Richard Moll, 80; towering bailiff on ‘Night Court’
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 “Night Court,” died on Thursday at his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. He was 80.
His death was announced by a family spokesperson, Jeff Sanderson. No cause was given.
In a career of more than four decades, Mr. Moll played a variety of roles on television and in films. But he was best known for portraying the baldheaded, wide-eyed Aristotle Nostradamus Shannon, better known as Bull, on all nine seasons of “Night Court,” which ran from 1984 to 1992.
Bull Shannon’s dimwitted persona lent an air of lighthearted innocence to the series, which was set inside a fictional municipal night court in New York City. It starred Harry Anderson, who died in 2018, as Judge Harry Stone, and John Larroquette as prosecutor Dan Fielding. (A rebooted “Night Court” made its debut on NBC this year, with Larroquette the only actor returning from the original series.)
Mr. Moll was “larger than life and taller too,” Larroquette said Friday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Richard Charles Moll was born on Jan. 13, 1943, in Pasadena, Calif., to Harry and Violet Moll. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964. His father wanted him to pursue a law career, but he took up acting instead.
He initially worked in theater, performing in Shakespeare plays in California. He got his first television and film roles in the late 1970s; his early roles included Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in “Brigham,” a 1977 movie about Brigham Young. He was also seen in an episode of the TV series “Welcome Back, Kotter” in 1978.
“Probably auditioning for ‘Night Court’ would be my first big break,” Mr. Moll said in a 2010 interview with MaximoTV. He recalled that he had been asked if he was willing to shave his head for the part.
“I said, ‘Are you kidding?’” he added. “‘I’ll shave my legs for the part. I’ll shave my armpits. I don’t care.’”
After “Night Court” ended in 1992, Mr. Moll went on to do cartoon voice-over work, including roles as Two-Face, a disturbed villain with a disfigured mug, on the Fox Kids show “Batman: The Animated Series” and as Scorpion, one of the hero’s many adversaries on “Spider-Man: The Animated Series,” on the same network.
Though largely known for his comedic work in movies including “Scary Movie 2” and “But I’m a Cheerleader,” Mr. Moll was also seen in a number horror and science-fiction films, including the 1985 horror feature “House” and the 1986 indie fantasy “The Dungeonmaster.”
He was still active as an actor and voice-over artist as recently as 2018, according to the Internet Movie Database. His most notable later appearance was in the 2010 live-action film “Scooby-Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster,” in which he played the mysterious lighthouse keeper Elmer Uggins.
Mr. Moll retired to Big Bear Lake, in the Southern Californian mountains, where, according to his family, he reveled in the idyllic scenery and indulged his love of bird-watching.
He leaves a daughter, Chloe Moll; a son, Mason Moll; and two stepchildren, Cassandra Card and Morgan Ostling. His marriage to Susan Moll ended in divorce.