This undated photo released Wednesday, March 6, 2013, by WWE, Inc. shows William Moody, aka Paul Bearer, the pasty-faced, urn-carrying manager for performers The Undertaker and Kane. A spokesman for the wrestling circuit said Moody's family contacted the WWE to report his death on Tuesday, March 5, 2013. He was 58. No cause was released. (AP Photo/WWE Inc.)
March 06, 2013 - 2:57 PM
The WWE says William Moody, better known to pro wrestling fans as Paul Bearer, the pasty-faced, urn-carrying manager for performers The Undertaker and Kane, has died. He was 58.
A spokesman for the wrestling circuit said Moody's family contacted the WWE to report the death on Tuesday. No cause was released.
The WWE partly moulded Moody's character off his real-life job in the mortuary business.
After stints in minor-league wrestling promotions, Moody joined the WWE in 1990 and quickly became associated with The Undertaker, a character who claimed he was undead and impervious to pain.
In the WWE plotline, Paul Bearer later managed Undertaker's on-screen half brother Kane.
He was a fixture on WWE programming for more than a decade. His shrill catchphrase, "Ooohhh yeeesss!" and contorted facial expressions made him one of the sports-entertainment company's more popular personalities.
News from © The Associated Press, 2013