Richard J Kind was born November 22, 1956, in Trenton, New Jersey. He graduated in 1974 from Pennsbury High School. He then attended Northwestern University where he pledged Sigma Alpha Epsilon. An actor dedicated to the art of comedy, Kind was a prominent member of the improvisation theater Second City Chicago. It was here he worked with Dan Castellaneta, the man more widely known as the voice behind quintessential American dad Homer Simpson. Kind made his onscreen debut in 1985 with the made for TV movie Two Fathers’ Justice, starring George Hamilton. Kind bounced around television and film for the next seven years, always finding steady work but never reaching anything that could be deemed star status.
Things, however, looked up in 1992. It was in this year he won a role in the comedy Mr. Saturday Night, starring Billy Crystal, David Paymer, Julie Warner, and Jerry Orbach as well as voicing the animated cat Tom in Tom and Jerry: The Movie. But most important to his career, the television series Mad About You began its successful seven-season stint. Kind portrayed the friend of New York couple Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser. He appeared sporadically on the series until its final episode in 1999. Other side characters in the show included Lisa Kudrow, Hank Azaria, Carol Burnett, and Eric Stoltz.
During his successful run on Mad About You, Kind also earned a small but recurring role on the series The Commish, opposite Michael Chiklis.
He also lent his talents to the all-star voice cast of A Bug’s Life in 1998, which included Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Hayden Panettiere, David Hyde Pierce, Denis Leary, Bonnie Hunt, John Ratzenberger, and Brad Garrett. In 1996, Kind received another large boost to his career when he landed the role of Paul Lassiter on the comedy series Spin City. He starred with Michael J Fox, Barry Bostwick, Alan Ruck, and Heather Locklear. Kind’s role lasted until the show’s finale in 2002. Since the conclusion of Spin City, Kind has kept busy with screen work as well as stage productions. He earned a recurring role as the persistent hypochondriac on Scrubs, opposite Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison, and Judy Reyes. Others may recognize him as Uncle Andy on the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm starring Larry David and Cheryl Hines.
His stage career includes several stints on Broadway for The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Sly Fox, and perhaps most famously The Producers. This should come as no shock to Kind’s fans, many of which are aware Broadway is in the family line. Kind is cousins with Broadway star Barbra Streisand.Currently Kind lends his voice to the animated series Kim Possible as well as the Horizon Air commercials playing Clark to Patrick Warburton’s Lewis.Kind married Dana Stanely November 13, 1999, with good friend George Clooney serving as his best man. Kind and Stanely are currently still married and have three children together.