Paul Lynde

Paul Edward Lynde (; June 13, 1926January 10, 1982) was an American comedian, actor and game show panelist. A character actor with a distinctively campy and snarky persona that often poked fun at his closeted homosexuality, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched, the befuddled father Harry MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie and a regular "center square" panelist on the game show The Hollywood Squares from 1968 to 1981. He also voiced animated characters for five Hanna-Barbera productions. Lynde regularly topped audience polls of most-liked TV stars, and was routinely admired and recognized by his peers during his lifetime. Mel Brooks once described Lynde as being capable of getting laughs by reading "a phone book, tornado alert, or seed catalogue". Lynde once said that, while he would rather be recognized as a serious actor, "we live in a world that needs laughter and I've decided if I can make people laugh, I'm making a more important contribution." Early life Paul Lynde was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, the son of Sylvia Bell Lynde and Hoy Corydon Lynde, who owned and operated a meat market. Fifth-born among six siblings, Lynde had older sisters, Grace and Helen, older brothers, Richard Hoy and Coradon ("Cordy") George and younger brother, John ("Johnny"). His favorite brother, Coradon, died in 1944 at the age of 21, in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Five years later in 1949, his parents died within three months of each other. Lynde graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1944, where he played the bass drum in the high school band. He then studied speech and drama at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where his classmates included Cloris Leachman, Charlotte Rae, Patricia Neal, Jeffrey Hunter, and Claude Akins. At Northwestern, he was active in the school's theatrical productions, and joined the Upsilon chapter of the fraternity Phi Kappa Sigma. He is listed among its most famous members. He graduated in 1948.