Biography
David Emmanuel Paymer (born August 30, 1954) is an American actor, comedian, and television director.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Bad Shabbos
2025
as Richard
An engaged interfaith couple are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner when an accidental manslaughter gets in the...

Mr. Saturday Night
2022
as Stan Yankleman
Billy Crystal stars—again—as Buddy Young, Jr. in this entertaining musical about an outrageous and outspoken comedian who has one last shot at reclaim...

The Sunlit Night
2020
as Levi
An aspiring painter meets eccentric locals and a fellow New Yorker while working on a barn in Norway.

Bad Therapy
2020
as Dr. Edward Kingsley
Married couple Bob and Susan Howard decide to see a marriage counselor named Judy Small, who appears trustworthy but harbors dark and conflicted impul...

Horse Girl
2020
as Doctor
A socially awkward woman with a fondness for arts and crafts, horses, and supernatural crime shows finds her increasingly lucid dreams trickling into ...

Where'd You Go, Bernadette
2019
as Jay Ross
When architect-turned-recluse Bernadette Fox goes missing prior to a family trip to Antarctica, her 15-year-old daughter Bee goes on a quest with Bern...

Fanboy
2019
as Angry Ice Cream Customer
A video store employee from South Carolina travels to Hollywood when he learns that his favorite director is holding auditions for his next big film.

Accident Man
2018
as Milton
Mike Fallon, the Accident Man, is a stone cold killer. When a loved one is murdered by his own crew, Fallon is forced to avenge the one person who ac...

Lemon
2017
as Dr. Gold
Isaac has seen better days. His acting career is tanking, his blind girlfriend of 10 years plans to leave him, and his own family singles him out as a...

The Pickle Recipe
2016
as Uncle Morty
Desperate for cash, a down on his luck party emcee is corrupted by his shameless uncle to steal his grandmother's top secret pickle recipe.

Two-Bit Waltz
2014
as The Lawyer
Suspension from school, the loss of a friend, a broken heart and lack of inspiration lead to Maude's downfall in this romp through teenage error. You...

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
2014
as Dixon Lewis
Jack Ryan, as a young covert CIA analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.

The Five-Year Engagement
2012
as Pete Solomon
Exactly one year after Tom meets Violet, he surprises her with a wedding ring. By all accounts, Tom and Violet are destined for their happily ever aft...

Twixt
2011
as Sam
A struggling horror writer visiting a small town on a book tour gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl. That night in a dream, he i...

Bad Teacher
2011
as Doctor Vogel
A lazy, incompetent middle school teacher who hates her job and her students is forced to return to her job to make enough money for a boob job after ...

Drag Me to Hell
2009
as Mr. Jacks
After denying a woman the extension she needs to keep her home, loan officer Christine Brown sees her once-promising life take a startling turn for th...

Redbelt
2008
as Richard
Is there room for principle in Los Angeles? Mike Terry teaches jujitsu and barely makes ends meet. His Brazilian wife, whose family promotes fights, w...

Resurrecting the Champ
2007
as Whitley
Up-and-coming sports reporter rescues a homeless man ("Champ") only to discover that he is, in fact, a boxing legend believed to have passed away. Wha...

Ocean's Thirteen
2007
as The V.U.P.
Danny Ocean's team of criminals are back and composing a plan more personal than ever. When ruthless casino owner Willy Bank doublecrosses Reuben Tish...

Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
2006
as Rafael Horowitz
Frank Keane, a baker by trade, has been consumed by grief over his wife's untimely death. But everything changes when he pulls his bread truck over on...

Warm Springs
2005
as Louis Howe
Franklin Roosevelt, left a paraplegic from polio at 39 years of age, seeks out a miracle cure in the backwoods of Georgia.

Checking Out
2005
as Ted Applebaum
A feisty octogenarian on the verge of his ninetieth birthday invites his three grown children to his upcoming birthday celebration with the explicit u...
Candor City Hospital
2005
Short film from David Paymer
Candor City Hospital
2005
Director
Short film from David Paymer

My Suicidal Sweetheart
2005
as Max Sr.
A suicidal comedy about two young lovers who get married and escape from a mental institution in search of new ways to die...and the white light.

School of Life
2005
as Matt Warner
At Fallbrook Middle School, the annual student-elected Teacher of the Year award is held. And every year for the last 43 years Norman Warner or most f...

In Good Company
2004
as Morty
Dan Foreman is a seasoned advertisement sales executive at a high-ranking publication when a corporate takeover results in him being placed under naiv...

Balto III: Wings of Change
2004
as Mel (voice)
Balto and the other sled dogs are feeling dejected because the mail that used to be delivered by dogsled is now being delivered by airplanes. But when...

Spartan
2004
as TV News Anchor (uncredited)
U.S. government agent Scott is assigned to rescue the daughter of a high-ranking government official. As willing as he is to bend the rules to get thi...

Alex & Emma
2003
as John Shaw
Writer Alex Sheldon must finish his novel within a month. If he doesn't, he won't get paid. And, if that happens, angry Mafia types to whom he owes mo...

The Burial Society
2002
as Morry Zimmer
In The Burial Society, Sheldon Kasner, an unlikely criminal who works as a bank loan manager, infiltrates the mysterious world of the Chevrah Kadisha ...

RFK
2002
as Dick Goodwin
Following the death of his brother John, Robert Kennedy is forced to rise to the challenge of leading his country and carrying on his brother's vision...

Joe and Max
2002
as Joe Jacobs
True story of boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling and their enduring friendship.

Focus
2001
as Mr. Finkelstein
In the waning months of World War II, a man and his wife are mistakenly identified as Jews by their anti-Semitic Brooklyn neighbors. Suddenly the vict...

The Wild Thornberrys: The Origin of Donnie
2001
as Male Rhinoceros Hornbill (voice)
Donnie goes missing and the rest of the Thornberry family have various adventures (broken bones, getting lost in a cave, and a forest fire) while look...

Bartleby
2001
as The Boss
An adaptation of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" told in the setting of a modern office.

For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story
2000
as Embassy interviewer
In the early 1970s, Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (Andy Garcia) is torn between his own musical dreams and the dreams of his wife, Marianela (MĂa Ma...

Bounce
2000
as Prosecuting Attorney Mandel (uncredited)
Buddy Amaral, a successful and self-absorbed Los Angeles advertising executive, switches airline tickets with a stranger just before boarding a long-d...

Enemies of Laughter
2000
as Paul
Nerdy-looking Paul is a neurotic, failed sitcom writer with a lackluster love life. But his best pal has an idea that might turn things around when he...

Bait
2000
as Agent Wooly
Landing in jail for a petty theft crime, Alvin finds himself sharing a cell with John Jaster, the incarcerated half of the pair of high-tech thieves r...

State and Main
2000
as Marty Rossen
A movie crew invades a small town whose residents are all too ready to give up their values for showbiz glitz.

Partners
2000
as Bob
After stealing a briefcase, a drifter finds himself caught in the middle of an international crime caper.
From Where I Sit
2000
as Bob
High school sex education teacher Sharon and her husband, overwhelmed family man Bob humorously deal with life's ups and downs in suburban Boston.

Mumford
1999
as Dr. Ernest Delbanco
When a would-be psychologist, curiously named Dr. Mumford, comes to the idyllic town of the same name and offers his talent for listening and a disarm...

The Hurricane
1999
as Myron Bedlock
The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

Chill Factor
1999
as Dr. Richard Long
A store clerk and an ice cream truck driver are thrown together when a dying scientist entrusts them with a deadly chemical kept in ice. This chemical...

Dash and Lilly
1999
as Arthur Kober
Biographical look at the bombastic love affair that writers Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman shared in 1940 and 50's Hollywood. Refusing to marry,...

Payback
1999
as Arthur Stegman
With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and lea...

Mighty Joe Young
1998
as Harry Ruben
As a child living in Africa, Jill Young saw her mother killed while protecting wild gorillas from poachers led by Andrei Strasser. Now an adult, Jill ...

Outside Ozona
1998
as Alan Defaux
A widowed trucker fends off isolation in the company of a dog named Girl, two bickering sisters try to reconcile their differences and a down-and-out ...

The Lesser Evil
1998
as George
Four best friends reunite in a remote cabin for the first time in two decades. They are not there to reminisce about the good old days, but rather, to...

Amistad
1997
as Secretary John Forsyth
In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are th...

Gang Related
1997
as Elliot Goff
Two corrupt cops have a successful, seemingly perfect money making scheme- they sell drugs that they seize from dealers, kill the dealers, and blame t...

The Long Way Home
1997
as (voice)
The story of the post World War II Jewish refugee situation from liberation to the establishment of the modern state of Israel.

The 6th Man
1997
as Coach Pederson
A college athlete returns from the dead to help his brother's basketball team win the NCAA title.

Crime of the Century
1996
as David Wilentz
In 1932, the nation was shocked when the 14-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped, held for ransom, and murdered. Two years later, Bruno Ri...

Carpool
1996
as Daniel Miller
A man with an important business meeting finds himself having to take care of the carpool for the neighborhood school children when his wife gets sick...

Unforgettable
1996
as Curtis Avery
Seattle medical examiner David Krane is obsessed with solving his wife's murder. A possible solution presents itself in an experimental "memory" serum...

City Hall
1996
as Abe Goodman
The accidental shooting of a boy in New York leads to an investigation by the Deputy Mayor, and unexpectedly far-reaching consequences.

Nixon
1995
as Ron Ziegler
A look at President Richard M. Nixon—a man carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders while battling the self-destructive demands from within—spa...

The American President
1995
as Leon Kodak
Widowed U.S. president Andrew Shepherd, one of the world's most powerful men, can have anything he wants -- and what he covets most is Sydney Ellen Wa...

Get Shorty
1995
as Leo Devoe
Chili Palmer is a Miami mobster who gets sent to L.A. to collect a bad debt from Harry Zimm, a Hollywood producer who specializes in cheesy horror fil...

Cagney & Lacey: Together Again
1995
as Deputy D.A. Feldberg
New York's toughest lady detectives re-team to solve the murder of a homeless transient who had been terrorizing the residents of a posh apartment bui...

In Search of Dr. Seuss
1994
as The Ad Man
A nosy reporter wants to find out all she can about Dr. Seuss, aka Ted Geisel, and gets told the real facts by several of his characters, with large s...

Cagney & Lacey: The Return
1994
as Deputy Dist. Atty. Feldberg
1994. Cagney, now a Lieutenant, re-teams with Lacey, who has left the force, to search for a cache of missing firearms.

Quiz Show
1994
as Dan Enright
Herbert Stempel's transformation into an unexpected television personality unfolds as he secures victory on the cherished American game show, 'Twenty-...

City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold
1994
as Ira Shalowitz
Mitch Robbins' 40th birthday begins quite well until he returns home and finds his brother Glen, the black sheep of the family, in his sofa. Neverthel...

Searching for Bobby Fischer
1993
as Kalev
A seven-year-old chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer.

Heart and Souls
1993
as Hal the Bus Driver
A fateful night in 1959, four people die when the bus they are riding crashes. They continue as ghosts; their souls become eternally entwined to the l...

Mr. Saturday Night
1992
as Stan
Buddy Young was the comic's comic, beloved by everyone. Now, playing to miniscule crowds in nursing homes, it seems like everybody but Buddy realizes ...

City Slickers
1991
as Ira Shalowitz
Three New York businessmen decide to take a "Wild West" vacation that turns out not to be the relaxing vacation they had envisioned.

Crazy People
1990
as George
A bitter ad executive, who has reached his breaking point, finds himself in a mental institution, where his career actually begins to thrive with the ...

Sky High
1990
Two midwestern farmboys inherit a vintage bi-plane and then learn to fly it from an eccentric former stunt pilot.

No Holds Barred
1989
as Unger
Rip is the World Wrestling Federation champion who is faithful to his fans and the network he wrestles for, but Brell, the new head of the World Telev...

The Absent-Minded Professor
1988
as Mr. Oliphant
Henry Crawford is the titular absent-minded professor busy at work in his laboratory. He has a girlfriend, but she is getting frustrated at his repeat...

Rock 'N Roll Mum
1988
as Boris
Dyan Cannon portrays Annie Hackett, an aspiring singer and suburban mother of two, who rocks and rolls her way through her household chores. When one ...

No Way Out
1987
as Technician
Navy Lt. Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell , and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretar...

Night of the Creeps
1986
as Young Scientist
In 1959, an alien experiment crashes to earth and infects a fraternity member. They freeze the body, but in the modern day, two geeks pledging a frate...

Howard the Duck
1986
as Larry, Scientist
A scientific experiment unknowingly brings extraterrestrial life forms to the Earth through a laser beam. First is the cigar-smoking drake, Howard, fr...

Pleasures
1986
as Stanley
Three related women have summer romances in this drama. The first has recently been deserted by her husband. When an old college beau shows up, sparks...

Love, Mary
1985
as David Lewis
A teen, who is always in trouble in school and has been sent to reform school, turns her life around when a counselor discovers she is dyslexic.

Perfect
1985
as Managing Editor
A female aerobics instructor meets a male reporter doing a story on health clubs, but it isn't love at first sight.

Irreconcilable Differences
1984
as Alan Sluiser
Alternating between the past and the present, a precocious little girl sues her selfish, career-driven parents for emancipation, surprising them both.

Best Defense
1984
as Kurly
An engineer fails to get the bugs out of a tank before an Army officer has to use it in Kuwait.

Her Life as a Man
1984
as Ted
To land a sportswriting job on a national magazine run by a chauvinistic editor, an aspiring female reporter convincingly disguises herself as a man t...

Grace Kelly
1983
as Jay Kanter
The fairy tale story of the actress who became a princess is told in this biography that traces her rise from Philadelphia socialite to Hollywood movi...

Airplane II: The Sequel
1982
as Court Photographer
A faulty computer causes a passenger space shuttle to head straight for the sun, and man-with-a-past Ted Striker must save the day and get the shuttle...

This House Possessed
1981
as Pasternak
A sinister force permeating a secluded mountain estate convinces the nurse/companion of rock star Parker Stevenson, who has had a nervous collapse, th...

The In-Laws
1979
as Cabbie
In preparation for his daughter's wedding, dentist Sheldon Kornpett meets Vince Ricardo, the groom's father. Vince, a manic fellow who claims to be a ...

The In-Laws
1979
as Cab Driver
In preparation for his daughter's wedding, dentist Sheldon Kornpett meets Vince Ricardo, the groom's father. Vince, a manic fellow who claims to be a ...

Butterfly in the Typewriter
N/A
as Stanley Kauffmann
Troubled author John Kennedy Toole's struggle to bring A Confederacy of Dunces to print.