R. Woodruff, 54; Model for Burger Chain’s ‘Big Boy’

The man whose plump “Big Boy” image is used as a restaurant mascot to welcome diners coast to coast and encourage the consumption of double-deck hamburgers has died.

Richard Woodruff, 54, died Monday at North Hollywood Medical Center after a long illness. Funeral arrangements were private.

When Woodruff was 6, he lived down the street from a Glendale restaurant owned by Bob Wian, a former Glendale mayor who started Big Boy restaurants, and he would often hang out at the diner, his brother, Glenn, said.

“He was a little fat kid, and that’s where they kind of got the idea from,” Glenn Woodruff said. “The story is he came in one time and asked for a hamburger with two pieces of meat on it.”

“It’s really too bad, except that I think he’s got more immortality than the rest of us,” Glendale Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg said. “He’s going to be standing coast to coast when we’re gone.”