If you grew up watching wrestling in the 90s, you remember the voice. It was a shrill, high-pitched wail that felt like it was vibrating off the walls of a funeral home. "Ohhh yesss!" It belonged to a man with pasty white skin, jet-black hair, and a brass urn held tightly against his chest. Most people knew him as Paul Bearer, the ghoulish keeper of The Undertaker. But the man behind the makeup was William Moody, and his path to WWE stardom was far stranger—and more authentic—than the scripts ever let on.
Most wrestling gimmicks are pure fiction. You’ve got guys pretending to be garbage men, tax collectors, or space travelers. Moody was different. He wasn't just playing an undertaker's assistant; he was a licensed mortician in real life. Honestly, that’s the part that still blows people's minds. He actually knew how to embalm a body. He understood the industry of death before he ever stepped into a WWE ring.
The Mortician Who Found His Way to the Ring
William Alvin Moody was born in 1954 in Mobile, Alabama. He wasn't some muscle-bound athlete looking for a payday. He was a kid who was legitimately fascinated by the funeral business and professional wrestling in equal measure. He used to tell stories about how he’d hold funerals for dead birds and squirrels in his backyard. Kinda morbid? Maybe. But it was the foundation of a career that would span decades.
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After a stint in the Air Force, he went to school for mortuary science. He graduated and became a licensed funeral director. But the wrestling bug never left him. In the late 70s and 80s, he started working the territories under the name Percival "Percy" Pringle III. If you look up old tapes of Percy Pringle, you won’t see the ghost-white Paul Bearer. Instead, you’ll see a flamboyant, blonde-haired manager who looked like he’d be more at home at a disco than a graveyard.
He was good. Really good. He managed future legends like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (when he was still Steve Williams), Rick Rude, and Lex Luger. But by 1990, the territory system was dying. Moody was ready to pack it in and go back to the funeral home full-time. He thought his time in the spotlight was done.
How a Job Interview Changed WWE History
The story of how William Moody became Paul Bearer is the stuff of wrestling legend. Rick Rude, who was already in WWE, told Vince McMahon that he needed to check out this guy Percy Pringle. McMahon was looking for a new manager for his new "Deadman" character, The Undertaker.
During the interview, McMahon, Pat Patterson, and J.J. Dillon were going over Moody's resume. They saw the wrestling history, but then they hit the "Education" section.
McMahon stopped. He looked at Moody.
"You're a real-life mortician?"
When Moody said yes, Vince reportedly lost it. He started doing that famous, booming laugh of his. It was a match made in heaven—or maybe the other place. The name "Paul Bearer" was a pun on "pallbearer," and within weeks, Moody was dyeing his hair black and putting on the white face paint.
Behind the Urn: The Man Everyone Loved
In the ring, he was a creepy, backstabbing villain. Outside the ring, everyone called him "Uncle Paul."
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a single person in the wrestling business with a bad word to say about Bill Moody. He was the locker room’s emotional glue. Mick Foley used to talk about how Moody would baby-sit his kids. He was a family man who took his real-life role as a father as seriously as any main event.
There was a genuine bond between him and Mark Calaway (The Undertaker). It wasn't just for the cameras. Moody helped Calaway develop the nuances of the Undertaker character. Because he was a real mortician, he could suggest specific terminology or "death-related" mannerisms that made the gimmick feel grounded in reality. The chemistry was so perfect that they stayed together for years, even through the complicated "Brothers of Destruction" storyline involving Kane.
The Struggles Nobody Saw
It wasn't all "Ohhh yesss" and championship belts. Moody struggled with his health for a long time. His weight became a serious issue, reaching over 500 pounds at one point. It got so bad that he feared he wouldn't live to see his grandkids grow up.
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WWE actually stepped in and paid for his gastric bypass surgery in the early 2000s. It was a rare moment where the company showed genuine care for a veteran’s well-being outside of the ring. It saved his life, or at least gave him another decade. He was able to return for a few more runs, even being part of the legendary feud where he was "buried" in concrete (it was actually oatmeal, but don't tell the kids).
What We Get Wrong About His Legacy
People often think of Paul Bearer as just a sidekick. That’s a mistake. He was the mouth for a character that didn't talk. Without Moody, The Undertaker might have just been another "monster of the month" that fans got bored of after a year. Moody gave the character a mythos. He turned a wrestling match into a gothic soap opera.
He also had the range to play a tragic father figure. When the Kane storyline started in 1997, Moody shifted from being the loyal servant to a manipulative, secret-keeping father. He was the one who revealed the "fire" that burned down the family funeral home. He brought a level of Shakespearean drama to a show that was mostly about guys hitting each other with chairs.
The Final Curtain
William Moody passed away on March 5, 2013, at the age of 58. The cause was a heart attack brought on by a blood clot. Just days before, he had been at a wrestling convention, still meeting fans and doing that iconic voice.
His induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014 was one of the most emotional segments in the show's history. Seeing The Undertaker come out to pay tribute to his real-life friend, staying in character while clearly being moved, showed just how much Moody meant to the industry.
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Actionable Takeaways for Fans and Historians
If you want to truly appreciate the work of William Moody, there are a few things you should do:
- Watch the early Percy Pringle promos: You can find them on YouTube or the WWE Network. It’s wild to see the man who became Paul Bearer acting like a high-energy, bleach-blonde motormouth. It shows his incredible range as a performer.
- Study the 1997 "Kane" reveal: Watch the weeks of promos leading up to the 1997 Badd Blood pay-per-view. Moody’s ability to tell a story through a microphone alone is a masterclass in wrestling psychology.
- Acknowledge the "Real" in the "Fake": Remember that his authenticity came from his real-life education. He proved that the best characters in wrestling are often just the person themselves with the volume turned up to eleven.
William Moody was a man who lived two lives: one in the quiet, somber halls of funeral parlors, and another in the loudest, most chaotic arenas on Earth. He mastered both. And while the urn may be empty now, the shadow he cast over the wrestling world isn't going anywhere.