Early life

Kopell was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the son of Pauline (née Taran) and Al Bernard Kopell. For a time, he served in the United States Navy. He served on board the USS Iowa (BB-61) as a librarian.

Career

Kopell's longest-running role was as Dr. Adam Bricker on The Love Boat, an Aaron Spelling production. He remained on the series during its entire run, appearing in 250 episodes.

Before becoming known for his The Love Boat role, Kopell appeared in many television series, often sitcoms. He appeared on Ripcord, That Girl, The Jack Benny Program, Green Acres, Our Man Higgins, The Flying Nun, Ben Casey, My Favorite Martian, Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, The Streets of San Francisco, Room 222, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Kojak.

Kopell made memorable recurring appearances as KAOS agent Siegfried in Get Smart, Alan-a-Dale in When Things Were Rotten, Jerry Bauman in That Girl and Louie Pallucci in The Doris Day Show. He played several characters on Bewitched including the witches' apothecary and the hippie warlock Alonzo in the episode "The Warlock in the Gray Flannel Suit". He played Charlie Miller as a member of the cast of the situation comedy Needles and Pins, which ran for 14 episodes in the autumn of 1973. He portrayed a plastic surgeon who gave Ed Brown a facelift on Chico and the Man. He played a director in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Good-Bye George"). About this same time, he guest starred on the short-lived The New Phil Silvers Show.

After The Love Boat, Kopell was so recognizable that he was not in roles often without a nod to his famous role. He appears as a coroner in "Which Prue is it Anyway", an episode of Charmed. Kopell appears in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Critic", playing Mr. Gilson, the ill-fated restroom attendant, whom Monk referred to as the Michelangelo of lavatories. He guest starred in "Pinky", a 2009 episode of My Name is Earl. He made a cameo as a patient in the Scrubs episode "My Friend the Doctor", as well as an episode of the Disney Channel Original Series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. In a dream sequence of Fresh Prince of Bel Air Kopell made a parody cameo of himself as an actor who played a ship's doctor so many times he offers to perform an operation for real, while in a 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live he appeared as "Doc" during a Love Boat-themed spoof of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Kopell's role as Doc on The Love Boat was parodied in a humorous appearance on Late Show with David Letterman in 1995. Two entries in that night's Top Ten List poked fun at The Love Boat, and at the Doc character specifically. The camera cut to Kopell, who was sitting in the audience, and he stormed out of the theater. A few moments later, he was shown having been re-seated in the mezzanine when the second parody was made at his expense, and again stood up, raised his fists and stormed out, playing along with the host.