Fred Willard

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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 towards Fred. By mutual consent, Willard was sent to military school because of discipline and fighting issues; he graduated from Kentucky Military Institute in 1951; he played varsity baseball, and was a main contributor to the 1951 yearbook, "The Saber." (Note: The picture in this yearbook and his activities at the school clearly indicate a normal age for this class, and that he was definitely not 12-years-old at graduation, making 1933 the normal birth year for a 1951 high school graduate. This also is indicated in the "NNDB" and "Dead or Alive" celebrity websites. So the often-indicated birth year of "1939" is very questionable.) He then attended the Virginia Military Institute, graduating in 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 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. In a 2006 appearance as a guest critic on the television show Ebert & Roeper, he credited the 1956 movie The Court Jester as inspiring him to become a comedic actor.

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 2Nite, Forever Fernwood, and America 2-Night that parodied the night-time 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, 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; 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 roll on Family Guy as Jeff Campbell, the father of a nudist family (first appearing in From Method to Madness). It is unclear though whether or not the 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 And his final appearance of Boogey appeared in Billy & Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen. In 2007 he made a guest appearance on the children's TV series Come on Over. 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 two 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] Willard is the voice of the character Ed Warmer in the Playstation Portable game Hot Brain.

Personal life

Willard has been married for 35 years and has a 33-year-old daughter and nine-year-old grandson. He is friends with voice actor Richard Steven Horvitz, and along with Richard is a member of the Fred Willard Players.

References

External links

• Fred Willard at the Internet Movie Database
• "Unscripted And Unleashed", Ben Yagoda, Philadelphia Inquirer, 21 November 2006