Paul John Teutul (born May 1, 1949) is the founder of
Orange County Choppers, a manufacturer of custom motorcycles and the focus of the reality television series ''
American Chopper''. He first appeared on the show with his sons
Paul Jr. and
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* he He ..., a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name
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. In 2013, his new show
''Orange County Choppers'' premiered on
CMT.
Early life
Teutul was born in
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...
and grew up in
Pearl River, New York. He enlisted as a member of the
United States Merchant Marine
The United States Merchant Marine is an organization composed of United States civilian sailor, mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of ...
during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
.
Career
Teutul originally began with Orange County Ironworks, a fabrication shop now solely owned and managed by son Daniel Teutul.
He began building custom bikes as a hobby after being inspired by the many custom bikes appearing on the streets and in films.
In 1999, he left and founded Orange County Choppers. He began building bikes that quickly made their way to magazine covers, and center stage at every major motorcycle event. OCC landed on the hit reality show American Chopper.
Family
In addition to Paul Jr. and Mikey Teutul, Paul Sr. has two other children: Christin Teutul and Daniel 'Dan' Teutul. Dan Teutul took over Orange County Ironworks when his father started building more bikes than buildings. His daughter Christin is a nurse in New York City who works in pediatrics. Paul Sr. has seven grandchildren.
Teutul's regular arguments with his son Paul Jr. became a routine occurrence during episodes of ''American Chopper''. These vocal disagreements eventually led to Paul Jr. being fired in September 2008.
See also
*
List of ''American Chopper'' episodes
*
List of ''American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior'' episodes
*
List of ''Orange County Choppers'' episodes
References
External links
Orange County Choppers*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teutul, Paul Sr
1949 births
American Chopper
American sailors
American television personalities
Living people
Military personnel from New York (state)
Motorcycle builders
Participants in American reality television series
People from Pearl River, New York
Mass media people from Yonkers, New York
United States Merchant Mariners