northwestern University's School of Speech (from 1891 to 1921, the School of Oratory, and from 2001 until today in 2021, the School of Communication) in 1978. At Northwestern, he was pre-law and a fraternity member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. After graduating from Northwestern, he lived in New York City for four years taking acting classes and acting in some commercials and theatre productions (including at the Surflight Summer Theatre in New Jersey, and with the Portobello Theatre Co. in New York). In 1982 he moved back to Chicago and joined the Practical Theatre Company (founded by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Hall, Gary Kroeger and Rich Hall amongst others), and in 1983 he began performing with The Second City improvisational comedy troupe (including with Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson). He began appearing in TV series and movies as of 1985; he performed with members of Second City (including Mike Myers and Ryan Stiles) in the 1987 pilot of "110 Lombard Street," co-starred in the 1987 sitcom pilot "Bennett Brothers" with George Clooney (with whom he formed a lasting friendship), and had a recurring role as "Jimmy Bello" in the crime thriller TV show Unsub in 1989. In 1990, he became an ensemble member of Carol Burnett's comedy anthology TV show Carol and Company, and in 1991 he joined the cast of The Carol Burnett Show. He has had recurring roles in sitcoms, including as "Dr. Mark Devanow" on Mad About You (1992-1999, with a revival in 2019), "Paul Lassiter" on Spin City (1996-2002), "Harvey Corman" in Scrubs (2003-2004) and "Cousin Andy" in Curb Your Enthusiasm (2002, 2004-2005, 2009, 2020-2021). He also played Gotham City Mayor, Aubrey James, on the TV show Gotham (2014-2019). He has voiced roles in television shows (Dora, the Explorer, The Penguins of Madagascar, American Dad, and Big Mouth) and movies ("Tom" in Tom and Jerry: The Movie, “Molt” in A Bug’s Life, “Van” in Cars and Cars 2, "Bookworm" in Toy Story 3, and “Bing Bong” in Inside Out). He has also found success as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway as "Ira Taub" in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2002), "Addison Mizner" in Bounce, A New Musical (2003), “Max Bialystock” in The Producers (2004), "Foxwell J. Sly" in Sly Fox (2004), and "Marcus Hoff" in The Big Knife" (2013), for which he received a Tony Award nomination. In 2008, Kind played the role of "Voltaire" in the New York City Opera's production of Candide (an operetta by Leonard Bernstein). Kind married Dana Stanley (an executive director of Project ALS, which fundraises for research into Lou Gehrig's disease) in November 1999; they have 3 children, a daughter Skyler, born circa 2002, and twins Samantha and Max, born circa 2005.

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