A few weeks ago, I was watching The Golden Girls was my sister (as we are wont to do). This episode was on:
We both couldn’t quite place where we recognized the actor from. He’s very recognizable and I remembered he often played spazzy characters with that odd, over-enunciated voice. Then, a few weeks later, I realized where I remembered him from.
Another episode of The Golden Girls (jump to 12:11):
In the first video, he played Randy Becker, a former goof-off student of Dorothy’s that grew up to be successful. In the second video, from six years earlier, he played Rick, one of three men that shared a bathroom with the girls on an island vacation.
Interestingly, there were quite a few people that played multiple characters on The Golden Girls. Take a look at this page and notice all the “2 episode” listings where the actor has a “/” indicating different character names. Of course, two episodes is nothing for someone like Robert Costanzo (two characters on The Golden Girls, but five characters on Family Ties).
The man in the two clips here is Tom Villard, who you may remember was also in Popcorn and My Girl as well as an 80s show that ran for several seasons titled We Got It Made. Sadly, Villard died just a few days short of his 41st birthday from AIDS-related pneumonia.
Posted in Television, Movies, and Music