He appeared in one of the biggest sitcoms of the 1990s.
He played a major supporting role starring Tim Allen from 1991 until the series’ successful finale in 1999.
This actor has also had a varied career that included a several-year stint hosting a popular game show in the 2000s.
And he had a professional resurgence starting in 2019 with a recurring role on the acclaimed Hulu series Pen15.
Can you name this veteran film and television actor?
He starred in one of the biggest sitcoms of the ’90s, became the fourth host of Family Feud, and had a late-career revival on Hulu’s PEN15. Do you know who he is?
This is film and television actor Richard Karn, 68, best known for co-starring with Tim Allen (right) in the ratings juggernaut Home Improvement (pictured) from 1991 to 1999.
It’s Richard Karn, 68, best known for playing Tim Allen’s faithful sidekick on his classic ’90s sitcom, Home Improvement.
Karn was photographed with his wife Tudi Roche earlier this month while they went shopping in Los Angeles.
The actor was dressed casually in a speckled blue and red gold short-sleeved golf shirt, along with navy blue shorts and gray sneakers.
She looked significantly different from her ’90s heyday. Karn had slimmed down, a departure from her more vigorous figure on Home Improvement, but it was her mostly white beard and gray hair that made her look strikingly different from her Home Improvement character. for home.
He played Al Borland, the co-host of the show within a show, Tool Time, a fictional home improvement series hosted by Allen’s character, Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor.
Al was the least telegenic of the duo, but he was also the true tool and construction expert, rather than Tim.
Karn had an immediately identifiable uniform for the series: a sort of plaid flannel shirt and a bushy beard that was sometimes the butt of Allen’s jokes.
The actor began as a recurring character on the series after replacing Groundhog Day actor Stephen Tobolowsky, who had to drop out after filming the pilot episode conflicted with a film project he was working on.
Even though Karn was a replacement, he proved to be a hit with viewers and the second season of Home Improvement promoted him to the main cast.
Karn was wearing a red and blue golf shirt and navy shorts with gray sneakers. He had slimmed down from his stocky ’90s figure, but his white beard and gray hair made him look unrecognizable compared to the thick, dark hair he sported in Home Improvement.
He played Al Borland, who was the less prominent co-host of Tim Allen’s Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor.
Al, who also wore plaid flannel shirts and sported his thick beard, was a lovable but less telegenic square than Tim, even though he was the real tool expert.
Following the conclusion of Home Improvement after eight seasons in 1999, Karn took over as the fourth solo host of Family Feud in 2002.
He left the series in 2006, when Seinfeld actor John O’Hurley replaced him.
He later hosted another game show, Bingo America, from 2008 to 2009, and remained a sought-after guest star on television.
Karn had one of his biggest roles in years beginning in 2019, when he began appearing in the critically adored Hulu comedy series PEN15.
The series was created by its writers and stars, Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, who played fictional versions of themselves starting at age 13.
Both women were in their early 30s, which created a surreally hilarious contrast to the rest of the age-appropriate child actors that populated their high school.
Karn appeared in several episodes as Maya’s father, a struggling cover band drummer who was often on tour and away from home. (Actually, Erskine’s father is respected jazz drummer and former Weather Report member Peter Erskine.)
In 2021, the creators and stars announced that the show’s second season would be its last.
He had a professional resurgence with a major recurring role on Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine’s acclaimed Hulu comedy PEN15. He played Erskine’s father (R)
Karn later hosted Family Feud from 2002 to 2006, reuniting with Tim Allen in 2021 on the home repair competition Assembly Required, then in 2022 on the tool-themed series More Power; photographed in 2017 in Burbank, California.
That year, Karn reunited with Allen for the pandemic-era Home Improvement-inspired series Assembly Required, which was a home repair competition.
The two hosted with April Wilkerson, and she joined them again in 2022 for the More Power series, which featured the three tracing the evolution from classic tools to some of the newest tech-inspired gadgets out there.
Although Karn has appeared in supporting roles in several films, he did not appear in his first move until 1998’s Legend Of The Mummy, although he has worked steadily in film since then.
Last year, Karn appeared in two episodes of the revived series Beyond Belief, hosted by Jonathan Frakes, and has several low-budget movies and shows on the horizon.