John O'Hurley

John O'Hurley
O'Hurley in 2023
Born	John George O'Hurley Jr. (1954-10-09) October 9, 1954 (age 70) Kittery, Maine, U.S.
Education	Kingswood-Oxford School[1]
Alma mater	Providence College
Occupations	Actor comedian singer author game show host television personality
Years active	1982–present
Height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)[2]
Spouses	Eva LaRue ​ ​ (m. 1992; div. 1994)​ Lisa Mesloh ​ (m. 2004)​
Children	1
Website	www.johnohurley.com

John George O'Hurley Jr. (born October 9, 1954) is an American actor, comedian, singer, author, game show host, and television personality. He is known for his portrayal of J. Peterman on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, his voice acting as the original King Neptune on SpongeBob SquarePants, and for hosting the game show Family Feud from 2006 to 2010. O'Hurley also hosted To Tell the Truth from 2000 to 2002 in syndication.

Early life

O'Hurley was born in Kittery, Maine, the son of Jean (February 14, 1930 – February 9, 2017), a housewife, and John George O'Hurley (January 18, 1928 – February 1, 2020), an ear, nose, and throat surgeon.^[3] O'Hurley attended Natick High School in Natick, Massachusetts, and Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, Connecticut, but moved to DuBois, Pennsylvania, in ninth grade. He attended Cardinal Gibbons High School senior year, and graduated in 1972.^[4] O'Hurley graduated from Providence College in 1976 with a BA in Theatre. O'Hurley performs charitable work for the Epilepsy Foundation due to the fact that his older sister, Carol O'Hurley, died in 1970 at the age of 17 due to epileptic seizures.^[5]

Career

Seinfeld

On Seinfeld, O'Hurley played J. Peterman, a fictionalized version of catalog-company entrepreneur John Peterman, from 1995 until the show's end in 1998. O'Hurley invested in the relaunch of The J. Peterman Company, and since 1999 has been a part-owner and member of the board of directors.^[6][7]

Dancing with the Stars

O'Hurley was a contestant on the first season of the television show Dancing with the Stars, which aired during mid-2005. O'Hurley and his dance partner Charlotte Jørgensen made it to the final competition, which they lost to ABC soap opera star Kelly Monaco.

After fans alleged that Monaco's victory was a set-up, the network announced that O'Hurley, Monaco and their professional dancing partners would face off in a special "grudge match" episode broadcast September 20, 2005. Unlike the first episode, viewer vote solely determined the outcome as opposed to a combination between the three professional judges and the viewer votes.

O'Hurley and Jørgensen emerged as the winners. The rematch earned $126,000 for Golfers Against Cancer charity. Afterward the duo produced a dance instruction video called, "Learn to Dance with John and Charlotte".

Week #	Dance / Song	Judges' score			Result
		Inaba	Goodman	Tonioli
1	Cha-Cha-Cha/ "September"	7	7	6	No Elimination
2	Quickstep / "Let's Face the Music and Dance"	8	9	9	Safe
3	Tango / "Dance with Me"	9	8	7	Safe
4	Samba / "Just the Two of Us"	7	8	6	Bottom Two
	Viennese Waltz / "I Got You Babe"	No scores given
5 Semi-finals	Foxtrot / "Let There Be Love"	9	9	9	Safe
	Pasodoble / "Bamboléo"	9	9	9
6 Finals	Quickstep / "Let's Face the Music and Dance"	9	9	9	Runner-up
	Freestyle / "I'm So Excited"	9	9	9
7 Dance-Off	Rumba / "The Look of Love"	7	8	7	Winner
	Waltz / "You Light Up My Life"	10	10	10
	Freestyle / "I Am What I Am"	8	8	9

Other roles

O'Hurley in a golf tournament in July 2008

O'Hurley made two guest appearances on Baywatch in 1992 and 1994, in two different roles. The first was as villainous yacht club president Fred Adler in "Masquerade," and again as a grieving father named Bill in "Red Wind." In 2003, he played the role of Roger Heidecker on the UPN television series The Mullets.^[8]

O'Hurley returned to the Baywatch universe in a 1995 Baywatch Nights episode "Bad Blades," playing the villainous Kemp, in a roller hockey themed episode. He also co-starred on the short-lived sitcom A Whole New Ballgame, had a role as Ralph Stafford on the Murder She Wrote episode "Nailed", and guest-starred in an episode of Drake & Josh.^[9]

O'Hurley has been the host of Purina's annual National Dog Show every Thanksgiving since 2002.^[10]

In March 2007, O'Hurley took the lead role in the Wynn Las Vegas's production of Spamalot, in which he plays King Arthur.^{[citation needed]} In July 2008, O'Hurley reprised his role as King Arthur in the Los Angeles production of Spamalot at the Ahmanson Theatre. In June 2013, he once again reprised the role of King Arthur in Spamalot at The Muny Theater in St. Louis, Missouri. O'Hurley starred on Broadway and on National Tour as Billy Flynn in Chicago. He has hosted the Mrs. America and Mrs. World Pageants.

O'Hurley is one of the guest speakers in the Candlelight Processional at Epcot in Walt Disney World. He is the voice of the owner of the Cow and Corset bar in the Fable II videogame for the Xbox 360. O'Hurley also replaced Frank Welker as the "Phantom Blot" for Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse.^[11] He has also provided the voice of King Neptune XIV on SpongeBob SquarePants and done voice-over work for radio stations, including WBEN-FM in Philadelphia, KPKX in Phoenix (as "Jim Peakerman"), KMAX in San Francisco (as "J.J. Maxwell"), and WARH in St. Louis (as "Simon Archer"). O'Hurley is also the voice of Coors Light commercials for more than 10 years.

O'Hurley guest-starred in an episode of The Emperor's New School called "Malina's Big Break", in 1999 as a cult leader in the Family Guy episode "Chitty Chitty Death Bang", and in 2010, guest-starred on Wizards of Waverly Place as Captain Jim-Bob Sherwood.^{[citation needed]}

From 2008 to 2015, O'Hurley voiced Mayor Roger Doofenshmirtz, Heinz Doofenshmirtz's brother, in Phineas and Ferb. He also played in the award-winning 2000x dramatic series produced by the Hollywood Theater of the Ear for National Public Radio.

O'Hurley was a guest star on multiple episodes of the soap opera All My Children during its last month on ABC, in September 2011, playing Kit Sterling, a producer who approaches Erica Kane to make a movie based on the new book she has just written.^[12][13] O'Hurley previously appeared as Dr. James R. Grainger on The Young and the Restless from 1989-90, and acted in the soap opera Loving as Keith Lane / Jonathan Matalaine.

In 2015, O'Hurley had a recurring role as Dr. Christopher Neff on Devious Maids. He also provided the voice for Victor the Villain on the children's animated TV series Wallykazam!.

Game show host

From 2000 to 2002, O'Hurley hosted a revival of To Tell the Truth. In 2004, he hosted the limited-run game show The Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee. On September 11, 2006, he replaced Richard Karn as the fifth individual to host Family Feud. O'Hurley hosted the show for four seasons, before leaving the show at the beginning of 2010. He was replaced by fellow comedian and film star Steve Harvey. In a 2017 interview with Fox News, O'Hurley agreed that the show became less family-friendly and admitted that as one of the reasons for leaving. He went on to explain:

I got tired of people writing to me saying: 'I can't watch your show. It's a misnomer calling it that because, it's not family. It feels like everything became a penis joke' and I got a little tired of that. I just felt that there are other ways to be more interesting on television and always trying to push that style of family entertainment. I had a great time doing it, but it was time to move on.^[14]

Personal life

O'Hurley is a self-taught pianist and classically trained vocalist, and has been composing since his teen years. In 2004, in tandem with cellist Marston Smith, he released a two-album project entitled Peace of Our Minds, a compilation of his original piano compositions. The piece "For Lisa" was written for O'Hurley's wife for their wedding day in 2004. O'Hurley was featured on the March/April 2009 cover of Making Music magazine.^[15]

O'Hurley was married to Eva LaRue from 1992 to 1994.^[16] Since August 14, 2004, he has been married to Lisa Mesloh.^[17] Together they have a son.^[17]

In May 2011, O'Hurley received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.^[18]

O'Hurley identifies politically as a conservative,^[19] and is a longtime fan of the Boston Red Sox.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Billy the Kid	Dolan	Television film
1991	White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd	Pat DiCicco	Television film
	Night Eyes 2	Detective Turner
1995	The Power Within	Lt. Cabrell	Direct-to-video
1997	The Killing Secret	Ted Dunleavy	Television film
	Murder Live!	Hal Damon	Television film
1998	Tempting Fate	Stewart	Television film
1999	Love Stinks	Walter Drooz
2001	Race to Space	Barnett, PR Official
2002	Teddy Bears' Picnic	Earle Hansen
	Buying the Cow	Tim "Timbo" Chadway
	Tarzan & Jane	Johannes Niels (voice)	Direct-to-video
2006	Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen	Kringle (voice)	Direct-to-video
2008	An American Carol	Silvano
2010	High School	Drug PSA (voice)
2011	Beethoven's Christmas Adventure	Mr. Rexford	Direct-to-video
2013	Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright	The Great Pauldini (voice)	Direct-to-video
2014	Christian Mingle	Donny De Bona
2015	The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!	Mr. Slate (voice)	Direct-to-video
2016	Swing Away	Glenn
2019	7 Days in Vegas	Walter
2020	Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe	Mayor Roger Doofenshmirtz (voice)	Streaming film
	Charlie's Christmas Wish	God (voice)	Post-production
	Christmas in New England	Mr. Trowel	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983–84	The Edge of Night	Greg Schaeffer
1984–86	Loving	Keith Lane, Jonathan Matalaine
1988	As the World Turns	Douglas Prescott
	Something Is Out There	Remar	Miniseries
1989	Heartbeat	James Thompson	Episode: "Gestalt and Battery"
1990	The Young and the Restless	Dr. James Grainger	3 episodes
1990–91	Santa Barbara	Stephen Slade	75 episodes
1991	Nurses	Dave Grady	Episode: "Coming to America"
1992	General Hospital	Greg Bennett
	Scorch	Howard Gurman	6 episodes
1992–94	Baywatch	Fred Adler, Bill Cooper	2 episodes
1993–94	Silk Stalkings	Dan Borson, Dr. Scott Waverly	2 episodes
1994	Thunder in Paradise	Bryden Chubshaw	Episode: "Changing of the Guard"
	Valley of the Dolls	Allen Cooper	65 episodes
	Frasier	Thomas Jay Fallow	Episode: "Slow Tango in South Seattle"
1995	Sisters	Pizza Guy	Episode: "No Pain, No Gain"
	Platypus Man	Rance	Episode: "Lou's the Boss"
	Pig Sty	Rance Erik St. Damian	Episode: "Party!!!"
	A Whole New Ballgame	Tad Sherman	7 episodes
	Murder, She Wrote	Ralph Stafford	Episode: "Nailed"
	Living Single	Jean Luc Gerard	Episode: "Rags to Riches"
	Baywatch Nights	Kemp	Episode: "Bad Blades"
1995–98	Seinfeld	J. Peterman	20 episodes
1996	Ned and Stacey	Kyle Roberts	Episode: "Promotional Rescue"
	Melrose Place	John Marshall	Episode: "The Bobby Trap"
	Coach	Dr. Salters	Episode: "Quarantine"
	Weird Science	Mr. President	Episode: "Lisarella"
	Mad About You	Dr. VonDerphal	Episode: "Dr. Wonderful"
	Boy Meets World	Cal, Grant	2 episodes
1997	Over the Top	Robert McSwain	11 episodes
	Life with Roger	Dr. Noble	Episode: "The Apartment"
	Lost on Earth	Brand Shaw	1 episode
	Men Behaving Badly	Johnny on TV Show (voice)	Episode: "Playing Doctor"
	Temporarily Yours	Dulles Lee	Episode: "Temp-tation"
	Something So Right	David	Episode: "Something About New Beds and Old Friends"
	Smart Guy	Hugh Sterling	Episode: "A Little Knowledge"
	101 Dalmatians: The Series	Director (voice)	Episode: "Swing Song/Watching for Falling Idols"
	The X-Files	Dr. Pollidori	Episode: "The Post-Modern Prometheus"
1998	Style & Substance	Mr. Ferber	Episode: "The Boss and Other Disasters"
	Diagnosis: Murder	David Coopersmith	Episode: "Rain of Terror"
	Damon	Woody Woodson	Episode: "The Actor"
	Ellen	Announcer #2	Episode: "Ellen: A Hollywood Tribute: Part I"
	The Angry Beavers	Snooty Narrator (voice)	2 episodes
	The Lionhearts	Additional voices	Episode: "The Poem"
	Hercules	King Cinyras (voice)	2 episodes
1999	Sunset Beach	Pete	1 episode
	Family Guy	Cult Leader (voice)	Episode: "Chitty Chitty Death Bang"
	Mickey Mouse Works	Phantom Blot (voice)	1 episode
	For Your Love	Roger Bakely	Episode: "The Couple's Court"
2000	Hey Arnold!	Councilman Gladhand (voice)	Episode: "Helga's Masquerade/Mr. Green Runs"
	The Weber Show	Mr. Bill Erlicht	3 episodes
	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	King Nova (voice)	5 episodes
2000–02	To Tell the Truth	Himself/host
2000–2018	SpongeBob SquarePants	King Neptune (voice)	4 episodes
2001	Lloyd in Space	Brock Rockman (voice)	Episode: "The Hero of Urbit-Knarr"
	Son of the Beach	Dr. Merlot	Episode: "The Island of Dr. Merlot"
2001–03	The Legend of Tarzan	Johannes Niels (voice)	2 episodes
2002-04	Teamo Supremo	Captain Excellent (voice)	3 episodes
2002	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Professor Beltran	Episode: "Guilty!"
	Kim Possible	King Wallace II, Ancient King (voices)	Episode: "Royal Pain"
	House of Mouse	Phantom Blot (voice)	2 episodes
2003	Odd Job Jack	Dr. Renfield (voice)	Episode: "Fatal Extraction"
	Stripperella	Fireman, Skip Withers (voices)	2 episodes
2003–04	The Mullets	Roger Heidecker	11 episodes
2003–05	What's New, Scooby-Doo?	Beavis Bottomczek, Mayor Snipper (voices)	2 episodes
2003–05	Duck Dodgers	Captain Star Johnson (voice)	12 episodes
2004	Come to Papa	Anderson Miller	Episode: "The Salad"
	The Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee	Himself/host
	Quintuplets	Buck Reynolds	Episode: "Working It"
2004–05	Father of the Pride	Blake (voice)	4 episodes
2005	Drake & Josh	Dr. Carlson	Episode: "Paging Doctor Drake"
2006	Hope & Faith	Peter (voice)	Episode: "Charley Shoots Faith"
2006–10	Family Feud	Himself/host
2007	Higglytown Heroes	Uncle Zeke, Freight Train Conductor Hero (voices)	2 episodes
2008	The Emperor's New School	Editor of Inca Teen Magazine (voice)	Episode: "Malina's Big Break/Hotel Kuzco"
2008–present	Phineas and Ferb	Mayor Roger Doofenshmirtz/Rodrigo, Additional Voices	36 episodes
2010	Wizards of Waverly Place	Captain Jim Bob Sherwood	Episode: "Captain Jim Bob Sherwood"
	The Super Hero Squad Show	Grandmaster (voice)	Episode: "Whom Continuity Would Destroy!"
	Big Time Rush	Announcer (voice)	Episode: "Big Time Christmas: Part I"
2010–13	Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated	Skipper Shelton, Pirate Couple, Ska Zombie (voices)	8 episodes
2011	Retired at 35	Dan	Episode: "Rocket Man"
	Pair of Kings	Narrator	Episode: "King of Thieves"
	All My Children	Kit Sterling	5 episodes
2011–13	The Looney Tunes Show	Walter Bunny (voice)	6 episodes
2013	The Mentalist	Buddy Hennings	Episode: "Red Velvet Cupcakes"
2014	Wallykazam!	Victor the Villain (voice)	Episode: "Victor the Villain"
	Gravity Falls	Knight Lilliputian (voice)	Episode: "The Golf War"
2015	Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja	P.J. McFlubusters Manager (voice)	Episode: "McCluckerbusters"
	Devious Maids	Dr. Christopher Neff	7 episodes
	Moonbeam City	Vex Mullery (voice)	2 episodes
2016	American Dad	Dentyne Executive, Pilot (voices)	Episode: "Widow's Pique"
	Archer	Ellis Crane (voice)	3 episodes
	K.C. Undercover	Buck Marshall	Episode: "Spy of the Year Awards"
2017, 2019	The Lion Guard	Hadithi (voice)	3 episodes
2017	The Powerpuff Girls	Additional voices	Episode: "Memory Lane of Pain"
2018	Mickey Mouse	Additional voices	Episode: "The Fancy Gentleman"
2019	The Tramp	Chip Turner	1 episode
	Pawn Stars	Himself	Episode: "A Show About Nothing"
2020	That Totally Made Up Comedy Show	Network Executive
2023	The Patrick Star Show	King Neptune (voice)	Episode: "Neptune's Ball"
	Monster High	Hades Burns (voice)	Episode: "Best Fiends/Scareer Day"
2024	The Really Loud House	Prescott Moneygreen	Episode: "The Boyfriend Stays in the Picture"

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2003	SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom	King Neptune
2006	Family Guy Video Game!	Additional Voices
2008	Fable II	The Cow & Corset Owner
2010	Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet	Grandmaster
2010	SpongeBob's Boating Bash	Seymour Scales
2020	SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated	King Neptune (archival recordings)[20]
2023	SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake	King Neptune, Glovey Glove

Books

• It's Okay to Miss the Bed on the First Jump (2006) (New York Times best-seller)
• Before Your Dog Can Eat Your Homework, First You Have to Do It (2007)
• The Perfect Dog (2013)

Discography

• A medley (with Sarah Rice) of three songs ("You Found Me and I Found You," "Not Yet" and "Before I Met You") from the musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! on Ben Bagley's Jerome Kern Revisited, Vol. II, released 1990
• Peace of Our Minds (double-CD), released 2005
• Secrets from the Lake, released 2008

References

1. Lee, Myer. "Seinfeld's John O'Hurley appearing at Hartford Yard Goats game". Ct Insider.
2. JOHN O'HURLEY - Resume | Calliope West Artist Management
3. "John O'Hurley Biography (1956-)". FilmReference.com. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
4. Hirschman, Bill (2013-10-01). "John O'Hurley Comes "Home" To Broward With Bway Across Fort Lauderdale's Road Show Chicago | Florida Theater On Stage". Retrieved 2023-08-24.
5. "John O'Hurley Voices His Support for Epilepsy Education". www.brainandlife.org. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
6. Greenwald, John (August 12, 2001). "Peterman Reboots". Time. Archived from the original on 2011-11-20. Retrieved 2009-03-09. In fact, O'Hurley has since become a partner in Peterman's reborn company.
7. Grow, Kory (April 29, 2016). "How a 'Seinfeld' Joke Became a Reality". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2018-11-25. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
8. "The Mullets (2003–2004)". IMDb. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
9. "John O'Hurley - IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
10. "Meet John O'Hurley, Host of Philadelphia's National Dog Show". MainlineToday.com. November 18, 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-11-24. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
11. "Behind the Voice Actors - Voice Compare - Disney - Phantom Blot". BehindTheVoiceActors.com. Archived from the original on 2013-05-21. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
12. Kroll, Dan J. (July 31, 2011). "John O'Hurley to Play Short-Term AMC Story". SoapCentral.com. Archived from the original on 2023-05-04. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
13. "John O'Hurley". IMDb. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
14. John O'Hurley Talks About His Gig "The Standards", Reflects on Donald Trump and Why He Left 'Family Feud'. Fox News. April 4, 2017. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
15. Saunders, Jackie (March 9, 2003). "Features - John O' Hurley a Class Act". Making Music. Archived from the original on 2011-04-11. Retrieved 2011-02-18.
16. Finn, Natalie (January 24, 2014). "Eva LaRue's Husband Files for Divorce". E! Online. Archived from the original on 2014-01-25. Retrieved 2019-09-11.
17. Silverman, Steven M.; Alexander, Bryan (December 7, 2006). "Dancing with the Stars' John O'Hurley a First-Time Dad". People.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-27. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
18. "NECO Medalists Database". NECO.org. National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. Archived from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
19. Dana, Rebecca (May 21, 2014). "Why Game Show Hosts Vote Republican". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
20. Andrew [@Beta64Official] (29 February 2020). "According to the THQ guy I had show..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.

External links

• Official website
• John O'Hurley at IMDb
• John O'Hurley at the Internet Broadway Database
• John O'Hurley at Behind The Voice Actors

Media offices
Preceded by Alex Trebek 1990–1991	Host of To Tell the Truth 2000–2002	Succeeded by Anthony Anderson New version in 2015
Preceded by Richard Karn	Host of Family Feud 2006–2010	Succeeded by Steve Harvey
Awards and achievements
Preceded by new show	Dancing with the Stars (US) runner up Season 1 (Summer 2005 with Charlotte Jørgensen)	Succeeded by Jerry Rice & Anna Trebunskaya