Rodney Dangerfield

  • Rodney Dangerfield
  • Rodney Dangerfield
  • Rodney Dangerfield
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Rodney Dangerfield Biography

Rodney Dangerfield (November 22, 1921 – October 5, 2004), born Jacob Cohen, was a Jewish American comedian and actor, best known for the catchphrase "I can`t get no respect" and his monologues on that theme. He was born on Long Island in the town of Babylon, the son of Jewish parents, his father was the vaudevillian performer Phil Roy (Philip Cohen). His ancestors had come to the United States from Hungary. He would later say that his father "was never home — he was out looking to make other kids”, and that his mother "brought him up all wrong”. As a teenager, he got his start writing jokes for standup comics; he became one himself at 19 under the name Jack Roy. He struggled financially for nine years, at one point performing as a singing waiter (he was fired), and also working as a performing acrobatic diver before giving up show business to take a job selling aluminum siding to support his wife and family. His comedy album, No Respect, won a Grammy Award.[citation needed] One of his TV specials featured a musical number, "Rappin` Rodney”, which soon became one of the first MTV music videos.[citation needed]

His career peaked during the early 1980s, when he began acting in comedy movies. His appearance in Caddyshack led to starring roles in Easy Money and Back To School. In Back to School, Dangerfield`s writing described the character Lou (Burt Young) as "nice and tough" — he put one son through college and another through a wall. (On The Tonight Show, he applied this same description to his doctor, Dr. Vinny Boombotz.) In a change of pace from the comedy persona that made him famous, he played an abusive father in Natural Born Killers, in a scene for which he had written his own lines. In 1994, Rodney Dangerfield won an American Comedy Award for lifetime creative achievement. He was also recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, which put one of his trademark white shirts and red ties on display.[citation needed] When asked about the honor, he joked that the museum was using his shirt to clean Charles Lindbergh`s plane. In 2006, Dangerfield posthumously received a degree from Harvard Law School. It had always been a dream of his to earn such a degree.

He was married to Joyce Indig with whom he had a son, Brian, and a daughter, Melanie. From 1993 to his death he was married to Joan Child, who was instrumental in setting up his Internet site. He was also very good friends with comic Sam Kinison. On April 8, 2003, Dangerfield underwent brain surgery to improve blood flow in preparation for heart valve-replacement surgery on August 24, 2004. Upon entering the hospital, he uttered another one-liner of the type for which he was known: When asked how long he would be hospitalized, he said, "If all goes well, about a week. If not, about an hour-and-a-half.” In September 2004, it was revealed that Dangerfield had been in a coma for several weeks. Afterward, he began breathing on his own and showing signs of awareness when visited by friends. However, on October 5, 2004, he died at the UCLA Medical Center, where he had undergone the surgery in August. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. In keeping with his "No Respect" persona, his headstone reads simply, "Rodney Dangerfield...There goes the neighborhood.”

Biography Credit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Dangerfield
 

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Snapshot

    Name Rodney Dangerfield
    (Jacob Cohen)
    Height 5' 10˝"  (179 cm)
    Build Large
    Hair Color Grey
    Date of Birth November 221921
    Birthplace Babylon, NY
    Star Sign Scorpio
    Died October 52004 (Aged 83)
    Location of Death Los Angeles, CA
    Cause of Death Coma from Surgery
    Nationality American
    Ethnicity White
    Religion Jewish
    Occupation Personality
    Celebrity Index Ro
    Claim to Fame Easy Money, Back to School
    Favourite Links www.rodney.com

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Trivia

Quotes
  • I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out.
    (brainyquote.com)
  • I`m so ugly - My father carries around a picture of the kid who came with his wallet
    (thinkexist.com)
  • I found there was only one way to look thin, hang out with fat people.
    (brainyquote.com)
  • I haven`t spoken to my wife in years. I didn`t want to interrupt her.
    (brainyquote.com)
  • I looked up my family tree and found out I was the sap.
    (brainyquote.com)
  • I feel sorry for short people, you know. When it rains, they`re the last to know.
    (imdb.com)
  • My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other day she told me to put the garbage out. I said to her I already did. She told me to go and keep an eye on it.
    (quotationspage.com)
  • I told my doctor that when I woke up in the morning I couldn`t stand looking at myself in the mirror. He said, `At least we know your vision is perfect.`
    (imdb.com)
  • I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn`t met me yet.
    (quotationspage.com)
  • When I was born the doctor took one look at my face .... turned me over and said. Look ... twins!
    (quotationspage.com)
  • My wife was afraid of the dark, saw me naked, now she`s afraid of the light!
    (imdb.com)
  • If it weren`t for pickpockets, I`d have no sex life at all.
    (imdb.com)
  • Its lonely on the top when there`s no one on the bottom.
    (imdb.com)
  • Entered a Los Angeles hospital on August 24, 2004 in preparation for heart valve replacement surgery. Before entering the hospital, he said, "If things go right, I`ll be there about a week, and if things don`t go right, I`ll be there about an hour and a half."
    (imdb.com)
  • A girl phoned me the other day and said "Come on over, there`s nobody home." I went over. Nobody was home.
    (quotationspage.com)
  • I`m very lucky. Years ago they had images, like W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Groucho Marx. But today, I think I`m the only one around with an image. And that image is something everyone identified with. They all feel life treated `em wrong and they got no respect.
    (imdb.com)
  • My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
    (quotationspage.com)
  • My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
    (imdb.com)
  • I don`t get no respect!
    (imdb.com)
  • I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out.
    (quotationspage.com)
  • I haven`t spoken to my wife in years. I didn`t want to interrupt her.
    (quotationspage.com)
  • When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.
    (quotationspage.com)
  • In a 1986 interview, he explained the origin of his "respect" trademark: "I had this joke: `I played hide and seek; they wouldn`t even look for me.` To make it work better, you look for something to put in front of it: I was so poor, I was so dumb, so this, so that. I thought, `Now what fits that joke?` Well, `No one liked me` was all right. But then I thought, a more profound thing would be, `I get no respect.`"
    (imdb.com)
  • To give you an idea how well I was doing at the time I quit [back in 1949], I was the only one who knew I quit.
    (imdb.com)
  • My wife`s jealousy is getting ridiculous. The other day she looked at my calendar and wanted to know who May was.
    (quotationspage.com)
  • Life is just a bowl of pits.
    (quotationspage.com)
    Trivia
  • Was hospitalized 24 August 2004 for heart valve-replacement surgery.
    (imdb.com)
  • His first big break was "The Ed Sullivan Show" ("Toast of the Town" (1948)) which he did 16 times.
    (imdb.com)
  • 8 April 2003: Rodney had brain surgery to improve his body's blood flow in preparation for upcoming heart-valve replacement surgery.
    (imdb.com)
  • As a teenager, he started in stand-up comedy and changed his name to "Jack Roy". After nine years, he quit show business. When he returned in 1962, he wanted to change his name to distance himself from his previous failure. A club owner gave him the name of "Rodney Dangerfield" after Ricky Nelson used the name in an episode of "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" (1952). But "Jack Roy" remained his legal name for the rest of his life.
    (imdb.com)
  • 30 years, 11 months, 3 weeks and 2 days older than his current wife, Joan, who is a Mormon.
    (imdb.com)
  • 22 November 2001: Suffered what is being called a "mild" heart attack on his 80th birthday.
    (imdb.com)
  • Buried at the beautiful and prestigious Westwood Village Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California.
    (imdb.com)
  • Published a biography in May 2004 entitled "It Ain't Easy Being Me". In it, he reveals that he was paid $35,000 to star in Caddyshack (1980), but in doing the movie, he lost $150,000 in would-be performances in Las Vegas.
    (imdb.com)
  • His 2004 autobiography, "It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs," was released posthumously.
    (imdb.com)
  • His final appearance on a TV show was on an episode of the sitcom "Still Standing" (2002), the episode in which he appeared entitled "Still Neighbors" aired on September 27, 2004, only eight days before his death.
    (imdb.com)
  • After regaining consciousness from his brain surgery, his first request was to watch "The Jerry Springer Show" (1991).
    (imdb.com)
  • Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 130-132. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
    (imdb.com)
  • Won a Grammy in 1980 for Best Comedy Recording for, 'No Respect'.
    (imdb.com)
  • Based his famous "I get no respect" on The Godfather (1972), since he figured that "Vito Corleone" had respect. He also based it on an experience he had at a nightclub. One night, he saw an older, low level gangster complaining about how young people gave him "no respect, no respect at all" and Dangerfield never forgot it.
    (imdb.com)
  • Hit #89 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1983 with the song 'Rappin Rodney'
    (imdb.com)
  • He had two children by his first wife Joyce Indig: Brian and Melanie.
    (imdb.com)
  • The epitaph on his tombstone reads "There goes the neighborhood".
    (imdb.com)
  • Was the first entertainer to own a Website (www.rodney.com) which was launched in February 1995.
    (imdb.com)
  • His trademark white shirt and red tie are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
    (imdb.com)
  • Wanting to remain near his children, he opened the now-legendary Manhattan comedy club that bears his name.
    (imdb.com)
  • Premiered Meet Wally Sparks (1997) in the small town of Daingerfield, Texas. A street there was then named after him.
    (imdb.com)
  • Became outspoken about his bouts with lifelong depression in 1997.
    (imdb.com)
  • Twice married to Joyce Indig (1949-1962, 1963-1970), Rodney suffered a lifelong battle with depression and chronic lack of self-esteem. Comedy, he says, was his fix to escape reality.
    (imdb.com)
  • Chosen #36 out of the 50 funniest people by Entertainment Weekly.
    (imdb.com)
  • One of the great late bloomers of Hollywood. He was already near 60 when his first big movie, Caddyshack (1980), premiered in 1980.
    (imdb.com)
  • Although there was Hollywood talk that his dramatic performance in Natural Born Killers (1994) was worthy of a supporting actor Oscar nomination, Dangerfield's application for membership in the Academy was rejected.
    (imdb.com)
  • After he quit show business in 1949, Dangerfield became a siding salesman on Long Island. Eventually, he owned his own home improvement business, which he abandoned when he relaunched his career in the early 1960s.
    (imdb.com)
  • Made 70 appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962).
    (imdb.com)
  • Through his HBO shows from Dangerfield's, he introduced Jim Carrey, Roseanne, Louie Anderson, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Rita Rudner, Sam Kinison, Robert Townsend, Bob Saget, and Jeff Foxworthy to TV.
    (imdb.com)
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