| Jon Lovitz | |
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| Birth name | Jonathan Lovitz |
| Born | July 21 1957 Tarzana, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
Jonathan M. Lovitz (born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian perhaps best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live and the voice of Jay Sherman in The Critic.
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Early life
Lovitz was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was an internist in Encino, California.[1] He attended and studied theater at the University of California at Irvine and graduated in 1979. He studied acting with Tony Barr at the Film Actors Workshop. He became a member of The Groundlings comedy troupe where he befriended Phil Hartman. His father's parents were immigrants from Romania who settled in Jacksonville, Florida. His mother's mother was an immigrant from Hungary. His mother's father was born in Chicago, but his family were immigrants from Russia.
Career
Saturday Night Live
Lovitz was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. He later said in an interview for the book Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live that his time on SNL was the most memorable in his career. He went from having no money to being offered a $500,000 movie contract. He was nominated for an Emmy his first two years on Saturday Night Live. One of his most notable SNL characters was "Tommy Flanagan, The Pathological Liar" that generated the catch phrase, "Yeah! That's the ticket!" Some of his other recurring characters included Master Thespian, Tonto, Mephistopheles, Hanukkah Harry, Michael Dukakis. In a 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live he played a virgin Trekkie, who was scripted to hang his head when asked by William Shatner if he had ever kissed a girl.
Voice over work
Lovitz has lent his voice to several cartoons and films. In the series The Critic he played the title character of Jay Sherman. On The Simpsons he played Marge's ex-prom date Artie Ziff, theater director Llewellyn Sinclair (and his sister, who runs a daycare center) on the season four episode "A Streetcar Named Marge", Jay Sherman from The Critic in the Season 6 crossover episode "A Star Is Burns", and paparazzo Enrico Irritazio in the season eighteen episode "Homerazzi". He also played Professor Lombardo and Aristotle Amadopolous.
Movie cameos and television guest appearances
In the late 1990s, Lovitz was "the man who wrote the Yellow Pages", in a series of commercials and print ads for the American Yellow Pages industry. He has also appeared for ads for Subway. He also had an uncredited cameo as a rival crooner to Adam Sandler in the movie The Wedding Singer, and had a small role in another of Sandler's movies, Little Nicky. Lovitz has also appeared on Friends twice. He first appeared in the Season 1 episode "The One with the Stoned Guy" as a restaurateur who gets stoned on marijuana trip just prior to interviewing Monica Geller for a job. He reappeared years later in the Season 9 episode "The One with the Blind Dates", where it is revealed that he lost his restaurant due to a drug problem. He also appeared on Seinfeld as Gary Fogel, a man who lies about having cancer ("The Scofflaw") and later dies in a car accident. Lovitz guest-starred twice on Newsradio as two separate characters before becoming a cast member in the show's final season (playing a third character).
Broadway theatre
He has appeared on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in Neil Simon's play The Dinner Party, taking over the lead role from Henry Winkler. He sang at Carnegie Hall three times (including Great Performances' Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall) and sang the national anthem at Dodger Stadium and the U.S. Open. On October 10, 2001, Lovitz sang a duet (with Robbie Williams) of the song "Well, Did You Evah" at the Royal Albert Hall in the UK. The recording can be found on the Swing When You're Winning album.
Stand-up comedy
In 2005, Lovitz entered stand-up comedy for the first time in his career. He also appeared in the film The Producers as the strict accounting firm chairman, Mr. Marx. In 2006, he became the spokesperson in an advertising campaign for the Subway restaurant chain. On May 31, 2007 the Laugh Factory on Sunset Strip announced that Lovitz had signed a deal to appear there every Wednesday night for the rest of his life. Lovitz commented "Who knows? I could become the Don Ho of Los Angeles," he said. "God knows I've got enough Hawaiian shirts".[2]
The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club
On November 8, 2007 Jon Lovitz had the grand opening for his new comedy club "The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club at Aubergine" in the Downtown Gaslamp District in San Diego, CA. It currently presents one show a night at 9pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Already, the top comedians in the country have played and been booked for the club, such as David Spade, Ralphie May, Carlos Mencia, Dana Carvey, Jo Koy, Eric Shwartz, Craig Shoemaker, Russell Peters, Kevin Nealon, Dennis Miller, etc.
Filmography
Films
Television
| Film | Year | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hamburger The Motion Picture | 1986 | Security Guard | |
| Last Resort | 1986 | Bartender | |
| Jumpin' Jack Flash | 1986 | Doug | |
| Ratboy | 1986 | Party Guest | |
| ¡Three Amigos! | 1986 | Morty | |
| The Brave Little Toaster | 1987 | The Radio (voice) | |
| Big | 1988 | Scotty Brennen | |
| My Stepmother is an Alien | 1988 | Ron Mills | |
| Cranium Command (short subject) | 1989 | Right Cranium | |
| Mr. Destiny | 1990 | Clip Metzler | |
| Tales from the Crypt | 1991 | Barry Blye | |
| An American Tail: Fievel Goes West | 1991 | T.R. Chula | |
| A League of Their Own | 1992 | Ernie Capadino | |
| Mom and Dad Save The World | 1992 | Emperor Todd Spengo | |
| Loaded Weapon 1 | 1993 | Becker | |
| Coneheads | 1993 | Dr. Rudolph, Dentist (uncredited) | |
| City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold | 1994 | Glen Robbins | |
| North | 1994 | Arthur Belt | |
| Trapped in Paradise | 1994 | Dave Firpo | |
| The Great White Hype | 1996 | Sol | |
| Matilda | 1996 | Million $ Sticky Host | |
| High School High | 1996 | Richard Clark | |
| The Wedding Singer | 1998 | Jimmie Moore (uncredited) | ) |
| Happiness | 1998 | Andy Kornbluth | |
| Lost and Found | 1999 | Uncle Harry | |
| Small Time Crooks | 2000 | Benny | |
| Little Nicky | 2000 | Pepper | |
| Sand | 2000 | Kirby | |
| 3000 Miles to Graceland | 2001 | Jay Peterson | |
| Cats & Dogs | 2001 | Calico (voice) | |
| Rat Race | 2001 | Randall 'Randy' Pear | |
| Good Advice | 2001 | Barry Sherman | |
| Eight Crazy Nights | 2002 | Tom Baltezor (voice) | |
| Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star | 2003 | Sidney Wernick | |
| The Stepford Wives | 2004 | Dave Markowitz | |
| Pancho's Pizza (short film) | 2005 | ||
| Bailey's Billion$ | 2005 | Bailey (voice) | |
| The Producers | 2005 | Mr. Marks | |
| The Benchwarmers | 2006 | Mel | |
| Southland Tales | 2007 | Bart Bookman | |
| Farce of the Penguins | 2007 | My eyes are up here Penguin (voice) | |
| I Could Never Be Your Woman | 2007 | ||
| Show | Years | Role | |
| Saturday Night Live | 1985-1990 | various | |
| Seinfeld | 1989-1998 | 'Gary Fogle' in The Scofflaw | |
| The Simpsons | 1991- | Llewellyn Sinclair, Ms. Sinclair, Professor Lombardo, Enrico Irritazio, Artie Ziff, Aristotle Amadopoulos, and Jay Sherman. | |
| Friends | 1995 & 2003 | Restaurant owner who interviews Monica Geller and later goes out on a date with Rachel Green | |
| The Critic | 1994-1995 | Jay Sherman | |
| NewsRadio | 1998-1999 | Max Lewis, Fred,[3] and Mike Johnson[4] |
References
External links
- Jon Lovitz at the Internet Movie Database
- Mephistopheles in The People's Court 50 images
- Jon Lovitz On MySpace.com
- "Officer Phil's" John Lovitz page - many photos
| Preceded by Will Smith |
MTV Movie Awards host 1995 (with Courteney Cox) |
Succeeded by Janeane Garofalo and Ben Stiller |
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|---|---|
| Main cast | Dan Castellaneta · Julie Kavner · Nancy Cartwright · Yeardley Smith · Hank Azaria · Harry Shearer |
| Recurring cast | Pamela Hayden · Tress MacNeille · Maggie Roswell · Russi Taylor · Karl Wiedergott |
| Recurring guest stars | Albert Brooks · Kelsey Grammer · Jan Hooks · Jane Kaczmarek · Maurice LaMarche · Jon Lovitz · Joe Mantegna · Marcia Wallace |
| Former cast | Christopher Collins · Doris Grau · Jo Ann Harris · Phil Hartman · Marcia Mitzman Gaven · Frank Welker |
