Biography
Gangly American character actor William Sanderson has done all right by himself in "Bubba" roles. He was seen in such bucolic characterizations as Lee Dollarhide in
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), Sleets in
Rocketeer (1989), Zeke in
Wagons East (1994), and Lippy in the first two
Lonesome Dove TV miniseries. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s as one-third of the backwoods trio Larry, Daryl and Daryl on the TV sitcom
Newhart (1982-90); Sanderson was Larry, the interpreter for his two tight-lipped, dull-witted siblings. Despite the illusion created by his specialty, Sanderson is no hayseed. Following his military discharge, Sanderson graduated from Memphis State University and after that became a law student until the acting bug bit and led him to drop out of school to launch a successful theater career in New York; Sanderson moved into television and feature films. As a change of pace, William Sanderson was heard as urbane, authoritative robotmaster Karl Rossum in the daily Fox TV Network attraction Batman: The Animated Series (1992). In 1998, William Sanderson co-starred opposite
Beau Bridges in the satirical television series
Maximum Bob. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide