William Alvin Moody (April 10, 1954 – March 5, 2013) was an American professional wrestling manager and licensed funeral director. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation where he performed under the ring name and gimmick of Paul Bearer, manager and guiding light of The Undertaker, and later his kayfabe son Kane. As Paul Bearer, he hosted his own talk show segment entitled The Funeral Parlor.

Moody was born in Mobile, Alabama, on April 10, 1954, and attended San Antonio College and the University of South Alabama. Moody entered professional wrestling in his teenage years as a ringside photographer. After high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving four years on duty; during this time, he often wrestled for independent promotions during off-duty hours.

In 1979, Moody began managing as Percival "Percy" Pringle III in southeastern independent promotions; a few years earlier, in June 1974, he wrestled as Mr. X. There had been previous Percy Pringles in wrestling who were not William Moody. He was given the name by booker Frankie Cain. Immediately after his first son's birth, he cut back his involvement in the wrestling business in order to obtain a degree in mortuary science and earn certification as an embalmer and mortician.

In 1984, he resumed full-time involvement in the wrestling business, using his Pringle character in Championship Wrestling from Florida and World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas. During this time, he was WCCW's answer to Bobby Heenan by doing "Heenan" like promos, even looking like Heenan as well with the blonde hair and attire. He served as manager for numerous wrestlers; he notably managed Rick Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin, and Mark Calaway in their early careers. As Percy Pringle, he was also associated with the careers of Lex Luger and The Ultimate Warrior.

Moody joined the World Wrestling Federation on December 22, 1990, after being mentioned by Rick Rude to WWF owner Vince McMahon. McMahon used Moody's real-life involvement in the funeral industry to create the character of Paul Bearer, a name given to him by Road Warrior Hawk and a play on the term pallbearer. In his portrayal of a very histrionic, ghostly manager, Bearer regularly communicated in his shaky, high-pitched, wailing voice and was almost always seen bearing an urn, which led to his mantra, "the power of the urn," allowing his main protégé The Undertaker to revive strength. His keeper-of-the-urn gimmick led to several storylines in which The Undertaker's antagonists stole his urn, causing The Undertaker to lose much of his supernatural strength. Bearer's catch phrase was "Ooooh, yes!"

Moody made his first appearance in February 1991, as a heel, when Brother Love, who originally managed The Undertaker, delegated Bearer to take on the role of The Undertaker's manager. Complementing The Undertaker's Deadman gimmick, Bearer took on a spooky, ghastly character. In late 1991, Bearer managed the Undertaker to the WWF Championship when Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan at that year's Survivor Series, though Undertaker would lose the title back to Hogan six days later at This Tuesday in Texas.

Bearer turned heel by betraying his long-time protege at SummerSlam 1996 to align himself with The Undertaker's arch-enemies, Mankind and Goldust. In April 1997 at In Your House 14: Revenge Of The 'Taker, The Undertaker set Bearer's face ablaze using a fireball, which was done in retaliation for Bearer having Mankind set a fireball to The Undertaker's face several weeks prior. Resulting from The Undertaker's actions, Bearer suffered (kayfabe) burns to his face and was bandaged for a time. Once healed from the burns, Bearer changed his looks, shedding the makeup of ghostly pallor and jet-black color to his natural strawberry blond hair and less make-up. No longer using his ghostly appearance and mannerisms, he became loudmouthed and shrill.

Around mid-1997, Paul Bearer coerced Undertaker (WWF Champion at the time) into being his protégé again with the ultimatum of revealing a deep, dark secret from their past. During this time, Bearer made references to the "fires of hell," likening The Undertaker's dark secret to The Undertaker's act of setting fire to his face. Under duress, The Undertaker accepted after several weeks of resistance. While "managing" Undertaker this time around, Bearer engaged in tyrannical behaviors towards him, harassing him constantly. Eventually, Undertaker lost his patience and refused to allow Bearer to continue being his manager, leading Bearer to reveal the secret.

The dark secret suggested that Bearer had a disturbingly traumatic past with The Undertaker which long preceded Brother Love's joining the two in January 1991. The dark secret dates back to The Undertaker's youth and involves domestic matters: Paul Bearer, while working for The Undertaker's parents as an apprentice mortician in their family funeral home business, witnessed a felony act during The Undertaker's adolescence. Bearer claimed that Undertaker had committed an arson murder, burning down his parents' family funeral home, in the process, killing them. This act also killed The Undertaker's younger "brother"—or so The Undertaker long thought. Bearer, who claimed to be attending a mortuary science college course at the time of the fire, hid Kane in a mental asylum during the rest of Kane's youth into adulthood. At the time throughout mid to late 1997, The Undertaker denied all this, claiming it was his younger brother's fault. Bearer, blaming The Undertaker, accused him of being an "arsonist", "murderer", and "liar." (Connected to these accounts, it was later revealed approximately six months after Kane's WWF debut that he was actually the half-brother of The Undertaker. The Undertaker's mother had an affair with Bearer and, as a result, gave birth to Kane. Bearer unintentionally (kayfabe) revealed to a Raw audience that he was actually Kane's father. This came to light when Bearer informed Jerry Lawler on Monday Night Raw, at a point in which he thought cameras had stopped rolling for a commercial break but were still on. Up until that point, The Undertaker was under the impression that Kane was fully related to him and his family. Presumably, The Undertaker's deceased father lived his entire life under the same impression). Because of the fire, The Undertaker thought Kane had been dead for all those years, claiming he was a "pyromaniac", obsessed with starting fires and, due to the incident, couldn't possibly be alive. However, Bearer introduced the vengeful, fire-personified Kane in October 1997 at Badd Blood: In Your House. In this first appearance for the character, Kane cost The Undertaker a Hell In A Cell match to determine the #1 contendership for the WWF title against Shawn Michaels. This led to a bitter rivalry between The Undertaker and Kane and Bearer. Kane was not revealed as Bearer's son until April 27, 1998, on Monday Night Raw, a day after the first Inferno Match, at Unforgiven, where Kane was set on fire. The Undertaker was shown to have also been unaware of this at that time, and helped to build the feud up further, as Undertaker initially refused to believe the story until an in-story DNA test proved it to be true. The feud lasted into summer of 1998, when Kane seemingly abandoned Bearer to side with The Undertaker, beginning a face turn.

Bearer and The Undertaker became a heel team again toward the end of 1998 when Bearer betrayed his own son, Kane, in favor of managing The Undertaker once again. Once becoming a heel with Bearer, The Undertaker shamelessly admitted to setting the funeral home ablaze for which he had initially claimed was an accident or blamed Kane. Shortly thereafter, Bearer (returning in early 1999 to his signature black hair and mustache, but wearing a buttoned sweater and black overcoat, without the pasty white makeup and speaking in the same voice as his 1997 predecessor) and The Undertaker formed the Ministry Of Darkness.

In October 2003, he signed a new three-year contract with WWE. When Jim Ross contacted him about rejoining the company, Paul at first refused the offer, but Ross then called again with an offer. At that time, he was suffering from health problems and depression related to his obesity and underwent gastric bypass surgery in November 2003. As a signing bonus, WWE agreed to pay for the surgery, as Ross promised. After recovering, he reappeared as Paul Bearer in March 2004 at WrestleMania XX, alongside Undertaker in a match against Kane.

On the September 24, 2010, episode of SmackDown, Bearer made his first on-screen appearance in six years after being brought out in a casket. He helped The Undertaker, who was feuding with Kane over the World Heavyweight Championship, by restoring Undertaker's powers with the urn. Bearer officially became Undertaker's manager again by accompanying him to the ring for his match against Kane for the title at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. During the match, Bearer once again turned on Undertaker, after shining a light in his eyes when he was about to Tombstone Kane. He then let Kane hit Undertaker with the urn to help him win. On the October 15 episode of SmackDown, Bearer challenged Undertaker to face Kane in a Buried Alive Match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Bragging Rights, to which Undertaker accepted by attacking Kane. At Bragging Rights, Kane once again defeated Undertaker after interference by Bearer, who was almost thrown in the grave by Undertaker, and The Nexus, who helped Bearer and Kane bury Undertaker.

In April 2012, Bearer returned for a brief stint as a part of Kane's ongoing feud with Randy Orton. He was kidnapped by Orton and then stuck in a storage freezer while strapped to a wheelchair. Kane later came for Bearer, only to roll him back into the freezer and saying, "I'm saving you... from me". This would mark Bearer's final appearance in WWE.

On March 2, 2013, Moody attended the annual Gulf Coast Wrestlers Reunion in Mobile, Alabama, riding a wheelchair. According to club board member "Cowboy" Bob Kelly, Moody was having breathing difficulties at the event. He was coughing, and told friends he was going to seek treatment for respiratory problems as he had trouble standing at the time. Kelly said that Moody was treated for a blood clot after the reunion. On March 5, 2013, Moody died in Mobile, Alabama, at the age of 58 due to a heart attack.

On the March 3, 2014, episode of Raw it was announced that Paul Bearer would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. At the ceremony itself, Kane inducted Bearer, and his sons Michael and Daniel Moody accepted the induction; afterwards, The Undertaker came out in character and paid tribute. On November 22, 2020, a hologram of Paul Bearer appeared for The Undertaker's final farewell at Survivor Series while The Undertaker performed his trademark kneeling pose.

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