William Gerald Paris (July 25, 1925 – March 31, 1986) was an American actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and for directing the majority of the episodes of the sitcom, Happy Days.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Filmography
  • 4.1 Actor
  • 4.2 Director
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Early life

Paris was born in San Francisco, California. His name, as frequently reported, was indeed Paris, and not Grossman, a stepfather's surname he never adopted. Paris' mother's maiden name was Esther Mohr.

After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he attended New York University and the Actors Studio in New York City. After graduating, Paris moved to Los Angeles, where he attended UCLA and studied acting at the Actors Lab in Hollywood. Paris was Jewish.

Career

Paris had roles in films such as The Caine Mutiny, The Wild One, and Marty. He also played Martin "Marty" Flaherty, one of Eliot Ness's men, in a recurring role in the first season of ABC-TV's The Untouchables, besides making guest appearances on other television series. (His character in The Untouchables series was based on similarly named real-life Untouchable Martin J. Lahart.)

After having directed some episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show in which he also played the recurring character of next-door neighbor and dentist Jerry Helper, Paris won an Emmy Award in the 1963-64 season for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy for the series. He later devoted himself to directing both in film and television, including The Partridge Family and Here's Lucy (including the famous third season opener featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton), but he worked most notably on Happy Days, where he directed 237 of the show's 255 episodes. Imitating Hitch*, he appeared uncredited in at least one episode of every season.

Paris also directed episodes of Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Ted Knight Show, and Blansky's Beauties. He returned to directing feature films in 1985's Police Academy 2: Their First *ignment and 1986's Police Academy 3: Back in Training. In all, he is credited with directing episodes of 57 TV *les and as an actor in 105 *les.

Personal life

In 1954, Paris married Ruth Benjamin. They had three children. They remained married until Ruth's death in 1980.

On March 18, 1986, Paris was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors discovered he had a brain tumor. He underwent two surgeries, but doctors were unable to remove the tumor. Paris remained hospitalized until his death on March 31 at the age of 60. A private memorial was held at Paris' home in Pacific Palisades on April 2.

Filmography

Actor

• The Lady Gambles (1949) as Horse Player (uncredited)
• Sword in the Desert (1949) as Levitan (uncredited)
• Battleground (1949) as German Sergeant (uncredited)
• My Foolish Heart (1949) as Usher at Football Game
• Woman in Hiding (1950) as Customer at Newsstand (uncredited)
• DOA (1950) as Bellhop (uncredited)
• The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) as Radio Station Call Boy (uncredited)
• Outrage (1950) as Frank Marini
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) as Cadet
• The Flying Missile (1950) as Crewman Andy Mason
• Frenchie (1950) as Perry (uncredited)
• Call Me Mister (1951) as Air Force Pilot in Skit (uncredited)
• Her First Romance (1951) as Camp Counsellor (uncredited)
• Bright Victory (1951) as Reynolds, the Medic (uncredited)
• Submarine Command (1951) as Sgt. Gentry
• Monkey Business (1952) as Scientist (uncredited)
• Bonzo Goes to College (1952) as Lefty Edwards
• The Gl* Wall (1953) as Tom
• Sabre Jet (1953) as Capt. Bert Flanagan
• Flight to Tangier (1953) as Policeman in Car (uncredited)
• The Wild One (1953) as Dextro (uncredited)
• Drive a Crooked Road (1954) as Phil
• Prisoner of War (1954) as Axel Horstrom
• The Caine Mutiny (1954) as Ensign Barney Harding
• About Mrs. Leslie (1954) as Mr. Harkness (uncredited)
• Unchained (1955) as Joe Ravens
• Marty (1955) as Tommy
• Not as a Stranger (1955) as Thompson (uncredited)
• The Naked Street (1955) as Latzi Franks
• Crossroads in "With All My Love" (1955) as Corporal Reynolds
• The View from Pompey's Head (1955) as Ian Garrick
• Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955) as Maurice Levine
• Hell's Horizon (1955) as Cpl. Pete Kinshaw
• Crusader (CBS, 1956) as Barney
• Never Say Goodbye (1956) as Joe
• Whodunit (Alfred Hitch* Presents) (1956) as Wally Benson
• D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) as Raymond Boyce
• I've Lived Before (1956) as Russell Smith, Copilot
• Hey, Jeannie! (1956) as Joe Grady
• Those Whiting Girls (1957) as Artie the Accompanist / Artie
• Zero Hour! (1957) as Tony Decker
• Man on the Prowl (1957) as Woody
• Colt .45 in "Blood Money" (1958) as Joe Bullock
• The Female Animal (1958) as Hank Galvez (not Lopez)
• The Lady Takes a Flyer (1958) as Willie Ridgely
• Sing, Boy, Sing (1958) as Arnold Fisher
• The Naked and the Dead (1958) as Goldstein
• No Name on the Bullet (1959) as Harold Miller
• Steve Canyon (1959) as Maj. 'Willie' Williston
• Career (1959) as Allan Burke
• The Untouchables (1959-1960) as Agent Martin Flaherty
• The Alaskans in "Peril at Caribou Crossing" (1960) as Walter Collier
• The Great Impostor (1961) as Defense Lieutenant
• Michael Shayne (1960-1961) as Tim Rourke
• 77 Sunset Strip (1961) in "Big Boy Blue" as Tom Gardiner
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) as Jerry Helper / Jack Sullivan / TV Newsman
• The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962) in episode "Big Man, Little Bridge"
• The Caretakers (1963) as P*erby Lorna Bumps on Street (uncredited)
• The Eleventh Hour as Marty Kane in "What Did She Mean by Good Luck?" (1963)
• The Fugitive (1963) as Jim Prestwick
• Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968) as Baseball Umpire
• Never a Dull Moment (1968) as Police Photographer (uncredited)
• But I Don't Want to Get Married! (1970) as Harry
• Evil Roy Slade (1972) as Souvenir Salesman (uncredited)
• Every Man Needs One (1972) as Marty Ranier
• Leo and Loree (1980) as Tony
• Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986) as Priest in Police Line-up (uncredited) (final film role)

Director

• The Silent Service, two episodes (1957)
• The Joey Bishop Show (1961)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1963–66)
• The Farmer's Daughter (1963)
• The Munsters (1964)
• Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968)
• That Girl (1966)
• Hey, Landlord (1966–67) (TV series)
• Sheriff Who? (1967) (TV pilot)
• Never a Dull Moment (1968)
• How Sweet It Is! (1968)
• Here's Lucy (1968) (TV series)
• Love, American Style (1969)
• Viva Max! (1969)
• The Partridge Family (1970 pilot)
• The Gr*hopper (1970)
• McCloud (1970)
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)
• The Odd Couple (1970–75)
• Barefoot in the Park (1970 TV series)
• But I Don't Want to Get Married! (1970)
• The Feminist and the Fuzz (1971)
• The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971)
• Two on a Bench (1971) (TV)
• What's a Nice Girl Like You...? (1971)
• Star Spangled Girl (1971)
• Call Her Mom (1972)
• Evil Roy Slade (1972)
• Wednesday Night Out (1972) (TV pilot)
• Keeping Up with the Joneses (1972) (TV pilot)
• The Couple Takes a Wife (1972) (TV)
• Every Man Needs One (1972) (TV)
• Thicker Than Water (1973) (TV series)
• Break Up (1973) (TV special)
• Happy Days (1974–84) (TV series)
• Only with Married Men (1974)
• The Fireman's Ball (1975) (TV pilot)
• When Things Were Rotten (1975) (TV series)
• Good Heavens (1976) (TV series)
• How to Break Up a Happy Divorce (1976)
• Blansky's Beauties (1977) (TV series)
• The Ted Knight Show (1978) (TV series)
• Make Me an Offer (1980)
• Leo and Loree (1980)
• Police Academy 2: Their First *ignment (1985)
• Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986)
• You Again? (1986) (TV series)

References

External links

• Jerry Paris at IMDb
• Jerry Paris at the Internet Broadway Database