Richard Kline

Richard Kline is an American actor and television director born on April 29, 1944, in New York City. He grew up in Queens and was raised in a household that practiced Reform Judaism. Kline attended Queens College before earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater from Northwestern University. Following graduation, he served in the United States Army as a lieutenant during the Vietnam War.

After returning from military service, Kline pursued a career in theater and made his professional debut in 1971 as a member of the Lincoln Center Repertory Company. His regional theater work during this period included Chemin de Fer, performed in Chicago alongside actor Dennis Franz, as well as Death of a Salesman and Love's Labour's Lost. A classically trained singer, Kline made his Broadway debut in the 1989 musical City of Angels. His Broadway career, which spanned from 1971 to 2017, also encompassed productions including Mary Stuart, The Crucible, Twelfth Night, and Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Kline is perhaps most widely recognized for his television role as Larry Dallas, a used car salesman and best friend to John Ritter's character Jack Tripper, on the sitcom Three's Company. He appeared in 110 episodes of the series between 1977 and 1984 and reprised the character in both spin-off productions, The Ropers in 1979 and Three's a Crowd in 1985. Larry Dallas holds the distinction of being the only character other than Jack Tripper to appear across Three's Company and both of its spin-offs. Kline also took on recurring television roles as Richie in the later seasons of It's a Living and as Jeff Beznick in Noah Knows Best.

Beyond scripted television, Kline hosted two game show pilots: Jumble in 1988 and To Tell the Truth in 1990, the latter of which aired on the East Coast on September 3, 1990. The rights to that format were subsequently sold to NBC, where it was hosted by Gordon Elliott and later by Lynn Swann and Alex Trebek. In December 1988, Kline substituted for Charles Nelson Reilly as a guest panelist on Sweethearts for a week of episodes. His game show appearances as a celebrity contestant included The $25,000 Pyramid, The $100,000 Pyramid, Super Password, and multiple appearances on the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour.

In February 2010, Kline was cast as the Wizard in the first national tour of Wicked. The following year, in October 2011, he appeared in It Shoulda Been You, a production directed by David Hyde Pierce and starring Tyne Daly. In 2016, he appeared in the film Don't Think Twice, directed by and starring Mike Birbiglia. That same year, Kline reunited with Three's Company cast members Joyce DeWitt, Jenilee Harrison, and Priscilla Barnes at The Hollywood Show, an autograph and memorabilia event held in suburban Chicago in September 2016.

Kline played Kid Twist in the Paper Mill Playhouse world premiere production of The Sting, starring Harry Connick Jr., which ran from April 8 through April 29, 2018. In December 2018, he joined the national tour of the musical Waitress, continuing in that production through August 2019, before reprising the role in the Broadway cast in July 2019.