Earl Hindman - Home Improvement Wilson

Earl John Hindman (October 3, 1942Â â€" December 29, 2003) was an American film and television actor, best known for his role as the kindly unseen neighbor Wilson W. Wilson, Jr. on the television sitcom Home Improvement (1991â€"1999).

Long before this role, however, he played villains in two 1974 thrillers, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The Parallax View. He also appeared in the films Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name? (1971), Greased Lightning (1977), The Brink's Job (1978) and Taps (1981), and played the part of J.T. in the Lawrence Kasdan film Silverado (1985).

Hindman's most famous and enduring pre-Home Improvement role was as Bob Reid in Ryan's Hope. He played the role in 459 episodes during the years 1975â€"1989. Ex-police officer Bob Reid was everybody's best friend who never got the girl, and was the long-suffering brother of the soap's serial bride Delia Reid Ryan Ryan Coleridge. Hindman's wife (Molly McGreevey) was also on the soap 1977â€"1981 as Polly Longworth, best friend to media tycoon Rae Woodard.

His voice has also been heard on the Disneyland Railroad since 2002.

Personal life and death

Hindman was born in Bisbee, Arizona, the son of Eula and Burl Latney Hindman, who worked in the oil pipeline business. He studied acting at the University of Arizona.

On May 21, 1976, Hindman married Molly McGreevey, with whom he later acted on Ryan's Hope. McGreevey later became an Episcopal priest.

A longtime smoker, Hindman was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2003, and died of the disease on December 29 of that year, aged 61 in Stamford, Connecticut, where he was buried in Roxbury Cemetery. In addition to his wife, he was survived by a brother, Ray, a sister, Anna Dean Shields, and his mother Eula Hindman (1916-2011).