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Bill Daily (born August 30, 1927; Des Moines, Iowa) is an American comedian and dramatic actor, and a veteran of many television sitcoms. Daily`s father died when Bill was very young, and consequently he was raised by his mother and various other family members. In 1939, Daily and his family moved to Chicago, where he spent the rest of his youth. Upon high school graduation, Daily left home to try to carve out a life as a musician, playing bass with jazz bands in numerous clubs across the Midwest. Bill was drafted into the Army and served in Korea with an artillery unit. It was in his traveling-musician days that Daily found his true calling: comedy. He began to do stand-up in the same clubs he had once filled with music, and he soon moved up in the comedy ranks to the point where he was playing some of the bigger clubs in the country. After graduating from the Goodman Theatre School, Daily worked for the NBC television station in Chicago, WMAQ, as an announcer and floor manager. He eventually became a staff director. Daily recently recalled for PBS how one day, preparing for a Chicago-area Emmy Award telecast, he asked a young local comedian to come up with a routine about press agents. The bit, "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue," became an early hit for the performer—a young Bob Newhart.
For the two years that followed The Bob Newhart Show, Daily returned to stand-up, but in 1980, after years of making a living as a second banana, Daily was offered his own show. Called Small and Frye, the show featured Daily as a neurotic doctor; it lasted only three months before being canceled. In 1988, Daily tried his hand again at starring roles, this time as another doctor on the sitcom Starting From Scratch. It fared only mildly better than Frye, and was canceled after one season. Ironically, Daily`s most notable post-Newhart role was another supporting one, that of Larry the Psychiatrist on the cult favorite ALF (1986). During the 1980s-90s, Daily reprised his I Dream of Jeannie role of Roger Healey in two made-for-TV reunion movies: I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later (1985) and I Still Dream of Jeannie (1991). Also in 1991, he reprised the role of Howard Borden in "The Bob Newhart Show: 19th Anniversary", which aired in February of that year.
Daily was married to his wife Pat in the late 1940s. in 1976, Pat and Bill divorced. Daily has two adopted children, a son, Patrick, and a daughter, Kimberley. His son is a key grip and stunt pilot in Hollywood and daughter is a teacher in Colorado. He married again in the late 1970s to Vivian Sanchez, with whom he traveled on the road performing "Lover`s Leap" for two years. He later divorced her. In 1993 he married Becky, with whom he currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Though retired, he still does some comedy and the occasional TV guest appearances.
Biography Credit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Daily
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