- published: 25 Jan 2013
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Richard Stahl (January 4, 1932 – June 18, 2006) was an American actor who mostly appeared in film and TV comedies.
Born in Detroit, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. In the 1950s, he was appearing in Off-Broadway productions, where he met his wife to be Kathryn Ish in 1959. In the 1960s, he relocated to San Francisco and became a member of an improvisational comedy group, The Committee.
Some of Stahl's best known film credits include Five Easy Pieces, High Anxiety, 9 to 5 and Ghosts of Mississippi. He also appeared in many TV comedies such as Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple (nine episodes, never playing the same role twice), Barney Miller, WKRP in Cincinnati, The Golden Girls, Soap and Night Court. In the 1980s he was also a regular on the sitcom It's a Living.
Stahl died aged 74 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Health Center in Los Angeles, after a 10 year struggle against Parkinson's disease.
Stahl's wife, actress Kathryn Ish, died of cancer in Santa Barbara, California, on December 31, 2007.