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Fred Willard

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Fred Willard
Years active1963 — present
Spouse(s)Mary Willard
(1972 — present)

Fred Willard (born September 18, 1939[1]) is an American comedian and character actor, known for his improvisational comedy skills.

Biography

Early life

Willard was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, an only child. His father died unexpectedly when Willard was 11, and his new stepfather was unsympathetic toward Fred. By mutual consent, Willard was sent to military school because of discipline and fighting issues. He graduated from Kentucky Military Institute, in 1951[citation needed] He played varsity baseball, and was a main contributor to the 1951 yearbook, "The Saber." He then attended the Virginia Military Institute, graduating in 1955,[citation needed] with a B.A. in English. His childhood ambition was to be a professional baseball player, and he played the sport both in college and in the U.S. Army, where he served for two years. After the Army, he enrolled in acting school, in New York, and in due time started a comedy team with a classmate, Vic Grecco.[citation needed]

In a 2006 appearance as a guest critic on the television show Ebert & Roeper, he credited the 1956 Danny Kaye film The Court Jester as inspiring him to become a comedic actor.[citation needed]

Career

Willard auditioned alongside Robert Klein for The Second City, which consisted of a nightclub manager and his employee. The audition helped the two secure the job. He is an alumnus of The Second City and currently heads a sketch comedy workshop, The MoHo Group. He was a founding member of the improvisational comedy group, Ace Trucking Company. Fellow members of Ace included, Bill Saluga and Patti Deutsch, among others.

Willard achieved wider fame as Martin Mull's impossibly dense sidekick, "Jerry Hubbard," on the television shows Fernwood 2 Night, Forever Fernwood, and America 2-Night, which parodied the nighttime talk shows of the day. Willard also had a short role on Roseanne as "Leon" (Martin Mull)'s husband. From 2001 to 2002, he played the father of five children on Maybe It's Me.

His most recent notable work has been in Christopher Guest films, such as A Mighty Wind, in which he played "Mike LaFontaine," a character known for his catch phrase, "Wha' happened?"; Best in Show, in which he portrayed "Buck Laughlin," a dog show announcer who offered up an unending stream of bad jokes and off-color comments; Waiting for Guffman, in which he played "Ron Albertson," a travel agent who performs in amateur stage productions with his wife; This Is Spinal Tap, in which he played a lieutenant on the military base where Spinal Tap play; and For Your Consideration, as an obnoxious entertainment television show anchor. He also appeared as KVWN news director "Ed Harken" in, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and in American Wedding as Michelle Flaherty’s father, "Harold".

Willard also had a recurring role as "Hank MacDougall" on the later seasons of CBS' Everybody Loves Raymond. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for this role in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Willard was also the host of a VH1 documentary series called Totally Obsessed about people obsessed with their hobbies. He appears as "Captain Ribmanman" in Episode 21 of Channel Frederator, a podcast from Kansas. Willard also landed a role on Family Guy as Jeff Campbell, the father of a nudist family (first appearing in" From Method to Madness"). It is unclear whether or not the role will be reprised. Willard also guest-voiced "Officer Brown" in the "Doggone Crazy" episode of King of the Hill. It is also unknown if this role will be reprised.

Willard frequently appears in sketches on The Tonight Show, with Jay Leno, typically as a government official, businessman, or other authority figure named Willard J. Fredericks, who is always drinking. He also hosted, Saturday Night Live in 1978 (musical guest: Devo) and appeared twice on SNL's rival show, MADtv. Two years prior to this, he made a minor appearance in the movie Silver Streak as a bemused railway station worker.

He was the voice of a clueless companion to a lazy robot (Martin Mull) in one episode of the series Dexter’s Laboratory, and guest-starred on the Adult Swim cartoon, Tom Goes to the Mayor. He acted in the Cartoon Network movie Re-Animated and played Vala Mal Doran's "father" in an episode of Stargate SG-1 in 2007. He appeared in an episode of the Adult Swim program Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. He has also starred as the "Boogie Man" in an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and reprised his role in the movie, Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure. His final appearance as "Boogey" occurred in Billy & Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen. In 2007, he made a guest appearance on the children's TV series Come on Over. He's also guest-starred on an episode of The Boondocks providing the voice of "Joe Petto."

Willard has been cast as a sportscaster in the television series Back to You, which premiered on the Fox Network on September 19, 2007. He also made an appearance in the 2007 sci-fi comedy I'll Believe You. He has been cast to play the president of the "Buynlarge Corporation" in the Pixar animated film WALL-E, scheduled for release in 2008.

Willard recently completed a sold-out run of Fred Willard: Alone At Last!, advertised as a one-man show but actually featuring a cast of 10, and received Los Angeles Artistic Director Awards for Best Comedy and Best Production. He has also completed a RiffTrax with Michael J. Nelson for the movie Missile to the Moon.[2]

He was also seen roasting William Shatner in the Comedy Central special The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner on August 12, 2006. Also at the roast was George Takei with whom Willard performed in the improv show Thank God You're Here.

Willard is the voice of the character "Ed Warmer" in the Playstation Portable game Hot Brain.

In 2007, Willard took the role of "Aslo" in Epic Movie.

I finally remember who the actor in the stage coach AD for a storage company was. I am certain it is Fred Willard, unless there is an old Western movie and an actor who highly resembles him in it and the words of the actor are changed to cite the value of using a storage building instead of lugging unnecessary baggage across the frontier.

Personal life

Willard has been married since 1972 and has one daughter (b. 1974) and a grandson (b. 1998). He is friends with voice actor Richard Steven Horvitz, and along with Richard is a member of the Fred Willard Players.

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ a b Ben Yagoda (November 21, 2006) "Unscripted And Unleashed" Philadelphia Inquirer. Accessed 2008-03-27.
  2. ^ "Missile to the Moon". Retrieved 2007-10-23.
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