Fred Willard
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Fred Willard's classic smile |
Fred Willard (born
September 18,
1939 in
Shaker Heights, Ohio) is an
American comedian and
character actor, known for his improvisational comedy skills.
A veteran of sketch comedy, Fred is heralded for his quick wit and improvisational expertise. His fifty appearances in sketches on
The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno are indicative of his ability to transform any character into a unique comic portrayal.
Fred 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 two Los Angeles Artistic Director Awards, for Best Comedy and Best Production.
He is an alumnus of
The Second City and currently heads a sketch comedy workshop,
The MoHo Group. He got his start performing in a comedy duo and was a founding member of the improvisational comedy group Ace Trucking Company. Fellow members of Ace included
Bill Saluga,
Patti Deutsch among others. He achieved wider fame as
Martin Mull's impossibly dense sidekick, Jerry Hubbard, on the television shows
Fernwood 2Nite,
Forever Fernwood and
America 2-Night that parodied the night-time talk shows of the day. Fred Willard also had a short role on
Roseanne as Leon's husband.
His most recent notable work has been in
Christopher Guest films, such as
A Mighty Wind, where 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 where he plays Ron Albertson, a travel agent who performs in amateur stage productions with his wife, and
This is Spinal Tap in which he played the Colonel on the military base where Spinal Tap play. He will appear in Guest's next film, entitled
For Your Consideration. He also appeared as KVWN news director Ed Harken in
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
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 also was the voice of a clueless companion to a lazy robot (Martin Mull) in one episode of the series "Dexters Labratory."
He also guest-starred on the
[adult swim] cartoon,
Tom Goes to the Mayor.
*He is friends with actor
Richard Steven Horvitz, and along with Richard is a member of the
Fred Willard Players.
*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.
*Fred was a graduate in the Class of 1951 at Kentucky Military Institute, Lyndon, Kentucky. The yearbook also contains class prophesy, authored and signed by Fred. He certainly was not 12 years old when graduating, and was a member of the varsity baseball team. So there is an error in his birth year listing of 1939 ( at least 6 years).
*Alumnus of the
Virginia Military Institute with a B.A. in English.
*He appears as Captin Ribmanman in episode 21 of
Channel Frederator, a podcast from Kansas.
Fred also starred in a short-lived political puppet show called DC Follies. It aired on network television in the late 1980's and featured puppets from Kroft.
