Jim J. Bullock

James Jackson Bullock, known professionally as Jim J. Bullock, is an American actor and comedian born on February 9, 1955, in Casper, Wyoming. He was raised in Odessa, Texas, though he is listed as an alumnus of Natrona County High School in Casper. Raised in a Southern Baptist household, Bullock planned during his youth to pursue a career as an evangelical Christian minister. He received a music scholarship to Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma, but left before completing his degree.

Bullock adopted the stage name "Jim J. Bullock" to distinguish himself from another actor named Jim Bullock registered with the performers union. His earliest credits listed him as "Jm J. Bullock," a deliberate stylistic choice intended to make his name stand out. He rose to prominence in the 1980s through his co-starring role as Monroe Ficus on the sitcom Too Close for Comfort. During the same period, he was a regular guest on John Davidson's updated version of Hollywood Squares and occasionally substituted for Davidson as host of that program. He also appeared as a semi-regular on Battlestars and made appearances on Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour and Body Language. From 1989 to 1990, he played Neal Tanner as a semi-regular on ALF. In 1989, he served as guest host of a special episode of Super Sloppy Double Dare, in which host Marc Summers and announcer Harvey competed against each other.

Among his film credits, Bullock played the narcoleptic Prince Valium in Mel Brooks's 1987 film Spaceballs and appeared in a dating montage sequence at the opening of the 2001 film Kissing Jessica Stein. He provided the voice of Queer Duck in the animated series of the same name, which aired on both the internet and the cable network Showtime. In 2000, he was a regular panelist on the revival of the game show I've Got a Secret. From 2004 to 2007, he held a recurring role as Mr. Monroe, a teacher at the fictional James K. Polk Middle School, on the Nickelodeon sitcom Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide.

Bullock co-hosted a syndicated talk show alongside former televangelist Tammy Faye Messner beginning in 1996. Messner departed the program after several months following a cancer diagnosis, and Bullock continued with a new co-host, Ann Abernathy, until the show was canceled.

His Broadway career spanned from 2002 to 2014 and included appearances in Hair, Hairspray, and Kinky Boots. He first performed the role of Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray on the national tour before bringing the character to Broadway beginning September 18, 2007. In July 2022, he appeared as George in the Hollywood Bowl production of Kinky Boots.

In 1985, while Too Close for Comfort was being retooled as The Ted Knight Show, Bullock learned he was HIV positive. He made the diagnosis public eleven years later, in 1996, the same year his partner of six years, John Casey, died from complications related to the virus. Bullock has remained healthy as a long-term survivor, attributing his continued health in part to antiretroviral treatment. On February 17, 1999, he was arrested outside a bar in West Hollywood, California, on a charge of possession of crystal meth and was subsequently sentenced to probation.