Chris Rock Biography |
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Christopher Julius Rock III (born February 7, 1965)is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted by Comedy Central as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time.
Rock was born in Andrews, South Carolina. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. A few years later, they relocated and settled in the working-class area of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. His mother, Rosalie (née Tingman), was a teacher and social worker with the mentally handicapped; his father, Julius Rock, was a former truck driver and newspaper deliveryman.Julius died in 1988 after ulcer surgery. His younger brothers Tony and Kenny are also in the entertainment business. His older brother, Charles, died in 2006 due to a long struggle with alcoholism. Rock has said that he was influenced by the performing style of his paternal grandfather, Allen Rock, a preacher. Rock began doing stand-up comedy in 1985 in New York City`s Catch a Rising Star.[5] He slowly rose up the ranks of the comedy circuit in addition to earning bit roles in the film I`m Gonna Git You Sucka and the TV series Miami Vice. Upon seeing his act at a nightclub, Eddie Murphy befriended and mentored the aspiring comic. Murphy gave Rock his first film role in Beverly Hills Cop II. Rock became a cast member of the popular sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1990. He and other new cast members Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade became known as the Bad Boys of SNL. In 1991, he released his first comedy album Born Suspect and won acclaim for his dramatic role as a crack addict in the film New Jack City. His tenure on SNL gave Rock national exposure. A frustrated Rock left Saturday Night Live in 1993, appearing instead as a "special guest" star on the predominately African-American sketch show In Living Color. The show, however, was canceled months later. Rock then decided to concentrate on a film career. He wrote and starred in the mockumentary CB4 but the film was not a success. Acting jobs became scarce, and Rock abandoned Hollywood to concentrate on stand-up comedy. Rock starred in his first HBO comedy special in 1994 titled Big Ass Jokes. But it was his second stand-up special, 1996`s Bring the Pain, that reinvented Rock as one of the best comedians in the industry. His routine, which featured commentaries on race in America, stirred up a great deal of controversy. Rock won two Emmy Awards for that special. Adding to his popularity was his much-publicized role as a commentator for Comedy Central`s Politically Incorrect during the 1996 Presidential elections which earned him another Emmy nomination. Rock also was the voice for the "Lil Penny" puppet who was the alter ego to basketball star Penny Hardaway in a series of Nike shoe commercials from 1994-1998, and hosted the `97 MTV Video Music Awards. Rock later had two more HBO comedy specials: Bigger & Blacker in 1999, and Never Scared in 2004. Articles relating to both specials called Rock "the funniest man in America" in Time and Entertainment Weekly, respectively. HBO also aired his talk show, The Chris Rock Show, which gained critical acclaim for Rock`s interviews with celebrities and politicians. The show won an Emmy for writing. His television work has won him a total of three Emmy Awards and 15 nominations. By the end of the decade, Rock was established as one of the preeminent s Biography Credit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Rock |
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Trivia |
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BiographyFriends and FamilyDavid Spade [Friend] :: Adam Sandler [Friend] :: Jerry Seinfeld [Friend] :: Mario Joyner [Friend] :: Chris Farley [Friend] :: Julius Rock [Father] :: Kenny Rock [Brother] :: Rose Rock [Mother] :: Tony Rock [Brother]Trivia and QuotesQuotes "At home, [we play] a lot of Disney stuff -- Raven, High School Musical soundtrack. My kids love Beyonce, but there are a few songs I can`t let them listen to -- they`re so materialistic! They`re all about chinchilla coats and BBS Slims [cell phone]. I`d rather have them listening to a protest song!" "I don`t think my comedy is that political. It`s more social. But whatever. When you make comedy and you do stand-up, you work alone. Movies have to go under so much scrutiny. A stand-up special is a vision, and a movie is a consensus in a lot of ways." "I like talking about subjects that aren`t funny in the first place and making them funny. So anything down and depressing is something I`ll talk about." "I was raised to believe that you had to do things better than white people in order to succeed. The old black shows were better than the white shows. The Jeffersons was a lot better. Good Times was way funnier. Sanford and Son. Now, though, everyone thinks we`re equal, so we submit the same s... that everyone else submits. And then we get mad when they won`t air it. You got to go back to the old attitude of it has to be twice as good." "It`s no different. It`s not like I ever cursed around my mother or anything. I never had a hard time turning it on and off. It`s like you enter another country - sometimes you`re in a cursing country and then you`re in a kid`s country." "The material comes from whenever you realize that you and someone else have something in common. So any conversation you`ve had more than once, anything you see happening to you that you see happening to a friend, you go, `Hmmm, that`s a situation I can make funny.`" "Women would rule the world - if only they`d stop bitchin` about each other." I shouldn`t be able at this late date to go into a club and be better than guys who are there every night. Nobody really wants to be a stand-up, they want to get on TV. Everybody wants to be "Seinfeld" (1990), nobody wants to be Jerry Seinfeld. I think if I were to get as big as I could get, it does change your mind-state. I think like the little man. I think like the underdog. I don`t want to change that. There`s no interference in stand-up. It`s all the things it`s hard to get in film: I get to have a wife, I get to have kids. I get to be sexual. I get to grow. I get to be a man. "I always say there`s no more little girls, just boys with (breasts). Girls act like boys nowadays. Teenage girls, they go after boys. They`re predatory just like boys. My goal is to keep my girls, girls." "I just remember that whenever I got really mad or passionate, like in an argument, people would laugh, and I`d be dead serious. It would happen a lot. So it was like, `Gee, I`ve got something here.`" "I love my life, but I don`t think I`m any happier than my younger brother Andre, who drives a garbage truck." "It`s weird with stand-up comedy. It doesn`t really translate worldwide. I want to figure out how do I make it worldwide. Do a special in Africa. Can`t beat that. Pull that off, then I will have done something." "I`m a rap comedian the same way Bill Cosby is a jazz comedian, Cosby`s laid back. I`m like, bang, bang bang, right into it." "I`m like the Hulk on stage. It`s way over the top. That`s Bizarro Chris. Sometimes I get off stage and go "What did I say?!" I`ll watch one of my [stand-up] specials a year later and go "Eww, that was mean." "All people naturally hate. My kid bites people now. I didn`t teach my kid to bite anybody. Kids say mean stuff. Only through love do we get this evil out of them. Only through love and structure and discipline do they not hate. The kids that hate didn`t learn anything, that`s the problem." "I used to watch my father go to work every day and come home and be so beat. We had seven kids. I always wondered what he really wanted to do. Now that I`m older and have my own kids, I realize there`s nothing better than to work for your kids. I`m sure he got more gratification from his work than I do. My father was feeding his kids every week, paying the heating bills. If he didn`t work, then it didn`t get done. There`s a tremendous amount of gratification from that. And a tremendous amount of pressure, too." "If you live with a single parent, you don`t see compromise. You witness a grown person living in a world where they do what they want to do. When you are raised by two parents, you are constantly watching compromise take place. Just by observing that, it made me a better person." "I`m happy if everybody else is. I`m a big brother, the oldest. If you`re happy and I`m not, I`m cool with that. If I`m happy and you`re not, I`m sad." "I love having somebody there - that companion thing. You know who you`re going to eat with, who you`re going to see a movie with." "I`m more patient. I`m less of a recluse. I`ve been on TV for a long freaking time, and it can definitely isolate you. You get to where you only have things in common with people in the business, and kids open you up to a new world. You have something in common with just about everybody. I think I`m a better artist. Everything I`ve done since I`ve had kids is better than the stuff I did before I had kids." "I`ve been married for 10 years and, you know, it`s hard, you spruce it up and you go places. How do you spruce up anything? Artificially. You go places and do things." "The best part is just having a partner. There is no real worst part. I`m not going to say there`s a worst part. I mean I`m a comedian - comedians like to work alone. So maybe I`m not the ideal guy to be married to, in that sense." "Guys play characters that won`t grow up and something catastrophic happens and they have to grow up to save the day -- that`s pretty much what today`s comedy is about," "I always say about my daughters, they save me from my miserable self. They take me out, you know, a comedian, you could live in your head a lot. And you`re writing and you`re doubting. But when I`m with my kids and my family, it`s all about them." "I don`t write jokes first. I write down topics. I think of what I want to talk about, and then I write the jokes--they don`t write me...And even if you don`t think it`s funny, you won`t think it`s boring. You might disagree, but you`ll listen. And maybe even laugh as you disagree." "I`m a nerd. I`m a little guy...the last guy you`d expect in a romantic movie." "Now that I have children, I realize taking care of my children is more fun than anything in the whole world." "You know, just right place right time, lucked up. Thank God for animation. I can turn down a lot of movies now." "A man is basically as faithful as his options." America is the most powerful country in the world and I think every intelligent country should be concerned about what`s going on here. I`ve got no beef with Brits objecting to our election outcome. I applaud that. I`ll tell you right now, Americans don`t care about what`s going on in other countries. Hollywood`s just not funny. You walk around and think `Where`s the funny at?` It`s not there - all there is is a bunch of directors and actors walking around. I like going into a diner and meeting real people. Funny is where the real people are. How do I say this without sounding like an egomaniac?. I don`t know a comedian that sells more seats than me in the red states and blue states, so I don`t see where I have to change that much. I like the tradition of the Oscars. I like that some of the greatest comedians ever have hosted the show. I never wanted to churn it out. Comedians tend to work all the time. They never put it down like musicians who might make an album then take three or four years off to recharge their batteries. Comedians tend to work straight through and they get stale because of that. Even when I didn`t have a lot of money I never ever did it unless I had something new to say. I`m never proper or careful, but I never curse in front of my mother, either. People want comedians to be funny. I mean I love Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind but it ain`t a better performance than in Dumb And Dumber. I can do serious roles sometimes in other people`s movies but not in one of my own. I don`t wanna ask my fans to come and not laugh at me: `Hey! Come on, let`s go see Chris Rock not be funny!` "I love music. Music is the soundtrack to the crappy movie that is my life." Don`t exercise much. It`s not really funny.[Jim] Carrey looks like he`s in pretty good shape, but traditionally, funny guys have never been buff. Why do people do yoga? It clears their minds. I embrace the clutter in my head. I like it. What funny guy`s got it all together?Trivia Attended the opening of Oprah Winfrey`s school in South Africa. Began his first-ever tour of Britain in January 2008. Son of Julius Rock and Rose Rock. Supports Senator Barack Obama`s bid to win the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election. During his monologue at the The 77th Annual Academy Awards (2005) (TV), he quipped, "If you want Russell Crowe, and all you can get is Colin Farrell, wait!" Coincidentally, Oliver Stone pursued Crowe for the title role of Alexander (2004), yet ended up casting Farrell in the part instead. The film turned out to be one of the most critically panned movies that year. Has the rare distinction of being in two movies that opened on the same day in the U.S. - The Longest Yard (2005) and Madagascar (2005) (May 27, 2005). Both of them stayed at the two top spots at the box office the following weeks, knocking down the last installment of the Star Wars Saga, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). Both became members of the 100 million dollar club. He has five younger siblings, Andre, Tony Rock, Brian (a minister), Kenny Rock, Andi, and a half-sibling, Jordan. Hosted the 77th Annual Academy Awards on February 27th, 2005 and despite concerns over the content of his monologue he mostly kept it clean. In 1993, Paramount offered him the role of "Lamont Sanford" in a purposed film update of "Sanford and Son" (1972). He called the idea "insane" and ,because of his affection for the late Redd Foxx, lobbied to have the production halted. It was. Is a big Woody Allen fan. Is a fan of the TV series "Seinfeld" (1990) and has been known to make references to the show in many of his stand-up routines. Is close friends with Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, David Spade and Mario Joyner. Was considered for the role of Huggy Bear in Starsky & Hutch (2004). Was good friends with Chris Farley. 12 March 2003: Received star on Hollywood Walk of Fame. Chosen as #5 in Comedy Central`s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time (April 2004). Daughter, Lola Simone, born 28 June 2002 in New York City. Discovered by Eddie Murphy Enjoys a wide range of music such as Jay-Z, Red Hot Chili Peppers, DMX, Boy George, Elvis Costello, Eminem and Smashing Pumpkins. Has written a book, "Rock This", and released two comedy albums. His wife, Malaak Compton, was featured in "Redbook Magazine" as one of the winners of the 2002 Mothers & Shakers Awards. Malaak is the founder and executive director of StyleWorks, a non-profit, full-service salon that provides free services for women leaving welfare and entering the work force. Older brother of Tony Rock and Kenny Rock. Second daughter, Zahra Savannah born 22 May 2004. Was voted the funniest person in America by Entertainment Weekly. Points to Eddie Murphy as his role model and inspiration for taking up comedy and acting. | ||
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