Richard Moll stands out as one character that almost everyone from the 80s and 90s loves to see and those that are too young or don’t remember since they were still kids don’t understand the importance of. But when he was younger and his career was still on a high note he was one of the most lovable and somehow dull-witted characters that graced the TV screen on many a night. His presence is something that is just about as big as he is and whenever he’s involved with a project, as he is still active apparently, it’s a treat since he’s a great actor despite the fact that he’s been seen as a little slow thanks to a lot of his characters. There are people that tend to get typecast very quickly and without much of an effort and Richard Moll is definitely among their number. Thankfully though he’s made it clear throughout the years that he’s more than just a big guy that can play the role of a dullard.
In fact if you’ve seen his progression throughout the years you’ll have noted that he takes on a very different set of mannerisms as the years continued to roll by.
Night Court
Let’s be honest, Bull was there because he was a big guy and not quite bright enough to do a lot of things in life. He was commanded by a much smaller woman first with Selma and then with Ros since in all honesty his character was kind of like a big kid that was there to serve at the convenience of the court. But the character was such a lovable lug that people kind of locked on him being that he was huge, strong, but also quite friendly. Bull was pretty much the friend of everyone in the place unless someone did something or said something that put them on his bad side, which was hard to find unless you really tried. In the simplest terms he was the people-pleaser that was good at his job and just wanted to get along with everyone.
Highlander
Some people would likely disagree, but this was the lesser side of a series based off of a movie that had a chance to be great but was kept in the shadows for a lot of years thanks to cheesy dialogue and characters that were almost never fully fleshed out. The whole idea of Highlander is great, a group of immortals whose ranks are somehow continually replenished even as they struggle to be ‘the one’ that will claim the ultimate prize. Richard had a chance to be in this series but thankfully his villainous character was taken out eventually and didn’t come back. While he could have played a great role like the Kurgan did in the first movie it just fell a little flat and didn’t really build up as it needed to in order to become anything other than a half-hearted attempt at keeping the idea alive.
Scary Movie 2
To be honest all the slapstick and crude humor kind of hid his presence away from this movie for a good long while until it was finally time to see him on screen. When he did come on and dueled with David Cross it was still kind of a ‘meh’ moment largely because they started taking from other movies aside from horror movies for their spoof. Of course that’s the whole point of a spoof movie, but by the second installment they were going for a gross/spoof/funny factor that hit extremely well on some notes and just kind of fizzled on others. The idea of Moll being the main bad guy was kind of drowned out occasionally since the humor was really kept on the rest of the cast and the development of the story. He served a good purpose in the movie but at the same time it felt as though he might have been an add-on that wasn’t originally in the script.
Richard has starred and guest-starred in a wide number of shows and movies that have made good use of his size and his ability to look tough but sound incredibly intelligent. He even made it into a couple of episodes of Married…With Children in which he played a slick, pony-tail wearing hitman named Geno. His role there was a big tough guy too, but he was at least afforded enough of intelligence within the character to sound as though he knew what he was doing. Richard Moll has always sounded like a rather intelligent man when he’s allowed to in a role and that’s completely justified since he attended and graduated the University of California at Berkeley. Now in his 70s Moll is still looking pretty good and is still a great personality to see every now and then when he shows up.
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