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Known for:	Charlotte's Web, Send Me No Flowers, Bye Bye Birdie
Birth name:	Paul Edward Lynde
Birthday:	13 June 1926, Mount Vernon, Ohio, USA
Height:	5' 11" (1.80 m)

Attended Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). Posthumously "outed" by Boze Hadleigh, who has written extensively about previously closeted Hollywood actors/actresses. The coroner who examined his body said he had the heart of an eighty-eight year old man. Told his agent shortly before his death that he had given up cigarettes and alcohol. Long-time "center square" and court jester in residence on the original "Hollywood Squares", Paul Lynde's quips on that show are still quoted, and laughed at, to this day. A fan once set up a museum full of Paul Lynde memorabilia in his home town on Mount Vernon, Ohio His older brother Cordon died in World War 2 In 1965, his longtime companion, John, accidentally fell to his death out of Lynde's hotel room window. They are buried next to each other in Amity Cemetary in Ohio. Lynde left Hollywood Squares in 1979, in a dispute over his salary. When tabloids ran stories claiming he had been fired for his drinking as well as on-set problems, he sued them for libel, seeking $10 million in damages. Explained his lifelong bachelorhood to fans (in the days before "coming out") by telling them his high-school sweetheart had broken his heart, and he was still too hurt to give other women a chance. His classmates at Northwestern University included Cloris Leachman, Charlotte Rae, Charlton Heston, Martha Hyer, Patricia Neal and Agnes Nixon. He had a weight problem that he fought to control his entire life. When he first went to New York, he lived in an apartment building that housed many other struggling actors. The building had communal kitchens, kitchens shared by all the tenants of a floor. One of the other actors in the building claimed that Lynde used to steal his food from the refrigerator. That actor was a young Marlon Brando. The song he sang about appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in the musical play "Bye Bye, Birdie" he got to sing on "The Ed Sullivan Show"! In "Center Square: The Paul Lynde Story," biographers Steve Wilson and Joe Florenski lay to rest rumors that there was something odd about Lynde's death at the age of 55. Dismissing such rumors that the comedian was murdered by a hustler who robbed Lynde's house and left him dead and naked, the authors say that Lynde did die of a heart attack, as the coroner's report contended he did. Lynde expired at almost the same age as his father, who also died from a heart attack. The authors express surprise that Lynde didn't have a heart attack sooner, what with his transgressive lifestyle. Lynde was heavily into alcohol, and also used drugs. He claimed to have quit these habits cold-turkey not long before his death, having been transformed by a personal event that he never revealed. The sign proclaiming Mount Vernon, Ohio, as the birthplace of Paul Lynde was recently changed to read: "Home of Daniel Decatur Emmett, Author of [the song] 'Dixie.'" Lynde and long-term companion, Bing Davidson were staying at the Drake hotel in San Francisco, California on July 17, 1965. The two went out the next day for a good time and got very drunk. Davidson decided to show Lynde a trick and dangled off the hotel balcony by his fingers. He was slipping and Paul desperately tried to help him in but Davidson fell to his death. They are buried next to each other in Amity Cemetery in Ohio.

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