As early as 1970, Peter Boyle was worried about being typecast after playing a hotheaded character in the movie Joe. While the film was a success, he went out of his way to avoid playing similar roles moving forward. He even turned down the lead role in The French Connection and opted to try for different parts instead—like the monster in Young Frankenstein, for one. Little did Boyle know back then that being a little hotheaded in real life would be the exact thing that would land him one of his most iconic roles in the future.

When Boyle showed up to audition for Everybody Loves Raymond in 1996, he had to deal with one headache after another. As he told Larry King in 2002, they wouldn’t even let him through the gate once he got to the studio. Once he managed to clear up that mess, he found out there was nowhere to park. As if that wasn’t frustrating enough, after he finally got to the office, he was told that the auditions weren’t even being held there.

By the time he walked into his audition with Ray Romano and producer Phil Rosenthal, Boyle was fuming. He was covered in sweat and yelling at people—and, as it turned out, playing the character he was auditioning for without even realizing what he was doing. It was just the kind of thing they were looking for. “He came in all hot and angry,” Rosenthal later said, “and I hired him because I was afraid of him.” Rosenthal knew from that moment that Boyle had “a comedic presence,” and his instincts ended up being correct.

Romano revealed during CBS’s recent Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion that he also found Boyle intimidating, and said that the late actor, who died in 2006, “was an imposing figure.” Despite him nailing his audition because he lost his temper that day, Romano said that he came to find out Boyle was actually a sweet guy in real life, something that Rosenthal has confirmed several times in the past. “In many ways, he’s a child of the ‘60s. The best man at his wedding was John Lennon. He’s playing Frank Barone, but he’s nothing like Frank Barone, and that makes his performance even more impressive.” 

Boyle played Romano’s father on the show for a total of nine seasons between 1996 and 2005.