Education
University of Michigan.
University of Michigan.
He has been in films such as Mr. Saturday Night, Quiz Show, Searching for Bobby Fischer, City Slickers, Crazy People, State and Main, Payback, Get Shorty, Carpool, The American President, Ocean"s Thirteen, and Drag Maine to Hell. He played the lead role as the Boss in Bartleby, an adaptation of Herman Melville"s "Bartleby, the Scrivener." He played a mob boss in the television series Lincolnshire of Fire.
Paymer"s acting career began in 1979 with the film The In-Laws.
Paymer has appeared in over 90 films in his career. He has also appeared in many popular television shows, including Taxi, Happy Days, Los Angeles Law, Ghost Whisperer, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Entourage.
He has had recurring roles on Cheers, Murphy Brown, and The Larry Sanders Show. He has also appeared in such films as Amistad, City Hall, Robert F. Kennedy, and Into the West.
Paymer has also dabbled into the world of animation, lending his voice to the character "Sheldon" in the Kids" World Bank cartoon series Channel Umptee-3 and in Balto 3: Wings of Change as neurotic Welsh Terrier Mel.
Paymer has directed episodes of several popular television series, including Gilmore Girls, Grey"s Anatomy, One Tree Hill, Melrose Place, Everwood, Brothers & Sisters, and Bunheads. He also appears in a cameo for an American Telephone & Telegraph Company commercial in 2011.