Paul Dooley: No. 1 Dad

The 82-year-old veteran actor has made a career of playing the parent of Oscar-winning performers, but it's his real-life family that really makes him beam.

June 26, 2010 at 6:38PM
Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley (Submitted photo/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Paul Dooley has good reason to be a proud papa -- both on- and off-screen. The 82-year-old veteran actor has made a career of playing the parent of Oscar-winning performers on TV and film, but it's his real-life family that really makes him beam. Dooley's daughter Savannah and his wife of 35 years, Winnie Holzman, are co-creators of "Huge." It's probably no coincidence that Dooley snagged a part in the new series as a mysterious cook.

His on-screen offspring include:

Mia Farrow, "A Wedding," 1978

Dennis Christopher, "Breaking Away," 1979

Molly Ringwald, "Sixteen Candles," 1984

Jon Cryer, "O.C. and Stiggs," 1985

Helen Hunt, "Mad About You," 1992-99

Philip Seymour Hoffman, "My Boyfriend's Back," 1993

Bess Armstrong, "My So-Called Life," 1994-95

Toni Collette, "Clockwatchers," 1997

Julia Roberts, "Runaway Bride," 1999

Christina Applegate, "Employee of the Month," 2004

NEAL JUSTIN

about the writer

about the writer

Neal Justin

Critic / Reporter

Neal Justin is the pop-culture critic, covering how Minnesotans spend their entertainment time. He also reviews stand-up comedy. Justin previously served as TV and music critic for the paper. He is the co-founder of JCamp, a non-profit program for high-school journalists, and works on many fronts to further diversity in newsrooms.

See Moreicon

More from Minnesota Star Tribune

See More
card image
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS/The Minnesota Star Tribune

The "winners" have all been Turkeys, no matter the honor's name.

In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece