William Moody
William Moody, who has died aged 58, was better known to wrestling fans as “Paul Bearer”, the white-faced, black-suited manager of some of World Wrestling Entertainment’s biggest stars.
William Moody as his alter ego, Paul Bearer
6:10PM BST 07 Apr 2013
Working with more than 40 professional wrestlers over three decades, Moody, a qualified undertaker, assumed multiple identities. His career began in the ring, first under the name of “Mr X”, then as “The Embalmer” and finally “The Mortician”.
He soon realised, however, that he would prosper better outside the ropes than inside. Under the sobriquet Percival Pringle III, he acted as manager for several wrestling groups and, by the time he became Paul Bearer in 1990, had nearly 20 years’ experience in the business, even co-writing the manual, Inside Secrets on How to Enter the Exciting World of Pro Wrestling! (1989).
William Alvin Moody was born on April 10 1954 in Mobile, Alabama, the son of a railway worker. The family moved to Bogalusa, Louisiana when he was five, and he attended the Annunciation Catholic School there. On returning to Alabama aged 12, he went to Dominic’s Elementary School, and graduated from the McGill Institute in 1972.
Moody served for four years with the US Air Force and then worked part-time for Mobile’s Buddy’s Ambulance Service. In 1976 he became an apprentice funeral director and embalmer .
From childhood, Moody had been fascinated by wrestling, and from 1974 he wrestled professionally for various southern independent organisations. The birth of his son in 1979, however, curtailed his career. Looking for job security, Moody returned to his work as an undertaker and took a degree in Mortuary Science, emerging from San Antonio College as a qualified funeral director and embalmer.
The lure of the ring proved irresistible, and in 1985 he returned to wrestling. He worked with such artistes as “Ravishing” Rick Rude and The Assassin. But as Paul Bearer he became principally known as the histrionic mentor to a fighter called The Undertaker. The pair enthusiastically staged macabre stunts — on one occasion Paul Bearer arrived inside a red casket wheeled by men dressed as druids. He also carried an urn, said to be a source of power for The Undertaker .
Paul Bearer went on to manage Kane, conceived as the half-brother of The Undertaker and Paul Bearer’s son, but teamed up again with The Undertaker in 1998 to form the Ministry of Darkness.
In one “storyline”, Paul Bearer abducted another wrestler, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and tried to embalm him alive; in another, Moody’s character was sealed in a glass case and submerged in concrete, only to make a miraculous reappearance.
In 1998 Moody was named Manager of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine.
He married, in 1978, Dianna Lynn McDole. She died in 2009, and he is survived by two sons .
William Moody, born April 10 1954, died March 5 2013
