William Gerald Paris

William Gerald Paris, known as Jerry Paris (July 25, 1925 – March 31, 1986)

He was an actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he attended New York University and the Actors Studio in New York City. After graduating, Paris moved to Los Angeles, he attended UCLA and studied acting at the Actors Lab in Hollywood. Paris had roles in films such as The Caine Mutiny, The Wild One and Marty. He also played Martin "Marty" Flaherty, one of Eliot Ness' men in a recurring role in the first season of ABC-TV's The Untouchables, besides making guest appearances on other television series. After having directed some episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show in which he also played the recurring character of next-door neighbor and dentist Jerry Helper, Paris won an Emmy Award in the 1963-64 season for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy for the series. He later devoted himself to directing both in film and television, including The Partridge Family and Here's Lucy. Paris also directed Laverne & Shirley as well as episodes of The Odd Couple, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Ted Knight Show and Blansky's Beauties. He returned to directing feature films in 1985's Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment and 1986's Police Academy 3: Back in Training. In all, he is credited with directing episodes of 57 TV titles and as an actor in 105 titles. Paris was married from 1954 until his wife's death in 1980, and had 3 children.

On March 18, 1986, Paris was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where doctors discovered he had a brain tumor. He underwent two surgeries but doctors were unable to remove the tumor. Paris remained hospitalized until his death on March 31 at the age of 60.