Rodney Dangerfield
Jack Roy, better known by the stage name Rodney Dangerfield, was an American stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He was known for his self-deprecating one-liner humor, his catchphrase "I don't get no respect!", and his monologues on that theme.
Dangerfield began his career working as a stand-up comic at the Fantasy Lounge in New York City. His act grew in popularity as he became a mainstay on late-night talk shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s, eventually developing into a headlining act on the Las Vegas casino circuit. His breakout film role came as a boorish nouveau riche golfer in the ensemble sports comedy Caddyshack. He subsequently starred in a string of comedy films such as Easy Money, Back to School, Rover Dangerfield, Ladybugs, and Meet Wally Sparks. He took a rare dramatic role as an abusive father in Oliver Stone's satirical crime film Natural Born Killers.
Over his career he released seven comedy albums including his album No Respect which won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002. Health troubles curtailed his output through the early 2000s before his death in 2004, following a month in a coma due to complications from heart valve surgery.
Early life
Rodney Dangerfield was born Jacob Cohen on Long Island, Deer Park, New York, on November 22, 1921. He was the son of Jewish parents Dorothy "Dotty" Teitelbaum and the vaudevillian performer Phillip Cohen, whose stage name was Phil Roy. His mother was born in Hungary. Phillip Cohen was rarely home; his son normally saw him only twice a year. Late in life, Cohen begged for, and received, his son's forgiveness.Cohen's mother was reportedly emotionally distant for most of his childhood and did not show signs of affection towards her son. In an interview with Howard Stern on May 25, 2004, Dangerfield told Stern that he had been molested by a man in his neighborhood. The man would pay Rodney a nickel and kiss him for five minutes.
After Cohen's father abandoned the family, his mother moved him and his sister to Kew Gardens, Queens, where Dangerfield attended Richmond Hill High School, graduating in 1939. To support himself and his family, he delivered groceries and sold newspapers and ice cream at the beach.
Career
Early career
At the age of 15, he began to write for stand-up comedians while performing at the Nevele, a former resort in Ellenville, New York. Then, at the age of 19 he legally changed his name to Jack Roy. He struggled financially for nine years, at one point performing as a singing waiter until he was fired, before taking a job selling aluminum siding in the mid-1950s to support his wife and family. He later quipped he was so little known that when he gave up show business, "I was the only one who knew I quit."In the early 1960s, he started reviving his career as an entertainer. Still working as a salesman by day, he returned to the stage, performing at hotels in the Catskill Mountains, but still finding minimal success. He fell into debt, about $20,000 by his own estimate and couldn't get booked. He later joked, "I played one club; it was so far out, my act was reviewed in Field & Stream."
Dangerfield came to realize that what he lacked was an "image," a well-defined on-stage persona that audiences could relate to, one that would distinguish him from other comics. After being shunned by some premier comedy venues, he returned home where he began developing a character for whom nothing goes right.
During Roy's comeback bid, he was scheduled to play the Inwood Lounge in Manhattan. Wanting to disguise himself from the longtime patrons who might have remembered him from the 1940s, Roy asked club owner George McFadden to change his name. "He came up with Rodney Dangerfield," the comedian said. "I don't know where it came from." McFadden may have taken it from The Jack Benny Program on NBC radio, which had first used "Rodney Dangerfield" as a character's name in 1941. Ricky Nelson also used the name as a pseudonym in a 1962 episode of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet.
Career surge
Dangerfield reached national prominence appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show in March 1967. He soon began headlining shows in Las Vegas and continued making frequent appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. He also became a regular on The Dean Martin Show and appeared on The Tonight Show more than 70 times.In 1969, Dangerfield teamed up with Anthony Bevacqua to build the Dangerfield's comedy club in New York City, a venue where he could perform on a regular basis without having to constantly travel. In 1978, The Harvard Crimson described a show by Dangerfield at Dangerfield's, prior to him being Harvard Class Day Speaker. The club remained in continuous operation until October 14, 2020. Dangerfield's was the venue for several HBO comedy specials starring stand-up comics such as Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Tim Allen, Roseanne Barr, Robert Townsend, Jeff Foxworthy, Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks, Rita Rudner, Andrew Dice Clay, Louie Anderson, Dom Irrera, and Bob Saget.
Dangerfield's re-opened in January 2024 as Rodney's Comedy Club. The re-launched venue pays homage to Dangerfield's legacy with art deco design and a focus on upscale comedy performances.
His signature line, "I don't get no respect!", was adopted for the 1976 animated television show Jabberjaw.
In 1978, Dangerfield was invited to be the keynote speaker at Harvard University's Class Day, an annual ceremony for seniors the day before commencement.
Image:Album no respect.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.8|Dangerfield's 1980 comedy album No Respect His 1980 comedy album No Respect won a Grammy Award. One of his TV specials featured a musical number, "Rappin' Rodney", which appeared on his 1983 follow-up album, Rappin' Rodney. In December 1983, the "Rappin' Rodney" single became one of the first Hot 100 rap records, and the associated video was an early MTV hit. The video featured cameo appearances by Don Novello as a last rites priest munching on Rodney's last meal of fast food in a styrofoam container and Pat Benatar as a masked executioner pulling a hangman's knot. The two appear in a dream sequence wherein Dangerfield is condemned to die and does not get any respect, even in Heaven, as the gates close without him being permitted to enter.
Career peak
Though his acting career had begun much earlier in obscure movies like The Projectionist, Dangerfield's career took off during the early 1980s, when he began acting in hit comedy movies.One of Dangerfield's more memorable performances was in the 1980 golf comedy Caddyshack, in which he plays an obnoxious nouveau riche property developer who is a guest at a country club, where he clashes with the uptight Judge Elihu Smails. His role was initially smaller, but because he and fellow cast members Chevy Chase and Bill Murray proved adept at improvisation, their roles were greatly expanded during filming, much to the chagrin of some of their castmates. Initial reviews of Caddyshack praised Dangerfield's standout performance among the wild cast.
Dangerfield's appearance in Caddyshack led to starring roles in Easy Money and Back to School, for which he also served as co-writer. Unlike his stand-up persona, his comedy film characters were portrayed as successful, confident and generally popular despite being characteristically loud, brash, and detested by the wealthy elite.
Throughout the 1980s, Dangerfield also appeared in a series of commercials for Miller Lite beer, including one in which various celebrities who had appeared in the ads were holding a bowling match. With the score tied, after a bearded Ben Davidson told Rodney, "All we need is one pin, Rodney," Dangerfield's ball went down the lane and bounced perpendicularly off the head pin, landing in the gutter without knocking down any of the pins. He also appeared in the endings of Billy Joel's music video of "Tell Her About It" and Lionel Richie's video of "Dancing on the Ceiling."
In 1990, Dangerfield was involved in Where's Rodney?, an unsold TV pilot for NBC. The show starred Jared Rushton as a teenager, also named Rodney, who could summon Dangerfield whenever he needed guidance about his life.
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 wrote or rewrote all of his own lines.
Dangerfield was rejected for membership in the Motion Picture Academy in 1995 by the head of the academy's Actors Section, Roddy McDowall. After fan protests, the academy reconsidered, but Dangerfield then refused to accept membership.
In March 1995, Dangerfield was the first celebrity to personally own a website and create content for it. He interacted with fans who visited his site via an "E-mail me" link, often surprising people with a reply. By 1996, Dangerfield's website proved to be such a hit that he made Websight magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People on the Web".
Dangerfield appeared in "Burns, Baby Burns", an episode of the animated television series The Simpsons in which he played Mr. Burns's son Larry Burns, a character who is essentially a parody of Dangerfield's onstage persona. He also appeared as himself in an episode of Home Improvement.
Dangerfield appears in the 2000 Adam Sandler film Little Nicky, playing Lucifer, the father of Satan and grandfather of Nicky.
Dangerfield was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, which has displayed one of his trademark white shirts and red ties. When he handed the shirt to the museum's curator, Rodney joked, "I have a feeling you're going to use this to clean Lindbergh's plane."
Dangerfield played an important role in comedian Jim Carrey's rise to stardom. In the 1980s, after watching Carrey perform at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, Rodney signed Carrey to open for Dangerfield's Las Vegas show. The two toured together for about two more years. When Dangerfield celebrated his 80th birthday on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in November 2001, Carrey made a surprise appearance to thank Dangerfield for his years of support.