Paxton Whitehead's Friends Role Was Small - But Oddly Pivotal

The passing of Paxton Whitehead on June 19 has caused fans of comedy everywhere to look back on his career and smile. Whitehead was Phillip Barbay in "Back to School," the mean dean of a business school who tries to keep Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) from graduation. He was also Hal Conway, the Buchman's snooty upstairs neighbor on "Mad About You." But to "Friends" fans, he'll always be the guy who gave Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) a second chance — and accidentally sparked up the romance between Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) and Emily Waltham (Helen Baxendale). 

Whitehead was Mr. Waltham, Rachel's second boss at Bloomingdales. At first, his role revolves around keeping Rachel on the job after she's demoted from being an assistant buyer to acting as a personal shopper. He also bears witness to Rachel's flirtation with Joshua Burgin (Tate Donovan), one of her clients. But he does something innocuous that changes the course of the show forever when he asks Rachel to entertain his niece Emily for the evening while the latter is in New York for the day. Because Rachel is preoccupied with her first date with Joshua, she asks Ross to take Emily to the opera for her. Yep, Mr. Waltham is ultimately the reason Ross and Emily get together — and why we have that ionic "I Ross, take thee Rachel" moment.

Interestingly enough, Mr. Waltham does not interject himself into the percolating romance between Ross and Emily as Season 4 goes on. The last time we see the character is in "The One With Joey's Dirty Day," where audiences may observe him smiling admiringly at Joshua as he sports an outfit picked out for him by Rachel. That has caused fans to debate whether the character is simply proud of Rachel for sticking with her new occupation or if he finds Joshua just as irresistible as Rachel does. 

Either way, fans never get an answer, as he exits the narrative just as his niece Emily enters it. She never calls him, nor refers to him after the introduction — even though they were once close enough for him to provide her with theater tickets. He's also not invited to their London wedding, nor does he show up at the going away party Rachel throws for Emily in that eminently skippable episode "The One With the Fake Party." 

While Emily may have forgotten her uncle, audiences will never forget Paxton Whitehead's iconic work as Mr. Waltham.