Bedatri D. Choudhury | The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

PHILADELPHIA — Actor Richard Kind has been in “Inside Out,” “A Serious Man,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Spin City” and a whole bunch of TV shows and films. But before he was Bing Bong, Andy or Paul Lassiter, he was a boy growing up in Bucks County with his younger sister, Joanne.

Kind, who was most recently seen in John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA and Girls5eva, was born in Trenton and grew up in Yardley. His father, Samuel Kind, owned La Vake’s Jewelry in Princeton and if the elder Kind had his way, Richard would be running the store today, according to a recent New York Times profile of the actor.

But the Pennsbury High School and Northwestern University grad is a whole different kind of busy these days.

Topping off a 290-plus IMDb credit list spanning TV and films, the actor will be a part of the forthcoming season of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building and in the Paramount+ drama Evil.

More important, though, he has emerged as an internet favorite to portray Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and Democratic candidate for vice president on the ticket with Kamala Harris, on Saturday Night Live, after Steve Martin bowed out.

“I’m not an impressionist,” Martin reportedly told SNL producer Lorne Michaels. “You need someone who can really nail the guy.’ I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses.” And the internet thinks it should be Kind who, at 67, is seven years older than Walz.

It is a demand that has also found a supporter in actor Michael J. Fox, Kind’s friend and “Spin City” costar, as reported by journalist Esther Zuckerman, author of Kind’s NYT profile. And Fox isn’t alone in rooting for Kind playing Walz.

“Minneapolis-St Paul is not a lead character in the cast of American metropolitan regions,” podcast host John Moe wrote on X on Friday. “Minneapolis-St Paul is the Richard Kind of American metropolitan regions.”

“It will be a travesty,” another X user noted, “if Walz isn’t portrayed in sketches by Richard Kind.”

If you think Pennsylvania’s Kind is too different from the North Star State’s Walz, think again. Because a common love for The Boss unites them.

Kind was in the audience for Bruce Springsteen’s Madison Square Garden show last April, and the Minnesota governor is a proven Bosshead, having attended a Springsteen concert last Labor Day weekend at MetLife Stadium with N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy, Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro, and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke.

Walz also recently gushed over The River in a new promotional video where he discusses interests, taco recipes, and favorite musicians with Vice President Harris.

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