Fred Willard

Infobox actor


birthdate = birth date and age|1939|9|18Year of birth often stated or implied as 1939, eg Yagoda, "Unscripted And Unleashed".]
birthplace = Shaker Heights, Ohio, USA
yearsactive = 1963 — present
spouse = Mary Willard
(1972 — present)

Fred Willard (born September 18, 1939) is an American comedian and character actor, known for his improvisational comedy skills. He is best known for his roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentary films "This is Spinal Tap", "Waiting for Guffman", "Best in Show", and "A Mighty Wind". He is also an alumnus of The Second City comedy troupe.

Biography

Early life

Willard was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, September 18, 1939, an only child. His father died unexpectedly when Willard was 11, and by mutual consent with his new stepfather, Willard was sent to military school. He graduated from Kentucky Military Institute, Class of 1951, where he played varsity baseball. He then attended the Virginia Military Institute, Class of 1955, 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.Fact|date=April 2008

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.Fact|date=April 2008

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. They appeared regularly on "This is Tom Jones".

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 "Scott" (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. [Ben Yagoda (November 21, 2006) [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_kmtpi/is_200611/ai_n16974332 "Unscripted And Unleashed"] "Philadelphia Inquirer". Accessed 2008-03-27.] He also appeared as KVWN news director "Ed Harken" in, "", 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 voices "Officer Brown" in "King of the Hill".

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 "". 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." In 2008, he guest starred as Swindle in "Transformers Animated"

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" and he plays the president of the "Buy-N-Large Corporation" in live-action segments in the Pixar animated film "WALL-E".

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". [http://www.rifftrax.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=91 Missile to the Moon] . "Rifftrax". Accessed 2007-10-23.]

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".

Willard was part of the one-night celebrity performed staging of Howard Ashman's unproduced musical "Dreamstuff". The musical was re-imagined by Howard's partners Marsha Malamet and Dennis Green and performed one night only at Los Angeles' Hayworth Theatre as part of the Bruno Kirby celebrity reading series, directed by Ugly Betty's Michael Urie. Willard starred in the show alongside Eden Espinosa, Vicki Lewis, David Blue (actor) and Luke MacFarlane.

October 5th 2008 Willard hosted the Fido Awards on Nickelodeon.

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

* "Hustle" (1975)
* "How to Break Up a Happy Divorce" (1976)
* "Chesty Anderson, USN" (1976)
* "Silver Streak" (1976)
* "Fun With Dick and Jane" (1977)
* "Escape from Bogen County" (1977)
* "Flatbed Annie and Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers" (1979)
* "Americathon" (1979)
* "Salem's Lot" (1979)
* "How to Beat the High Co$t of Living" (1980)
* "First Family" (1980)
* "Pen 'n' Inc." (1981)
* "National Lampoon Goes to the Movies" (1982)
* "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984)
* "The History of White People in America" (1985)
* "Lots of Luck" (1985)
* "Moving Violations" (1985)
* "The History of White People in America: Volume II" (1986)
* "Roxanne" (1987)
* "Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall" (1987)
* "Portrait of a White Marriage" (1988)
* "I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood" (1989)
* "High Strung" (1991)
* "Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die" (1994)
* "Sodbusters" (1994)
* "Prehysteria! 3" (1995)
* "Back to Back" (1996)
* "Waiting for Guffman" (1996)
* "Breast Men" (1997)
* "Permanent Midnight" (1998)
* "The Pooch and the Pauper" (1999)
* "Can't Stop Dancing" (1999)
* "Idle Hands" (1999)
* "" (1999)
* "Dropping Out" (2000)
* "Chump Change" (2000)
* "Best in Show" (2000)
* "The Wedding Planner" (2001)
* "When Billie Beat Bobby" (2001)
* "How High" (2001)
* "The Year That Trembled" (2002)
* "Teddy Bears' Picnic" (2002)
* "Spellbound" (2003)
* "A Mighty Wind" (2003)
* "American Wedding" (2003)
* "Nobody Knows Anything!" (2003)
* "" (2003)
* "Killer Diller" (2004)
* "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (film)|50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" (2004)
* "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" (2004)
* "" (2004)
* "The Nutcracker and the Mouseking" (2004)
* "" (2004)
* "Lovewrecked" (2005)
* "Wiener Park" (2005)
* "The Aristocrats" (2005)
* "Chicken Little" (2005)
* "Play Nice" (2006)
* "Date Movie" (2006)
* "Church Ball" (2006)
* "Monster House" (2006)
* "Ira and Abby" (2006)
* "For Your Consideration" (2006)
* "I'll Believe You" (2006)
* "" (2006)
* "Re-Animated" (2006)
* "Epic Movie" (2007)
* "Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure" (2007)
* "Fighting Words (film)|Fighting Words" (2007)
* "Fired! (film)|Fired!" (2007)
* "I Could Never Be Your Woman" (2007)
* "Back to You" (2007 - 2008)
* "Harold" (2008)
* "WALL-E" (2008)
* "Transformers Animated" (2008)
* "Holyman Undercover" (2008)
* "Heckler" (2008)
* "Youth in Revolt" (2009)

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0929609|name=Fred Willard

Persondata
NAME= Willard, Fred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Actor, comedian
DATE OF BIRTH= September 18
PLACE OF BIRTH= Shaker Heights, Ohio, USA
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=