In a career that spanned more than four decades, the actor was best known for playing an eccentric but gentle giant bailiff on the original “Night Court” sitcom, has died. He was 80.
No cause of death was given for Moll, who passed at his home in Big Bear Lake, California, according to Jeff Sanderson, a publicist at Chasen & Company.
Moll was born in Pasadena, California, and attended the University of California, Berkeley, according to the Turner Classic Movies website.
When he began acting, his first jobs were in commercials and bit parts on television shows. Among his early credits were roles on “Welcome Back, Kotter” and “The Rockford Files.” On the former, he played a character simply credited as “Big Thug.”
Indeed he was big – standing at 6’8,” with a hulking presence. In the real world, though, Moll wasn’t as likely to be recognized by “Night Court” viewers if he was sporting a full head of hair. His “Night Court” character, Aristotle Nostradamus “Bull” Shannon, was bald, big-hearted, and at times a little dense, though not enough to dull his charm or command of moments.
Moll played an abominable snowman alongside Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach in the comedy feature Caveman (1981), and he was a scary, decomposing Vietnam veteran in the horror film House (1986). After Night Court, Moll landed a recurring role on the sitcom Getting By (NBC, 1992-94), starring Cindy Williams, before appearing in an episode of the cult sci-fi hit Babylon 5 (TNT, 1993-99). He also voiced the bodyguard to the title character of the animated Mighty Max (syndicated, 1993-94).
His Night Court stint also enabled him to branch out into larger films and voiceover work on animated series, where he often relished the chance to play the bad guy. Moll was the voice of Harvey Dent/Two-Face on The Adventures of Batman & Robin (Fox, 1992-95) and Scorpion on Spider-Man: The Animated Series (Fox, 1994-98).
During that, he also had small parts in big studio movies like The Flintsones (1994), the Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy Jingle All the Way (1996), the direct-to-video sequel, Caspar Meets Wendy (1998) and Scary Movie 2 (2002).
His feature films resume included parts in The Dungeonmaster (1986) and House (1986), as well as with small screen flicks such as If It’s Tuesday, It Still Must Be Belgium (NBC, 1987) and Class Cruise (NBC, 1989). Additional credits include Wicked Stepmother (1989), Think Big (1990), and Driving Me Crazy (1991).
