Paul Willson
Biography
Paul Willson is an American actor who works in film, television and voice roles. Raised in San Francisco, he began performing improvisational theater while at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He became familiar to television audiences as Leonard Smith, Garry Shandling's neighbor, on It's Garry Shandling's Show across five years from 1986 to 1990, and as Paul Krapence on Cheers, a part he later reprised on Frasier. He also turned up on The Larry Sanders Show, Malcolm in the Middle, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Star Trek: Voyager. His film work includes The Pack (1977), The Devonsville Terror (1983), My Best Friend Is a Vampire (1987), Moving (1988), 976-EVIL (1988), Circuitry Man (1990), Problem Child 2 (1991), Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II (1994) and Office Space (1999). He did voice work as Sam Detweiler in Disney's Recess, and the Cheers producer Ken Levine called him one of the greatest improv artists he had ever seen.
80years old
Turns 81 on December 25in 73 days
- Born Fairmont
- Star sign: CapricornThe sign runs December 22 to January 19
- Also credited as Paul Lee Willson
Movie Career
- Films
- 17
- Career span
- 34 years1970 to 2004
Genres
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Early training
Willson attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and while he was a student there he started performing in improvisational theater.
A role that slipped away
Willson's Cheers character was originally called Gregg, but the name was changed because Paul Vaughn already played a character named Paul on the show.
Paul Willson movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Steven Lovy directed two of these films. Jim Metzler appears in three of them, more than any other actor. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Jim Metzler's page
Vernon Wells's page
Dennis Christopher's page
Martha Quinn's page
Andy Goldberg's page
Steven LovyDirector, 2 films, 1990 to 1994
All films by Steven Lovy
Box office
What Paul Willson's films earned in cinemas worldwide.
Combined worldwide box office
$70.2 million
7 of the 17 films have a worldwide figure.
Of the 17 films: 7 worldwide figure; 3 us gross only; 3 never in cinemas; 4 figure not found.
- 7Worldwide figure
- 3US gross only
- 3Never in cinemas
- 4Figure not found
Top grosser
Highest grossing
The seven biggest films earned 100% of the total. The bars are drawn to scale.
- 1$33M46.6% of the total
- 2$15M21.9% of the total
- 3$13M18.2% of the total
- 4$6.3M9.0% of the total
- 5$3.0M4.2% of the total
- 6$45K0.1% of the total
- 7$11K0.0% of the total
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.