Arthur Eugene Spooner is a fictional character played by Jerry Stiller in the American sitcom The King of Queens.
[2] Arthur served in World War II in the Italian theater and in The Battle of the Bulge, and also mentions being in Paris, France.
Ironically, his unstable marital life and always unsure job situation led to even less security than Carrie might have had if Arthur remained an actor.
Arthur quickly shows himself to be obnoxious, boorish, and mentally unstable, frequently bursting into tirades at the slightest provocation.
During the course of the show, he forced a woman to lose her job because she "hurt his feelings", caused countless false emergencies at his senior center, reduced many people to tears, investigated purported similarities between himself and fictional characters, engaged in arguments with tough younger individuals, often forcing Doug to protect him, loudly proclaimed most of his views on Doug and Carrie's wedding video, and relentlessly insulted Douglas' friends, particularly Spence.
A good example of Arthur's behavior is when he discovers an old episode airing of The $10,000 Pyramid on which he appeared in 1976, a fact that he has told Doug "several dozen times".
He later asks for Carrie's help in "[suing] the boyish grin off of Dick Clark's face" because he never got the full year's supply of Rice-A-Roni that he had been promised after the appearance, a scandal he has named "Rice-A-Roni-gate".
After assuring the representative that Rice-A-Roni is "still made in a variety of mouth-watering flavors," Arthur refuses, screaming "I don't wanna read.
Perhaps Arthur's most notable trait is his tendency to speak in flowing, elegant sentences, typically employing long words.
When he feels that he is being pushed around or told what to do (usually by his daughter, Carrie), Arthur often responds by implying that the person is a dictator (e.g. "yes, mein fuhrer!")
He also addresses Spence by his full name "Spencer", Doug and Carrie's neighbor Lou Ferrigno as "Louis" and Deacon as "Mr.
Quick to take offense, he shouts frequently and often unnecessarily, and often comes up with absolutely absurd, irregular, or illogical money-making scams.
[5] Arthur's eccentricity extends to going so far as to explicitly forbid a variety of things from the Heffernan household, including but not limited to: Halloween, red pens, soft cheese, non-American VCRs (but not DVD players), any mention of Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness, and miniature Kit Kats.
However, around strangers, he often claims that he owns the home (in one episode, after discovering what the property is worth, he stages an 'open house', taking offers on the place), his daughter works at menial labor despite Arthur's invented wealth, and Doug is a complete deadbeat.
He once planned to save a large amount of money for a potential grandchild, but only remarks "the dog races are terribly fixed".
Insulted by the barista's distrust of his financial situation, he claims to have vast offshore accounts, and is in the process of moving money around.
According to the DVD commentary of the Pilot episode, the character of Arthur was conceived with Jerry Stiller in mind, but he initially turned down the role.