Paul Sand

Paul Sand (born Paul Stone Sanchez; March 5, 1932)[1] is an American actor and comedian.

For the North Dakota Supreme Court justice, see Paul M. Sand.
Paul Sand
Born
Paul Stone Sanchez

(1932-03-05) March 5, 1932
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
OccupationActor, comedian
Years active1955-2014
Known forMTM Enterprises Sitcom Friends and Lovers

Background

Sand was born Paul Stone Sanchez[2] in Santa Monica, California, United States, in 1932 of Mexican and Russian descent, the son of Ernest Rivera Sanchez, an aerospace tool designer,[3] and Sonia Stone.

Career

At the age of 11, he started at Viola Spolin's Children's Theatre Company. From here, he attended Los Angeles State College before moving to Paris aged 18. In Paris, Sand met one of his heroes, Marcel Marceau, who was so impressed by his talents that he asked Sand to join his touring mime troupe.[4]

In 1960, along with Alan Arkin and others, Sand was a cast member of The Second City improvisational comedy troupe in Chicago. In 1966 he co-starred with Linda Lavin and Jo Anne Worley in the off-Broadway hit production The Mad Show, inspired by Mad Magazine.

In 1971, Sand received a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his work on Broadway in Paul Sills' Story Theatre and two Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Performances on Broadway in Story Theatre and Metamorphosis.[5] One of Sand's fellow cast members in Story Theatre was actress Valerie Harper, who, in 1970, had been signed to play Rhoda Morgenstern on the CBS-TV situation comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show. During that show's first season, Sand was cast as Robert C. Brand, a tax auditor, who falls in love with Mary Richards (Moore), in the 11th episode "1040 or Fight". Moore and her husband Grant Tinker were so impressed with Sand's performance that they were determined to find a property to showcase his comedic talents. As a result, MTM Enterprises produced Friends and Lovers, in which Sand portrayed Robert Dreyfuss, a double bass player in the Boston Symphony Orchestra who fell in love easily but had little success with women. It premiered in the fall of 1974 on Saturday nights on CBS at 8:30 P.M. sandwiched in between two megahits - All in the Family at 8:00 P.M. and The Mary Tyler Moore Show at 9:00 P.M. Despite some favorable reviews and decent ratings, it was considered by the network to be a disappointment and was cancelled in January, 1975 after fifteen episodes had been filmed.[6] Ironically at the end of that television season, Friends and Lovers ranked at #25 in the Nielsen ratings.

Sand also appeared in such motion pictures as The Hot Rock, The Second Coming of Suzanne (in which he had a sex scene with Sondra Locke), and The Main Event starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal.

In the fall of 1986, Sand, along with up-and-coming comedienne Rosie O'Donnell, joined the cast of the NBC sitcom Gimme A Break starring Nell Carter, then approaching its sixth year on prime-time television. During the 1985-1986 season, the series's ratings were beginning to falter. As a result, NBC decided that a major restructuring including some cast alterations were needed in order to save the show and renew it for the following year. The format change plus the addition of Sand and O'Donnell to the cast proved to be futile. The ratings did not improve and Gimme A Break was cancelled in the spring of 1987.

Filmography

Film

Television

References
  1. "Ancestry Library Edition". Ancestrylibrary.com. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  2. "Ancestry Library Edition". Search.ancestrylibrary.com. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  3. Paul Sand profile, FilmReference.com; accessed September 27, 2014.
  4. Profile, Latimes.com; accessed May 15, 2015.
  5. Profile, ibdb.com; accessed May 15, 2015.
  6. Profile, tvobscurities.com; accessed May 15, 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.