Here’s What Happened to Paul Lynde Before, During and After ‘Bewitched’ and ‘The Hollywood Squares’

Paul Needed Approval From the Audience and His Fans

As it turns out, the opinion of the public was extremely important to Paul, which created an interesting dichotomy within him in that he dreamt of movie stardom, but essentially needed the intimacy that the small screen provided between him and his fans.

“He was a frustrated actor,” Cathy relates. “He really wanted to be a movie star; that was his dream. That’s why he bought a house that Errol Flynn once owned — he wanted a home like a movie star should have, but he wasn’t one. That was his heartbreak. He would say to me, ‘I’m on these small little TVs. People think they know you because they watch you every day; you’re in their homes. I’m on seven times a week with Hollywood Squares and shows like I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched. Everybody thinks they know you and they’ll approach you. If it’s a big movie star, they would never approach you.’ So I think that’s something he wanted, but at the same time, he wanted everybody to notice him. If you wanted his autograph, there was nothing more gratifying for him than to stop and hear somebody say something that made him feel good: ‘Hey, you’re great. I think you’re wonderful.’ That’s why he said he would stay after every show for two hours just to sign autographs and talk to people. He said, ‘What’s more wonderful than hearing 100 people telling you over and over again how great you are?’ If he was a movie star, he wouldn’t have that, but the reality is that he needed it. He needed his audience. The fact that people loved him was the part of his life that filled the loneliness.”

Herbie notes, “It’s different today because the lines are blurred between TV and movie stardom. Many from both worlds criss-cross into the other. Also, Lynde was not movie star lead material. As a supporting role, yes, but not for a lead performance. A performer like Paul is simply too much to take as a lead. His presence is too strong. Too overwhelming for the star of a TV show or film. That’s why everyone thought he made more appearances on Bewitched than he did. If he played Uncle Arthur every week, it would have been an overload for the audience to accept. Too much of a good thing. And he was a good thing … but only in small doses.”

His Insecurities Came Partially From His Childhood

Paul was born on June 13, 1926, in Mount Vernon, Ohio and experienced a childhood that was not filled with joy. Indeed, he came out of it full of insecurities, some because of his weight, others because he was gay at a time when homosexuality was not an openly-accepted lifestyle. “He had the tragic upbringing of so many performers,” observes Michael Airington, who has created and starred in the one-man Las Vegas-based The Paul Lynde Show, bringing the performer to life again. “His parents didn’t accept him as a comedian or wanting to be on television or in movies. When I started the show, I didn’t realize that he struggled so hard with loneliness and his gayness. He was in love with one guy, but broke his heart, because Paul would go off on tantrums. But that was his only serious relationship.”

That feeling of isolation plagued him for most of his life and became particularly evident when he would drink — including during his most successful years as an actor. “He was simply a very unhappy person,” Herbie observes. “And very lonely. David White [Larry Tate on Bewitched] noticed it when Paul would walk on the set with his dog and talk to his dog like he was a human. Which, of course, many people do. Many utilize pets to soothe their loneliness, but Paul’s loneliness seemed more acute. I can’t say for sure, but most likely his sexuality was the basis of his insecurities. The bottom line is that all of those on the Bewitched set, in front of and behind the scenes, knew of his sexuality. But it was the 1960s and ’70s, and he, like many of the era in his same shoes, did not feel comfortable with addressing those issues in public.”

Notes Cathy, “Many of his friends, including Kaye Ballard, who I spoke to for my book, and Charlotte Rae, hung out with him for many, many years, but when Paul drank too much, he could be vicious and cruel and, as a result, he lost a lot of his friends. Part of all of that came from the fact that he was jealous of a lot of people who were getting better parts. I also think being gay and having to hide it frustrated him. He was very lonely and continually pushed people away, though I don’t think he realized that or he couldn’t understand it. I also think he had issues from when he was a child. He was obese — 250 pounds by the time he graduated high school — and had no love life either way. He was just unhappy; I’m guessing he fed himself to fill other needs that he had.

“When we would talk,” she adds, “he always said his baby brother was the baby of the family, his other brother was the athlete, the other one was the brains and he was the nothing. That feeling from him probably explained it more than anything. Then, as he got older, he was still unable to find the love of his life, and still not getting the Academy Award or whatever he needed to feel good. I’m guessing, but it would seem to be a lot of things at work. He rarely went on talk shows, but he did one — I forget who it was, but it was a wonderful interviewer — and Paul just opened up like he had to me in private and let the whole world hear him say, ‘You know what? I’m doing good. It’s the ‘70s and I’m on top, but now I’m even more anxious because I have to stay on top. You’re only as good as your last performance; it’s the last performance that people are going to remember. If you flop, you’re screwed.’ But with Paul Lynde, it didn’t matter if he flopped. He had a 30-year career, which is so rare.”

Paul Takes to the Stage … and TV

That career began in 1948, when Paul, upon graduating from Northwestern University, made the move to New York City. He made his big screen debut in the film New Faces of 1952, a musical revue combining music and comedy that introduced not only Paul, but people like Eartha Kitt, Robert Clary, Carol Lawrence, Mel Brooks and Alice Ghostley. Alice, as many have noticed, shares many mannerisms in her delivery with Paul, though according to Geoffrey Mark (author of The Lucy Book) she got there first. “Alice Ghostley was already talking like that. Paul Lynde came to New Faces not talking like that, but he left New Faces talking like that. So he borrowed her delivery. When you saw them on screen together, it was like watching a brother and sister talking.”

From there he was cast in the 1956 sitcom Stanley, which ran for only eight episodes, and returned to Broadway in 1960 for Bye Bye Birdie, in which he played Harry MacAfee (which he reprised three years later in the film version). Throughout the 1960s, he became a staple of sitcoms, bringing his unique personality to episodic series like The Phil Silvers Show, The Patty Duke Show, The Munsters (he played Herman’s near-sighted Doctor, who always thought Herman’s hairy arm was actually a dog he brought to the office), The Flying Nun, Gidget and variety shows.

Producer/director William Asher, who had created Bewitched, produced a pilot for Paul over at ABC in 1966 called Sedgewick Hawk-Styles: Prince of Danger, which was a Victorian detective spoof. It was actually being given the green light for series, when Paul’s private life brought everything to a screeching halt. As Geoffrey details, “ABC sent Paul out before they even announced that show was coming to the network, just to let people around the country get used to him again. Unfortunately, Paul got drunk at a gay bar and picked up a muscle boy, who bragged that he could do a hundred chin-ups. There was nowhere in Paul’s suite for this guy to prove it, but once Paul said he couldn’t do it, the guy had to prove it. So he went out a window to do it on a fire escape, but he was drunk and he lost his grip and fell to his death. So Paul called Bill Asher and Bill Asher called ABC. It was ultimately ruled an accident, but there was not going to be a Paul Lynde sitcom. That got squashed.”

And Then There Was ‘Bewitched’

Most importantly, as far as his fans are concerned, he played the jokester warlock Arthur on Bewitched, where all of his comic skills were allowed to shine. Serving as uncle to Elizabeth Montgomery’s Samantha Stephens and brother to Agnes Moorehead’s Endora (Sam’s mother), the amazing thing is that there’s a general impression that he was a regular on the series which ran from 1964 to 1972, but in reality, he only appeared in a total of 11 episodes.

“His comedic timing and delivery was like no other,” Herbie offers in explanation. “Viewers have, for years, believed he made many more appearances than he actually made. That’s a testament to his talent and his presence on screen.”

Reflects Cathy, “He used to say to me, ‘I was only on the show 11 times; they must have run a lot of reruns because everybody calls me Uncle Arthur when I go on the street.’ The kids especially, and he loved it.”

He Loved Samantha, but Hated Serena

While Herbie points out that Paul did not get along with Agnes Moorehead, particularly at the beginning, Cathy explained that his bigger problem was with Samantha Stephens’ cousin, Serena. If so, it’s actually kind of bizarre considering that the character was played by Elizabeth Montgomery (Paul’s real-life pal) as well.

“He didn’t like anybody to upstage him,” laughs Cathy. “He would say to me, ‘There’s nothing worse than me being on stage with kids or a dog, or any animal, because they upstage you,’ and he wanted to be the center of attention. The character of Serena was the same thing, because she started getting funnier lines than him. She became her own little character, which Elizabeth invented herself, because she didn’t want to be the pretty housewife all the time. She wanted to be a little bit wild with wigs, short skirts and makeup. He was supposed to be the funny one with his niece Samantha and his costumes and magic and whatever. But Serena was a pretty powerful character, which made him insecure.”

As Elizabeth Montgomery had told Herbie, “His attitude was very different when I played her as opposed to when I played Samantha.”

There Was a Real Connection Between Paul and Elizabeth Montgomery

According to Herbie, the character of Uncle Arthur was named after Elizabeth Montgomery’s real-life relative. “I always adored my Uncle Arthur,” she told him in 1989, “[and] I got along very well with Paul … almost to a fault.” One morning on the set of Bewitched, the two shared a laugh so hard, director Bill Asher screamed, “I give up!”, called for lunch at 10:30 a.m. and walked off the set. That’s when Paul pointed to her and said, “It’s all her fault.” Added Elizabeth, “We were a mess; just an absolute wreck.”

One of Elizabeth’s favorite Bewitched episodes was Season 1’s “Driving is the Only Way to Fly,” which featured Paul in his first guest-star appearance on the show — but not as Uncle Arthur. Instead, he played a mortal character named Harold Harold, a very nervous driving instructor for Samantha. The actress recalled, “When you’re working with somebody who’s totally off the wall like Paul was, it gives you a lot of [creative] freedom. And Bill, having known Paul for a long time, trusted him a lot and vice versa. So stuff that we would do bled over into [Paul’s performance], and it was fascinating. His instincts were fascinating. I wish he would have known [and] understood how important he was despite all of his problems. I tried to help him.”

‘Gidget Grows Up’

“I met Paul when we did a movie called Gidget Grows Up,” explains Karen Valentine. “In it, I worked at the UN as a guide and had two roommates and we were living in his boarding house, where he was the landlord. His character was a former child actor who is obviously grown up, but is still sort of living in the ‘30s. But meeting him was a treat, because I knew who he was, of course, but I thought he was just so funny and I just fell in love with him. He was just so deeply funny sitting around talking his views on things. Then a couple of years later we were on The Hollywood Squares together.

“When the San Fernando earthquake happened in 1971, it was six o’clock in the morning and it was a 6.1. Pretty devastating; I woke up to sirens and it was crazy. But we taped that night and we were going to do five shows that very night. You know show business, the show much go on. So we reported for work and were in the middle of taping. You know how the set was built with the scaffolding, which kind of rocked when people walked up it, because there were two spiral staircases to get to the top or the middle tier. We’re in the middle of taping and an aftershock hits. It’s a long one and we’re swaying, and the producers are telling us to keep going, and Paul in his own way snapped, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me.’

“Peter Marshall brought everything to a halt,” she continues. “Now Paul was always dieting, because he had a weight thing he always had to keep in check. He immediately got down from the scaffolding and went to the candy machine and came back with an arm full of Snicker bars and M&Ms. He walks by me and sees me sitting there looking at him and his arm full of candy, and he says, ‘Oh, you’re so young to die.’ With Paul, I was laughing until I started crying, and so did everyone else. He could deliver a line just in real life, unscripted, and it was amazing.”

Meanwhile, on ‘The Hollywood Squares’

Naturally, Paul appeared on far more episodes of The Hollywood Squares than he ever did on Bewitched. It was a gig that truly elevated his star status, made him wealthy and spanned 13 years. At The Archive for American Television, series host Peter Marshall reflected, “A writer on the show, Bill Armstrong, became producer and he said, ‘Let’s write jokes for Paul Lynde.’ And that changed everything. I can remember the first joke ever written for him was, ‘Paul, why do motorcyclists wear leather?’ ‘Because chiffon wrinkles.’ It was wonderful. He was a guest but he was made a regular and we put him in the center square.”

For anyone wondering how things worked behind the scenes on The Hollywood Squares insofar as Paul is concerned, Geoffrey Mark details, “Peter Marshall’s desk had nine cubbies and the questions were directed specifically to each individual star, so he wasn’t just pulling out the next question. He was pulling out the next question for that star. The stars were told ahead of time, not what the question was, but what the topic might be, so that those of them who were really funny could think of a joke, those who were witty could have something witty to say or at least not be taken by surprise. So they were never told or given answers, except for Paul. How they worked it with Paul, because everybody loved him so much, is his questions were numbered. Then, in Paul’s cubicle, he had numbered pieces of paper, which couldn’t be seen because of how the set was made. If the question was, ‘Why do motorcyclists wear leather?,’ he had a choice. If he thought of something humorous, he would just say it. If he didn’t immediately think of something humorous, he’d look down at the paper. And you could see him doing it; he looked down and often laughed, because it was the first time he was reading them; he didn’t read them ahead of time. As a result, he would be laughing with the audience, and half the time it was his own sense of humor and half the time he had something just in case.”

According to Cathy, the show ultimately proved creatively frustrating for him. In fact, at one point he decided to leave between seasons, believing it was actually starting to become an impediment to his career. By quitting, he felt it would turn things around. “Things got very quiet for him,” she says. “He was hoping that he would be in demand with movie producers who would call, because he wasn’t on TV every day. But it didn’t happen, so he went back to the show, because he had nothing else. That was kind of sad. He did, however, go back to The Hollywood Squares with a new contract that gave him more money, and enough time off to make movies. But he only did The Villain and Rabbit Test.”

Peter explains that part of the reason he quit had to do with an article he’d read about how much the host was getting paid. “There was a favored nations clause; everybody got the same amount, which was, I think, $750. You’ve got to remember that this was  1966 or ’67. So that’s pretty good. He read this article and said he wanted the same amount and they said no. So he left the show for a year. I then called him and said, ‘Paul, why don’t you come in? This is silly.’ The changed his contract and he got more money. He deserved it.”

Life After ‘The Hollywood Squares’

In between all of that, he voiced a number of cartoon characters, including the evil Hooded Claw on The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Pertwee in Where’s Huddles? and the rat Templeton in the animated film Charlotte’s Web. In 1972, he did finally get his own self-titled sitcom, but it only lasted one season. “I felt so sad for him,” Charlotte Rae, known best for her role on The Facts of Life, told The Archive of American Television. “The writing on that show was all wrong. We all know how funny Paul was, but they made him happily married with two kids and it was wrong. It just didn’t work.”

The next year he joined Temperature’s Rising, retitled The New Temperature’s Rising, but that didn’t work either. In the 1970s he starred on stage in an Ohio production of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, which required him to play three roles. In an interview with a local radio station, he said something that seemed to summarize his own struggles of breaking free of the mold he’d created for himself: “What makes it difficult is being so identified on television with the many hours I’m on each year now to be someone other than Paul Lynde when I’m on stage. But I tell you, you find that the reason they [the audience] bought the tickets is they want to see the same Paul Lynde they see on screen. It makes it difficult, because I did train to be an actor and I try to always act and give the playwright the justice he deserves, because I think you’re only as good as what you say.”

He felt those failures deeply and turned more and more to alcohol, which began to impact negatively on his career. He nonetheless appeared on many game shows (including Password, where he played against Elizabeth Montgomery), scored a series of ABC specials between 1975 and ’79, and was a regular guest on The Donny & Marie Show (which he lost when, while drunk, he got into very public arguments with police officers). But beyond professionally, it ultimately cost him many friendships as well. For instance, Kaye Ballard told A&E’s Biography, “He’d come for dinner, get drunk and say things like, ‘You’re never going to get anywhere. You’re too overweight.’ Eventually I thought, ‘You know, I don’t need this. Every time he comes over and has dinner, he gets drunk.’ He burned the carpet one day and I thought, ‘Hey, I’m not making your kind of money, don’t burn my carpet.’ I didn’t want to take anymore abuse from him.”

Explained Dick Van Dyke, “One thing that we shared, that we talked about many years later, when we were making Bye Bye Birdie we were both sliding into alcohol addiction and were not aware of it — as people seldom are when it’s happening. There is a story that happened during Bye Bye Birdie that’s only funny to me now. He wanted to meet Hal Prince, the Broadway producer. He idolized him, thought he was a genius. A woman that we knew was having a party and Hal Prince was coming, so Paul pleaded with her, ‘Please let me come to your party so I can meet Hal Prince.’ So she did and he met Hal Prince, backed him into a wall and just slashed him to pieces. He’d gone over the hump there with his drinking and became his nasty self. Well, the next day he was just beside himself. He said, ‘My idol, I just love that man and I just tore him to pieces.’ So he called this woman, said he had to make amends, so she arranged it again. And he did the same thing! He couldn’t help himself.”

Suggests Geoffrey Mark, “He was one of those Jekyll/Hyde alcoholics, who is a lovely human being when he wasn’t drinking and a complete bitch when he was. He was also very sensitive about his body, constantly gaining and losing and gaining and losing and gaining and losing weight. And he was sensitive about being gay and his social life. When you’re in show business, it’s very hard to know who wants to date you because they like you or because they think you’re famous or they think you have money and can do something for them. So a lot of Paul’s dates were ‘professional’ people. They were people paid for it, because at least he knew he’d get what he wanted and they’d go home. He had no obligation beyond that. But he was a mass of neurosis and insecurities, and it is amazing that he was able to find the courage to be a performer and to get past his mental illness issues to do so much work and do it well.

“I don’t know anybody who disliked Paul Lynde,” he continues, “but they disliked the person they became when he drank. But I’ve never heard a bad word about him when he was sober.”

“Even with the drinking,” Kaye Ballard conceded, “he was a very exceptional person.”

Adds Michael Arington, “We’ve all seen the stories of what alcoholism does to people, but there was another side of him that was probably one of the most generous, kind and giving people you could know, but the alcohol turned him into a monster. It finally  hit the point where Paul realized that he drank too much. He and Dick Van Dyke went to AA together.”

“Everyone talks about his dark side, which he definitely had,” points out Karen Valentine. “And he did have his demons. In fact, he threw me out of his house one night after dinner and threw his hat after me. He was just ranting about something and I kept the hat and I later said, ‘You are never getting this hat back.’ The next day, nothing was wrong. So he could be volatile, but I just adored him.”

Which raises the question, why? Why put up with such abusive  behavior when Paul drank? “I think it was because it came from pain he was feeling and that’s how he was working his way through it,” she suggests. “Not the best choice to make, obviously, but he was lonely in a way. Maybe in his eyes he wasn’t achieving what he wanted to achieve — despite the fact that he was so popular. You knew it was the alcohol talking; I don’t think you ever thought it was him talking. He was really flailing out against himself, it seemed to me —  but I’m not a psychologist.”

Things Grew Darker, but He Tried to Find the Light

“Towards the end of his career, he got very sad and ended up going to some place in Maine for a summer, just to get away and think about his life,” Cathy explains. “While he was there he met a photographer named Daphne Welds Nichols, who loved him and asked if he wanted her to photograph him. He did, which was probably the last professional photos of him before he passed away. She had a great time with him and he did open up and say he was looking for a new way in life. He was trying to stop drinking completely, he was cutting down his smoking, and trying to focus on a more holistic lifestyle. He didn’t know where the road was leading him at that point.”

Unfortunately, it turned out to be too little, too late. Paul died on January 11, 1982, from a massive heart attack at the age of 55. “One of the big misconceptions,” Cathy said, “is that he died of AIDS. He did not die of AIDS.”

He’s been gone now for 38 years, yet it doesn’t take much in the way of channel surfing to come across one of the performances that endeared him to so many. “The legacy of Paul Lynde,” says Herbie, “was and remains laughter. He was simply one of the funniest, most brilliant performers on the planet. There will never again be a brighter, wittier comic actor than Paul Lynde.”

Adds Cathy, “All these years later, Paul is still entertaining us on reruns of Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters and so many other shows.”

Opines Geoffrey, “We remember him on shows like The Hollywood Squares and Bewitched. He fit into those shows like a glove, and when you have that kind of a perfect storm, it lasts. If you have someone that iconic, that’s special. That’s one of a kind, and that’s not a bad epitaph.”

A Glimpse of Who He Really Was

“A lot of people thought Paul was standoffish and he could be,” Cathy admits. “Florence Henderson [Carol Brady from The Brady Bunch] said to me, ‘People thought he was unapproachable; that you couldn’t go near him. They didn’t know how he was going to take you. But if you let him see who you are and you just spoke to him, he would accept you.’ And that is the truth. There were certain people on Hollywood Squares he did not get along with, and certain people who would not give me interviews for the book. They were very polite, but told me they didn’t care for him. And then you had people who loved him and were fine with him. If he didn’t like you, he’d let you know.”

Beyond having gotten to know him on her own, Cathy points to another story that seems to embody who Paul Lynde was, both the good and the bad. When he starred on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie, the lead was actor Dick Gautier (Get Smart fans would know him as Hymie the Robot), who was more or less considered a teen idol. In an interview with him for her biography, he related that Paul grew increasingly mean to him behind the scenes, and a bit more on stage as well. Dick was at a loss as to why, relating that Paul seemed to think of him as a “teenaged twerp,” even though he was about 30 at the time.

“They would not get along,” she says, “and as the show went on, the viciousness from Paul got worse and worse. Then at some point Paul was going to go see Dick Gautier do a standup routine. Paul went with some friends to sneer at him, but after he saw Dick come out and do his thing, Paul went backstage, went up to him, shook his hand and said, ‘I have to tell you, what you did out there was amazing.’ Dick Gautier was floored. Paul said, ‘I did this [standup], and hated it, but you were great.’ With Paul, if he didn’t like you, he didn’t like you, but every once in a while he would open up his heart. You just had to know how to get to his heart.”

As Michael Arington explains it, when he was a kid he discovered the ability to do impersonations, which in junior high became the perfect tool to prevent him from getting beaten up — and Paul Lynde’s voice was an important part of that. “Just hearing his voice brings humor with it,” he explains. “If you watch Charlotte’s Web where he voices a rat, it’s funny. Back in his day they didn’t call them gay men, they called them ‘confirmed bachelors.’ But here’s the thing: there’s a difference between playing a gay character and having a voice like Paul Lynde and playing it as a straight man. That was funny. And what happens is that comedy is universal, so it doesn’t matter whose voice it is or where it comes from. If the comedy is funny, people are going to laugh. And Paul Lynde was one of those people who had the gift of just saying one word and cracking you up. He could just give you a sneer and crack you up. With Paul, you knew what was coming and you couldn’t wait.”