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| Birth Name(s) : Paul Gleason |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Full Paul Gleason Biography
Gleason was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to Eleanor (Doyle), a registered nurse, and George L. Gleason, a restaurateur, professional boxer, iron worker, and roofing manufacturer. Gleason was raised in Miami. He attended North Miami High School and Florida State University where he played football. He was signed to a minor league baseball contract by the Cleveland Indians, but never made it into the big leagues.
Gleason starred in many movies, and became well-known initially as Dr. David Thornton on All My Children, playing the role from 1976 to 1978. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Richard Vernon, the gruff disciplinary principal in the seminal 1985 movie The Breakfast Club. He reprised that character several times, including in an A*Teens music video, on the television show Boy Meets World (although he was a dean on BMW) and in the film, Not Another Teen Movie. As a bookend to his modern fame as strict disciplinarian, Gleason played a tough yet forgiving and nurturing professor to the lead character in Van Wilder.
Gleason is known to Star Wars fans for his role as Jeremitt Towani in the 1985 made-for-TV film The Battle for Endor. He played the villainous Clarence "Mr." Beeks in the famous 1983 comedy film Trading Places starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. He also played Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson, the blowhard police official in Die Hard (he later reprised the role in National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1) and has appeared in many other lesser-known movies and television shows.
Gleason, in addition to his acting career, participated in many celebrity golf events each year, and was known by autograph hunting experts to enjoy mingling with fans and signing autographs during these golf tournaments. He was married to Susan Kehl and is survived by his wife, two daughters, and one granddaughter.
Gleason died on May 27, 2006 at a Burbank, California hospital from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer connected with asbestos, which he is thought to have contracted on building sites while working for his father as a teenager.
The successors-in-interest to Gleason have since filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging over 40-50 defendants are all responsible for his mesothelioma. |
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