On The Simpsons episode ‘The Sound of Bleeding Gums,’ Lisa meets the son of her saxophone mentor, the late great Bleeding Gums Murphy, and tries to improve his life. John Autry II (“I Hear You”) makes a guest-voice appearance.
This will be the third appearance of Bleeding Gums Murphy on The Simpsons. Twenty-seven years have passed since he last appeared on the show. In the 1995 episode ‘’Round Springfield,’ Lisa runs into her saxophone mentor at the hospital, where he dies sooner after. He made his debut on The Simpsons in the 1990 episode ‘Moaning Lisa,’ in which “a depressed Lisa’s spirit is lifted when she meets a jazz-man, Bleeding Gums Murphy.”
Bleeding Gums Murphy was voiced by the late great Ron Taylor, who was known for his on-camera TV roles on Matlock (Deacon Holmes), Twin Peaks (Coach Wingate), and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Klingon Chef), among others.
Prior to his TV roles, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts graduate was a singer and performer on stage. He played the Cowardly Lion in a national touring production of The Wiz in 1977, and voiced the talking killer plant Audrey II in the original off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors in 1982.
Ron Taylor died in January 2002 after suffering a heart attack. He was 49.
The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8 pm on FOX.
