Fred Willard
Fred Willard
Frederick Charles Willard is an American actor, comedian, voice actor and writer, best known for his improvisational comedy. He is known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap, the Christopher Guest mockumentary films Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration, and the Anchorman films. He is an alumnus of The Second City. He received three Emmy nominations for his recurring role on the TV series Everybody Loves Raymond...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth18 September 1933
CityShaker Heights, OH
CountryUnited States of America
In several TV shows I've done, I'm trying to think of what - just say something here, we need something funnier here.
Chris, listen to me, put down the gun and let the marching band go. We'll play it off as a prank.
I have also always had a fascination with the St. Louis teams; the Cardinals for their Gashouse Gang and classic uniform logos, and of course the Browns for just being the Browns and for Pete Gray. You can also still stand on the site of the '44 World Series, although the parks department has seen fit to plant over the old diamond.
Babe Ruth's orphanage, St. Mary's, still stands outside of Baltimore, and although it's under another name, you can walk on the spot where the Babe first played and stand where he was photographed wearing that catchers mitt on the wrong hand.
All America is familiar with the Yankee-Dodger-Giant trivia, but so many other teams had great moments.
I think Dabney Coleman is quite baseball-savvy. So is Christopher Guest.
In this last movie, I gave it quite a lot of thought to my character, and I fell back on a lot of managers and agents that I've had, and my early New York days where comics would sit around a table doing jokes and the managers would have jokes, and so I based it on a lot of that.
Someone I've always admired is Catherine O'Hara... I think she's one of the best actresses in the country, not only comedy. I just think she's just a step aside from everybody, she's just wonderful.
I think my wife saw a picture of the rock group Journey, and they're kind of aging, and the one guy had dyed blonde hair with black roots, and... my idea was to get a little earring, I wanted to have a dangling earring.
Suddenly you're like a pirate, you're 65 years old and you've got an earring.
Cleveland is my hometown, and the Indians have a narrow but rich history.
I don't know why my lines that were cut from the film didn't make it onto the DVD. I have offered to go into the editing room with Christopher and work shoulder to shoulder with him to fit all my lines in. I think he thinks I'm kidding. I'm only trying to help.
It's such a pleasure to work in these movies, it's almost like it's not really happening.
I just admire everybody and sit in awe and watch them.