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Tony Clifton is a fictitious character created and often played by stand up comedian Andy Kaufman in the late 1970s. Characteristic of the many elaborate hoaxes and practical jokes Kaufman concocted, Clifton was not exclusively played by Kaufman—others, mainly Bob Zmuda, stepped into the role on occasion—enabling Kaufman and his accomplices to create an air of confusion as to whether Clifton was a real person or not.

Origin[link]

Tony Clifton was a real lounge singer whom Kaufman encountered in the International Hotel in Las Vegas. He was waiting for Elvis Presley to arrive so he could meet him.^[1] Kaufman saw Clifton as the antithesis of the sweet, gentle "Foreign Man" character he was best known for (which was later adapted into Latka Gravas, Kaufman's character on Taxi).

Performance[link]

Clifton was a staggeringly untalented lounge singer with a nasal, deliberately annoying singing voice. Clifton epitomized the washed-up showbiz casualty, a "star" too lazy to even bother to remember the lyrics to his songs. Clifton would often attempt to improvise comical lyrics that were intentionally unfunny before giving up entirely without seeming to care. Clifton also tended to randomly insult patrons, passing off the abuse as the "comedy" portion of his act. Adding to Clifton's annoying and unappealing presence was his tendency to rhyme various words at random in the middle of conversations. Many people misunderstood Kaufman's intent, focusing on the character's foul language and prima donna antics while failing to appreciate the fact that Clifton was meant to be the comic antithesis of the typical lounge singer, a bland, genial entertainer designed to add a touch of class to a hotel and make guests feel welcome.

For a brief time, it was unclear to some that Clifton was not a real person. News programs interviewed Clifton as Kaufman's opening act, but the interviews invariably would turn ugly whenever Kaufman's name came up. Clifton claimed Kaufman was using his name "to go places." Actually, in many cases, Andy Kaufman played Clifton. Promoters who thought they had caught on to the joke would hire Clifton because he was cheaper than booking Kaufman. However, Kaufman had the last laugh, enlisting his brother Michael or his showbiz partner Bob Zmuda to play the role, with Kaufman making unannounced appearances onstage during Clifton's act.

Rodney Dangerfield was a big fan of Andy Kaufman's, and hired Clifton to open for him for two shows at Bill Graham's famed Fillmore West. After a disastrous first show, where Clifton took the stage with Tony Bennett's famous "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and was summarily booed, he reappeared on the second night in riot gear amid a shower of rotten vegetables and other detritus.

Tony Clifton still makes occasional appearances, most notably in the days leading up to May 16, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of Kaufman's death. It was announced on May 16, 2008 that Comic Relief, in recognition of the 24th anniversary of Andy Kaufman's departure, would present "The Return of Tony Clifton", with his Katrina Kiss My Ass Orchestra. The national tour kicked off June 27, 2008 at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia and will benefit Gulf Coast musicians, dancers, and singers affected by Hurricane Katrina. Clifton fronted the Katrina Orchestra along with the Cliftonettes. Later dates included August 15 at Chicago's Chopin Theatre.^[2] In 2011, Tony and his orchestra were featured headliners as part of the annual Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama on May 21.^[3] Later that month he began hosting the Tony Clifton Revue at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. He was interviewed on the 284th (May 31, 2012) episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast as promotion.^[4]

Television[link]

Taxi[link]

Clifton was hired to appear on an early episode of ABC's Taxi. However, Clifton appeared for rehearsals late, drunk, and with two prostitutes in tow. Clifton disrupted the rehearsal with his antics, leading Judd Hirsch to call his agent and Jeff Conaway to storm out in anger. The decision was made to fire Clifton, and Kaufman insisted it be done publicly, with security guards removing him from the soundstage by force. This incident is depicted in the biographical film Man on the Moon.

Other appearances[link]

Clifton (possibly played by Zmuda) appeared once on Late Night with David Letterman, where he was interviewed and sang a medley with the band. In 1982, Clifton also appeared on The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show as the host's "new discovery", although the other Muppets and host George Hamilton remained skeptical of Clifton's talent.

Perhaps most infamous is Clifton's appearance on Dinah Shore's daytime talk show Dinah & Friends. Clifton arrived for the taping drunk and then pressured Shore in front of the studio audience to sing a duet with him although he had been previously told that she had a sore throat. Although Shore attempted to avoid the duet on air, politely declining Clifton's request, he persisted, accusing Shore of being unprofessional. Then, during a cooking segment with Shore and Charles Nelson Reilly, Clifton dumped a pan of eggs over Shore's head. This happened live on the air and the show's producers quickly cut to a commercial as Clifton was escorted out of the studio. The tape of the incident was destroyed, although the moments leading up to it can be seen in the documentary Andy Kaufman's Really Big Show.

Recently, Clifton appeared on The Opie & Anthony Show to promote a performance at Santo's Party House in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

Movie[link]

Kaufman and Zmuda wrote a screenplay for a Tony Clifton biography. However, the plan was sidelined after the box office failure of Kaufman's first major motion picture Heartbeeps, in which he co-starred with Bernadette Peters as a robot who falls in love. In the screenplay Clifton dies at Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from cancer. Five years later, Kaufman died at the same hospital from lung cancer. Some conspiracy-minded fans say that Kaufman was — with this screenplay — setting up what would be his greatest prank ever: faking his own death.

Influence[link]

Kaufman's Tony Clifton character has influenced other "anti-comedy" acts, notably stand-up comedian Neil Hamburger, singer/comedian Unknown Hinson, and Canadian singer/comedian Corey Mystyshyn. (Like Tony Clifton, these are both reportedly stage names.)

References[link]

External links[link]

• TonyClifton.net
• Andy Kaufman's Really Big Show on IMDB

Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer, actor and performance artist. While often referred to as a comedian, Kaufman did not consider himself to be one.^[2] He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood, referring to himself instead as a "song-and-dance man." Elaborate hoaxes and pranks were major elements of his career. His act maintains a cult following and he continues to be respected among comedians for his original material, performance style, and unflinching commitment to character.

Early life[link]

Kaufman was born in New York City, on January 17, 1949, the first son of Janice (née Bernstein) and Stanley Kaufman. He grew up in a middle-class Jewish family,^[3] in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, and began performing at age nine.^[4] He attended the now defunct two-year Grahm Junior College,^[5] in Boston, graduating in 1971. He then began performing stand-up comedy at various small clubs along the East Coast.

Career[link]

Foreign Man and Mighty Mouse[link]

Kaufman first caught major attention with a character known as Foreign Man, who claimed to be from Caspiar (a fictional island in the Caspian Sea) and would appear on the stage of comedy clubs to play a recording of the theme from the Mighty Mouse cartoon show and sing only the chorus.^[6] He would proceed to tell a few jokes and perform a number of impersonations such as television character Archie Bunker or President Richard Nixon. Some variations of this performance were broadcast in the first season of Saturday Night Live; the Mighty Mouse number was featured in the October 11, 1975 premiere, while the joke-telling and Bunker impression were included in the November 8 broadcast that same fall.^[7]

Foreign Man would often try to impersonate a whole series of different celebrities, with the comedy arising from Foreign Man's obvious ineptitude at impersonation. For example,^{[citation needed]} in his fake accent Kaufman would say to the audience, "I would like to imitate Meester Carter, de President of de United States", and then in the same voice, "Hello, I am Meester Carter, de President of de United States. T'ank you veddy much." At some point in the performance, usually when the audience were entirely used to Foreign Man's inability to perform a single convincing impression, Foreign Man would announce, "And now I would like to imitate the Elvis Presley," turn around, take off his jacket, slick his hair back, and launch into an unexpectedly credible Elvis Presley impersonation which Presley himself described as his favorite.^[8] Like Presley, he would take off his leather jacket and throw it into the audience, but Kaufman would then immediately ask for it back again. After, he would take a simple bow and say in his Foreign Man voice, "T'ank you veddy much!"

Latka[link]

Kaufman first used a version of the Foreign Man character as Andy the Robot in the pilot for the sitcom Stick Around in 1977.^{[citation needed]} The character was then changed into Latka Gravas for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC)'s Taxi sitcom, appearing in 79 of 114 episodes from 1978 to 1983.^[9] The producers of Taxi had seen Andy's Foreign Man act and, according to producer Ed Weinberger, "We weren't considering Andy for the show before we saw him. Then we wrote a part for him." Bob Zmuda confirms this: "They basically were buying Andy's Foreign Man character for the Taxi character Latka."^[10] Andy's long-time manager George Shapiro encouraged Andy to take the gig. "My feeling was that it would be a nice boost for his career...and he would be playing a character that he knew very well, the Foreign Man—this particular character speaks poor English in Taxi and his name is Latka Gravas."^[11] SNL creator Lorne Michaels said of the announcement: "When he agreed to a situation comedy, we were stunned. We couldn’t understand why in the world. Because he was Andy Kaufman. Going from being that far out of the mainstream to being ground zero of it. Not that Taxi isn’t a good show. But in the pure world of status, he was regarded as a genius. So for a genius to be the 4th lead in a situation comedy was not, at the time, seen to be an act of genius."

Kaufman disliked sitcoms and was not thrilled with the idea of being in one.^{[citation needed]} In order to allow Kaufman to demonstrate some comedic range, his character was given multiple personality disorder, which allowed Kaufman to randomly portray other characters. In one episode of Taxi, Kaufman's character came down with a condition which made him act like Alex Reiger, the main character played by Judd Hirsch. Another such recurring character played by Kaufman was the womanizing Vic Ferrari. His role lead to two Golden Globe nominations, in 1979 and 1981.^[12]

Taxi was an award-winning show with a large audience and Kaufman was widely recognized as Latka. On some occasions, audiences would show up to one of Kaufman's stage performances expecting to see him perform as Latka, and heckling him with demands when he did not. Kaufman would punish these audiences with the announcement that he was going to read the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald to them. The audience would laugh at this, not realizing that he was serious, and Kaufman would proceed to read the book to them, continuing despite audience members' departure.^[6] At a certain point, he would ask the audience if they wanted him to keep reading, or play a record. When the audience chose to hear the record, the record he cued up was a recording of him continuing to read The Great Gatsby from where he had left off.

Tony Clifton[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Another well-known Kaufman character is Tony Clifton, an audience-abusing lounge singer who began opening for Kaufman at comedy clubs and eventually even performed concerts on his own around the country. Sometimes it was Kaufman performing as Clifton, sometimes it was his brother Michael or his friend Bob Zmuda. For a brief time, it was unclear to some that Clifton was not a real person. News programs interviewed Clifton as Kaufman's opening act, with the mood turning ugly whenever Kaufman's name came up. Kaufman, Clifton insisted, was attempting to ruin Clifton's "good name" in order to make money and get famous.

As a requirement for Kaufman accepting the offer to star on Taxi, he insisted that Clifton be hired for a guest role on the show as if he were a real person, not a character. After throwing a tantrum on the set, Clifton was fired and escorted off of the studio lot by security guards. Much to Kaufman's delight, this incident was reported in the local newspapers. Paramount Television and producers James L. Brooks and Stan Daniels later released a statement that said that although Clifton was "no longer welcome on the set", his friend Andy Kaufman would continue in his role as Latka, which he did until the show ended its run in 1983.

Carnegie Hall show[link]

At the beginning of an April 1979 performance at New York's Carnegie Hall, Kaufman invited his "grandmother" to watch the show from a chair he had placed at the side of the stage. At the end of the show, she stood up, took her mask off and revealed to the audience that she was actually comedian Robin Williams in disguise. Kaufman also had an elderly woman (named Eleanor Cody Gould) appear to have a heart attack and die on stage, at which point he reappeared on stage wearing a Native American headdress and performed a dance over her body, seeming to revive her.

The performance is most famous for Kaufman ending the show by actually taking the entire audience, in twenty-four buses, out for milk and cookies. He invited anyone interested to meet him on the Staten Island Ferry the next morning, where the show continued. This kind of performance art was a hallmark of Kaufman's career. This was depicted in the biopic Man on the Moon; however, in the movie, it takes place after Kaufman was diagnosed with cancer, when in reality, it took place nearly four years earlier.

[edit] Andy's Funhouse

The Taxi deal with ABC included giving Kaufman a television special/pilot. He came up with Andy's Funhouse, based on an old routine he had developed while in junior college. The special was taped in 1977 but did not air until August 1979, on ABC.^[13] It featured most of Andy's famous gags, including Foreign Man/Latka and his Elvis Presley impersonation, as well as a host of unique segments (including a special appearance by children's television character Howdy Doody and the "Has-been Corner"). There also was a segment that included fake television screen static as part of the gag, which ABC executives were not comfortable with, fearing that viewers would mistake the static for broadcast problems and would change the channel—which was the comic element Kaufman wanted to present. Andy's Funhouse was written by Kaufman, Zmuda, and Mel Sherer, with music by Kaufman.

In 1980 a very similar looking show to Funhouse would be filmed for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)'s SoundStage program, called the The Andy Kaufman Show. It would feature a peanut gallery like Funhouse and is often confused with Andy's Funhouse. The show opens right in the middle of an interview Kaufman is doing in which he is laughing hysterically, and then he proceeds to thank the audience for watching and the credits roll. After this, opening credits do come on and the show has its "proper" beginning. This show is easy to confuse with Andy's Funhouse as they both feature "The Has-Been Corner" and Kaufman wears his "I Love Grandma" shirt in both shows among other similarities.

[edit] The Fridays incident

In 1981, Kaufman made three appearances on Fridays, a variety show on ABC that was similar to Saturday Night Live.^[14] Kaufman's first appearance on the show proved to be memorable. During a sketch about four people out on a dinner date who excuse themselves to the restroom to smoke marijuana, Kaufman broke character and refused to say his lines.

In response, cast member Michael Richards walked off camera and returned with a set of cue cards and dumped them on the table in front of Kaufman. Andy responded by splashing Richards with water. Co-producer Jack Burns stormed onto the stage, leading to a brawl on camera before the show abruptly cut away to commercial.^[15] It was later revealed that this incident was a practical joke which was known to Richards, associate producer Burns and Kaufman but no one else on the cast or crew.^[16]

In continuation of the joke, Kaufman appeared the following week in a videotaped apology to the home viewers. Later that year, Kaufman returned to host Fridays. At one point in the show, he invited a Lawrence Welk Show gospel and standards singer, Kathie Sullivan, on stage to sing a few gospel songs with him and announced that the two were engaged to be married, then talked to the audience about his newfound faith in Jesus (Kaufman was Jewish). That was also a hoax. Later, following a sketch about a drug-abusing pharmacist, Kaufman was supposed to introduce the band The Pretenders. Instead of introducing the band, he delivered a nervous speech about the harmfulness of drugs while the band stood behind him ready to play. After his speech, he informed the audience that he had talked for too long and had to go to a commercial.

Professional wrestling[link]

Kaufman grew up admiring the world of professional wrestling.^{[citation needed]} Inspired by the theatricality of kayfabe, the staged nature of the sport, and his own tendency to form elaborate hoaxes, Kaufman began wrestling women during his act and was the self-proclaimed "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World", taking on an aggressive and ridiculous personality based upon the characters invented by professional wrestlers. He offered a $1,000 prize to any woman who could pin him. He employed his friend, the performance artist Laurie Anderson as a stooge in this act for a while.

Kaufman initially approached the head of the World Wrestling Federation Vince McMahon Sr. about bringing his act to the New York wrestling territory. McMahon dismissed Kaufman's idea as the elder McMahon was not about to bring "show business" into his Pro Wrestling society. Kaufman had by then developed a friendship with Wrestling magazine reporter/photographer Bill Apter. After many discussions about Andy wanting to be in the Pro Wrestling business, Apter called Memphis' iconic Jerry Lawler and introduced him to Kaufman by telephone from Apter's apartment in Queens, New York. That put the key in the ignition and as they say -- "the rest is history." The battles between Kaufman and Lawler became legend and was really the first "sports entertainment" angle that became known worldwide and is being seen even today on TV stations such as Comedy Central.

Later, after a challenge from professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler, Kaufman would step into the ring (in the Memphis wrestling circuit) with a man—Lawler himself.^[6] Kaufman taunted the whole city of Memphis, sending "videos showing residents how to use soap" and proclaiming it to be "the nation's redneck capital."^[6] Their ongoing feud, often featuring Jimmy Hart and other heels in Kaufman's corner, included a broken neck for Kaufman as a result of Lawler's piledriver and a famous on-air fight on a 1982 episode of Late Night with David Letterman. For some time after that, Kaufman appeared wearing a neck brace,^[6] insisting that his injuries were worse than they were. Kaufman would continue to defend the Inter-Gender Championship in the Mid-South Coliseum and offered an extra prize, other than the $1,000: that if he were pinned, the woman who pinned him would get to marry him and that Kaufman would also shave his head.^{[citation needed]}

Kaufman and Lawler's famous feud and wrestling matches were later revealed to have been staged, or a "work", as the two were actually friends. The truth about its being a "work" was not disclosed until more than 10 years after Kaufman's death, when the Emmy-nominated documentary, A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman, aired on NBC in 1995. Coincidentally, Jim Carrey, the one who revealed the secret, later went on to play Kaufman in the 1999 film Man on the Moon. In a 1997 interview with the Memphis Flyer, Lawler claimed he had improvised during their first match and the Letterman incident. Although officials at St. Francis Hospital^{[disambiguation needed ]} stated that Kaufman's neck injuries were real, in his 2002 biography It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes, Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle and kept it quiet. Even though Kaufman's injury was legitimate, the pair pretended that the injury was more severe than it was. He also said that Kaufman's explosion on Letterman was Kaufman's own idea, including when Lawler slapped Kaufman out of his chair.

Kaufman also appeared in the 1983 film My Breakfast with Blassie with professional wrestling personality "Classy" Freddie Blassie, a parody of the art film My Dinner With Andre. The film was directed by Johnny Legend, who employed his sister Lynne Margulies as one of the girls who appears in the film. Margulies met Kaufman for the first time on camera, and they later became a couple, living together until Kaufman's death.

Appearances[link]

Although Kaufman made a name for himself as a guest on NBC's Saturday Night Live, his first prime time appearances were several guest spots as the 'Foreign Man' on Dick Van Dyke's variety show in 1976. He also appeared four times on The Tonight Show^[17] from 1976–1978, three times on The Midnight Special in 1972, 1977 and 1981.^[18] In the 1977 episode, Kaufman performed a song called "I Trusted You" (which features only those three words, repeated over and over, as lyrics), while in 1981 he is shown sitting in the audience during Tony Clifton's act (although it was obvious Kaufman was not in the audience during the sketch).

His SNL appearances started with the inaugural October 11, 1975 show; he made 16 SNL appearances in all,^[19] although his last two appearances were pre-taped.^{[citation needed]} He would do routines from his comedy act, such as the Mighty Mouse sing-along, Foreign Man character, the Elvis impersonation, etc. After he angered the audience with his female wrestling routine, in January 1983 Kaufman did make a pre-taped appearance (his 16th) on the show, where he asked the audience if he should ever appear on the show again, and said that he would honor the audience's decision and stay off the show if the vote was negative. SNL ran a phone vote, and close to 195,544 people voted to "Dump Andy" and approximately 169,186 people voted to "Keep Andy",^[20] so Kaufman did not appear "live" but Saturday Night Live did air a tape of him thanking the 169,186 people who had voted "yes" for him to appear again.

Though it was never made clear whether this was a gag, Kaufman did not appear on the show again. During the SNL episode with the Keep Andy/Dump Andy phone poll, many of the cast stated their admiration for Andy's work and read the "Keep Andy" number more clearly than the "Dump Andy" number.^[21] After Eddie Murphy read both numbers, he said, "Now Andy Kaufman is a friend of mine. Keep that in mind when you call. I don't want to have to punch nobody in America in the face." Mary Gross read the "Dump Andy" number at a rate so fast that audiences were unable to catch it.^[21] The final tally was read by Gary Kroeger to a cheering audience. As the credits rolled, announcer Don Pardo said, "This is Don Pardo saying, 'I voted for Andy Kaufman.'"

Kaufman made a number of appearances on the daytime The David Letterman Show in 1980, and eleven appearances on Late Night with David Letterman in 1982-1983,^[22] including one where he claimed to be homeless and begged the audience for money and one where he talked about his adopted children, who turned out to be three fully-grown black men.^{[citation needed]}

He appeared twice on The Merv Griffin Show (1979–1980),^[23] and once, in 1978 as a participant, on The Dating Game^[24] under a presumed name and as a supposedly real contestant. He also made numerous guest spots on other television programs hosted by or starring celebrities like Johnny Cash (1979 Christmas special), Dick Van Dyke, Dinah Shore, Rodney Dangerfield, Cher, Dean Martin, Redd Foxx, Mike Douglas, Dick Clark, and Joe Franklin.^[25]

He appeared in his first theatrical film God Told Me To in 1976, where he portrayed a murderous policeman. He also appeared in several others, including as a televangelist in the 1980 film In God We Tru$t.

Laurie Anderson worked alongside Andy Kaufman for a time in 1970s, acting as a sort of straight woman in a number of his Manhattan and Coney Island performances. One of these performances included getting on a ride that people stand in and get spun around. After everyone was strapped in Kaufman would start saying how he did not want to be on the ride in a panicked tone and eventually cry. Anderson later described these performances in her 1995 album The Ugly One with the Jewels.

At Park West Theatre in Chicago on March 26, 1982, Kaufman performed stage hypnosis where he induced local DJ Steve Dahl to urinate while sitting in a large box. Other staged inductions included Bob Zmuda's childhood friend Joe Troiani mimicking the behavior of a pig and long-time friend Bill Karmia dressed as a police officer arresting Kaufman for inducing public nudity with a woman he had hypnotized.

Personal life[link]

Kaufman never married. He was survived by his father^[26] and daughter, Maria Colonna, who was born in 1969 out of wedlock with a high-school girlfriend of Kaufman's, but later placed for adoption. Colonna learned in 1992 that she was the daughter of Andy Kaufman when she traced her biological roots.^[27]

On December 5, 1969, while in college, Kaufman learned Transcendental Meditation.^[28] According to a BBC article, Kaufman used Transcendental Meditation to build confidence and take his act to comedy clubs. For the rest of his life Kaufman meditated and performed yoga three hours a day.^[29] He trained as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation in Majorca, Spain from February to June, 1971.^[28]

Illness and death[link]

At Thanksgiving dinner with his family on Long Island, New York in November 1983, several family members grew concerned over Kaufman's persistent coughing during the dinner, and openly expressed worry about it. Kaufman claimed to them that he had the cough for nearly a month, but also claimed that an initial visit to his doctor told him that nothing was wrong. After returning to Los Angeles, Kaufman consulted a physician where he checked himself into Cedars-Sinai Hospital for a series of medical tests and a few days later, he was diagnosed with a rare type of lung cancer. Despite his doctor's prognosis that there was no hope for recovery, Kaufman fought the disease until his death.

After audiences were shocked by his gaunt appearance during his performances in January 1984, Kaufman acknowledged having an unspecified illness, which he hoped to cure with "natural medicine" including an all-fruit-and-vegetables diet, among other measures. Kaufman received palliative radiotherapy, but by then the cancer had rapidly spread from his lungs to his brain. His last resort was "psychic surgery", a pseudo-procedure performed in Baguio, Philippines, in March 1984. Kaufman died in a hospital in Los Angeles on May 16, 1984^[30] of kidney failure, caused by metastasized large cell carcinoma, and was interred in the Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York (Long Island). He was 35 years old. Because he kept the true nature of his illness a secret—almost until the day he died—fans have, over the years, doubted Kaufman's death, thinking that he staged it as the ultimate Andy Kaufman stunt.

Kaufman allegedly told many people—including Bob Zmuda—that he wished to fake his own death prior to his actual death. This has caused some fans to believe Kaufman is still alive.^[31] Kaufman himself purportedly claimed that if he were to fake his death, he would return 20 years later, which would have been in 2004.^[32]

The 1999 Jim Carrey film Man on the Moon leaves the question open-ended. "Tony Clifton" performed a year after Kaufman's death at The Comedy Store benefit in Kaufman's honor, with members of his entourage in attendance. Bob Zmuda has acknowledged "death hoax" rumors over the years quite tongue-in-cheek, admitting that Kaufman and he had discussed faking his death at times and that he seemed "obsessed with the idea", but he maintains the opinion that Kaufman truly did die and his death was not faked. Bob Zmuda claims he does not think he would be cruel enough to go this long without making contact with his family if he was still alive. His official website states that his death was not a hoax.^[33]

During 1990s, "Tony Clifton" made several appearances at LA nightclubs, prompting speculation that perhaps Kaufman was still alive and working under the makeup. Jim Carrey stated on the NBC special Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman that the Clifton character had been passed on by Kaufman to Bob Zmuda while he was still alive. Kaufman's death certificate is on file with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and is also available on the website The Smoking Gun.^[26]

Filmography[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Acting[link]

Writing[link]

• The Andy Kaufman Special aka Andy's Funhouse (Filmed 1977 as Pilot, Aired on ABC in 1979) (TV)
• The Andy Kaufman Show (filmed in 1980 for PBS's Soundstage) (TV)
• Andy Kaufman Plays Carnegie Hall (1980) (V)
• I'm From Hollywood (1989) (uncredited)
• GOD...and other plays (1999)
• The Huey Williams Story (1999)
• Poetry and Stories (2000)

Composing[link]

• Man on the Moon (1999) (song "Oh, The Cow Goes Moo")

Producing[link]

• The Andy Kaufman Special (1979) (TV) (producer)

Notable TV guest appearances[link]

Legacy[link]

Jim Carrey portrayed Kaufman in the 1999 biopic film Man on the Moon, directed by Miloš Forman. The film took its title from the band R.E.M. song of the same name, which also mentions Kaufman's name. Comedian Richard Lewis in A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman said of him: "No one has ever done what Andy did, and did it as well, and no one will ever. Because he did it first. So did Buster Keaton, so did Andy.".^[34] Carl Reiner recalled his distinction in the comedy world: "Did Andy influence comedy? No. Because nobody's doing what he did. Jim Carrey was influenced—not do what Andy did, but to follow his own drummer. I think Andy did that for a lot of people. Follow your own drumbeat. You didn't have to go up there and say 'take my wife, please.' You could do anything that struck you as entertaining. It gave people freedom to be themselves."

References[link]

This article's references may not meet Wikipedia's guidelines for reliable sources. Please help by checking whether the references meet the criteria for reliable sources. (April 2012)

Further reading[link]

• Zehme, Bill (2001), Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman, Delta Books. ISBN 0-385-33372-2
• Zmuda, Bob (2001), Andy Kaufman Revealed!: Best Friend Tells All, Back Bay Books. ISBN 0-316-61098-4
• Hecht, Julie (2001), Was This Man a Genius? Talks with Andy Kaufman, Vintage Books. ISBN 0-375-50457-5

External links[link]

• The Tony Clifton Story the "lost" Kaufman screenplay

Merv Griffin
Born	Mervyn Edward Griffin, Jr. (1925-07-06)July 6, 1925 San Mateo, California, United States
Died	August 12, 2007(2007-08-12) (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, United States
Cause of death	Prostate cancer
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park, United States 34°03′30″N 118°26′28″W / 34.0583468°N 118.4411348°W / 34.0583468; -118.4411348
Occupation	Actor, talk show host, entertainer, business magnate
Years active	1944–2007
Spouse	Julann Wright (1958–1976; divorced)
Children	Tony Griffin (b. 1959)[1]

Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul.^[2] He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W (Westinghouse) Broadcasting. Griffin created the game shows Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Click, and Merv Griffin's Crosswords with his own "Merv Griffin Enterprises" television production company. During his life Griffin was considered an entertainment business magnate.

Early life[link]

Griffin was born into an Irish-American family on July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California, to Mervyn Edward Griffin, Sr., a stock broker, and Rita Elizabeth Griffin (née Robinson),^[3] a homemaker. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist. This is one of the reasons he got into show business early; he was considered a piano prodigy. He attended San Mateo High School, class of 1942, and continued to aid in financing the school.^[4]

During World War II, Merv was declared 4F after failing several military physical exams due to having a slight heart murmur.^[5] Drafted for service during the Korean War, he was then deemed fit for service, but was considered too old as the draft limit was 26 and he had just turned 27.

Career[link]

Singing at 19[link]

Griffin started as a singer on radio at age 19, appearing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at KFRC. Griffin was overweight as a teenager, which disappointed his radio fans.^[5] Embarrassed by their reaction, Griffin resolved to lose weight and change his image, losing 80 pounds in four months. Freddy Martin heard him on the radio show and asked Griffin to tour with his orchestra,^[1] which he did for four years.^[6]

He also had an uncredited role as a radio announcer in the 1953 horror/science fiction classic The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

By 1945, Griffin earned enough to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced Songs by Merv Griffin, the first American album ever recorded on magnetic tape.^[7] He became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences, and his fame soared among the general public with his 1950 hit I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts. The song reached the number one spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies.^[8]

At one of his nightclub performances, Griffin was discovered by Doris Day. Day arranged for a screen test at Warner Brothers Studios for a role in By the Light of the Silvery Moon. Griffin didn't get the part, but the screen test led to supporting roles in other musical films such as So This is Love in 1953.^[9] The film caused a minor controversy when Griffin shared an open-mouthed kiss with Kathryn Grayson. The kiss was a first in Hollywood film history since the introduction of the Production Code in 1934.^[10]

Griffin would go on to film more pictures, namely, The Boy from Oklahoma and Phantom of the Rue Morgue, but soon became disillusioned with movie making. Griffin bought his contract back from Warner Brothers and decided to focus on a new medium: television.^[4]

Game show host[link]

From 1958 to 1962, Griffin hosted a game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman called Play Your Hunch. The show appeared on all three networks, but primarily on NBC. He also hosted a prime time game show for ABC called Keep Talking. Additionally, he also substituted for a week for the vacationing Bill Cullen on The Price Is Right, and also for Bud Collyer on To Tell The Truth. In 1963, NBC offered him the opportunity to host a new game show, Word for Word, which Griffin produced. He also produced Let's Play Post Office for NBC in 1965; Reach for the Stars for NBC in 1967; and One in a Million for ABC in 1967.

Talk show host[link]

Griffin scored a coup when Jack Paar accidentally emerged onto the set of Play Your Hunch during a live broadcast, and Griffin got him to stay for a spontaneous interview. The interview led to a guest-hosting spot on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Paar.

While Johnny Carson finished his CBS contract before taking over Tonight after Paar in October 1962, Griffin was one of the many guest hosts NBC used. He found hosting a live show very uncomfortable and attempted to quit after only a few minutes on camera. His producer forced him back onto the stage, however, and Griffin was considered the most successful of the guest hosts,^[11] with his own daytime talk show on NBC in 1962.

By the mid 1960s, many other big band singers (such as Dinah Shore and Mike Douglas), had reinvented themselves as talk show hosts. In 1965, Griffin launched a syndicated talk show for Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting): The Merv Griffin Show. The show aired in a variety of time slots throughout North America; many stations ran it in the daytime, some broadcast it opposite Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. Griffin's announcer/sidekick was the veteran British character actor Arthur Treacher, who had been his mentor. After Treacher left the show, Griffin would do the announcing himself, and walk on stage with the phrase: "And now..., here I come!" According to an obituary article on August 24, 2007 in Entertainment Weekly, The Merv Griffin Show was on the air for 21 years and won eleven Emmy Awards during its run.

Griffin was not shy about tackling controversial subjects, especially the Vietnam War. The guests on the Westinghouse show were an eclectic mix of entertainers, authors, politicians, and "personality" performers like Zsa Zsa Gabor. Griffin also booked controversial guests like George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, Norman Mailer, and Bertrand Russell. Griffin received critical acclaim for booking such guests, but was also widely criticized for it. When philosopher and anti-war activist Bertrand Russell used Griffin's show to condemn the war in Vietnam, Griffin was criticized for letting Russell have his say. Arnold Schwarzenegger made his talk show debut in the United States on Griffin's talk show in 1974 after moving from Austria and becoming a bodybuilder.

Griffin dedicated two shows to the topic of Transcendental Meditation and its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, one in 1975, the other in 1977. Griffin himself was an enthusiastic student of the practice.^[12]

Griffin and sidekick Arthur Treacher in 1969.

Griffin would also frequently chat with audience members.^[4] One regular audience member, Lillian Miller, would become a fixture on Griffin's program throughout its run.

Merv's best friend since the sixth grade, Robert (Bob) Murphy, was the producer of The Merv Griffin Show, and eventually became president of Merv Griffin Enterprises.

Late-night host[link]

CBS gave Griffin a late-night show opposite Johnny Carson in 1969, a move which proved disastrous. The network was uncomfortable with the guests Griffin wanted, who often spoke out against the Vietnam War and on other taboo topics. When political activist Abbie Hoffman was Griffin's guest in April 1970, CBS blurred the video of Hoffman so viewers at home would not see his trademark American flag pattern shirt even though other guests had worn the same shirt in the past, uncensored. Griffin disliked the censorship imposed by CBS and complained.^[4]

Sensing that his time at CBS was ending, and tired of the restrictions imposed by the network, Griffin secretly signed a contract with rival company Metromedia. The contract with Metromedia would give him a syndicated daytime talk show deal as soon as CBS canceled Griffin's show. Within a few months, Griffin was fired by CBS. His new show began the following Monday and ran until the mid 1980s. By 1986, Griffin was ready to retire and ended his talk show run. Due to profits from his highly successful game shows, Griffin had become one of the world's wealthiest entertainers.^[4]

Game show creator[link]

Griffin created and produced the successful television game show Jeopardy! in 1964; in an Associated Press profile released right before the show premiered, Griffin talked about the show's origins:^[1]

My wife Julann just came up with the idea one day when we were in a plane bringing us back to New York from Duluth. I was mulling over game show ideas, when she noted that there had not been a successful 'question and answer' game on the air since the quiz show scandals. Why not do a switch, and give the answers to the contestant and let them come up with the question.

She fired a couple of answers to me: '5,280' and the question of course was how many feet in a mile. Another was '79 Wistful Vista.' That was Fibber and Mollie McGee's address. I loved the idea, went straight to NBC with the idea, and they bought it without even looking at a pilot show. Merv's Califon Productions was named for the New Jersey town in which he and wife lived.

The show premiered on NBC on March 30, 1964, hosted by Art Fleming, and lasted for 11 years. Merv wrote the 30-second piece of music heard during the show's Final Jeopardy! Round, and which later became the melody of the theme for the show in the first part of Alex Trebek era.

In 1975, NBC canceled Jeopardy! after moving it twice on their daytime schedule and despite having an additional year on its network contract left to fulfill. Griffin produced the show's successor, Wheel of Fortune. Premiering on January 6, 1975, Wheel with Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford as host and hostess, had mediocre ratings throughout its network run, yet was expanded to an hour, in response to the successful 60-minute version of The Price Is Right on CBS. It barely escaped cancellation in 1980, when NBC replaced all its other game shows with a daytime talk show starring David Letterman; NBC finally cancelled it in 1989, when CBS picked it up for a year, only to return to NBC, when the daytime version was finally cancelled for good in 1991. It became a phenomenon when on September 19, 1983, Wheel of Fortune hit the syndication market with Pat Sajak and Vanna White as hosts. Two different revivals of Jeopardy! would be produced: one on NBC that ran for five months in late 1978/early 1979 with Art Fleming returning as host, and the other airing in first-run syndication beginning on September 10, 1984, starring Alex Trebek. Both Jeopardy! and the night version of Wheel of Fortune remain on the air today in syndication.

In 1990, Griffin had an ambitious but unsuccessful attempt at adapting the venerable board game Monopoly into a game show of the same name. His biggest failure was a wild game show called Ruckus, which emanated from the Resorts International Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, which he owned at the time. Involving slapstick stunts and a somewhat truncated version of his old Reach For the Stars, the show initially aired locally in New York, with the intent of national syndication early the following year. But the ratings were abysmal, and the plug was pulled on the show after several weeks. A national audience did get a look at it, via reruns that aired for a time on GSN.

Upon his retirement, Griffin sold his production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, to Columbia Pictures Television unit for US$250 million on May 6, 1986, the largest acquisition of an entertainment company owned by a single individual at that time. Following the sale, Forbes named him the richest Hollywood performer in history. He retained the title of creator of both shows.

The two powerhouses spun off numerous programs, and Griffin often would sign on as a creative consultant. The spin-offs included Wheel 2000 on CBS in 1997 and the short lived Jep! on GSN in 1998, both for children; Rock & Roll Jeopardy! on VH1 in 1998 for purveyors of pop music trivia; a teen-oriented game called Click!, which introduced a youngster named Ryan Seacrest as its host, and in association with Wink Martindale, Headline Chasers in 1985.

On May 14, 2003, Griffin was honored with the BMI President's Award at the annual BMI Film and Television Awards ceremony. Among his other achievements, Griffin created what has to be one of America's best-known melodies: the immortal theme to his game show, "Jeopardy!"^[13]

In 2007, Griffin's production company, Merv Griffin Entertainment, began pre-production on a new syndicated game show Merv Griffin's Crosswords (originally titled Let's Play Crosswords and Let's Do Crosswords). The show taped in Los Angeles after initial reports that it would be produced at WMAQ-TV in Chicago. The show was produced in association with Program Partners and the William Morris Agency and began airing September 10, 2007. NBC-owned-and-operated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Dallas carried the show, with many stations airing two episodes per day.

Business ventures[link]

Griffin ventured into real estate, purchasing the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. He also purchased Resorts Hotel and Casino, formerly Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel in Atlantic City from Donald Trump in 1988. An active desert resident, he was a supporter of the La Quinta Arts Festival and the owner of the Merv Griffin Givenchy Resort & Spa in Palm Springs, now The Parker. He owned a ranch near La Quinta, California where he raised thoroughbred racehorses, as well as St. Clerans Manor, a boutique hotel, set in an eighteenth-century estate once owned by director John Huston, near Craughwell, County Galway Galway, Ireland. In the 1980s, Griffin purchased Paradise Island in the Bahamas for US$400 million from Donald Trump, but he later sold it for just US$125 million. Merv Griffin sold his empire for $250 million to Coca-Cola in 1986, he then went on a buying spree of hotels and his wealth in 2003 was said to be around $1.2 billion.^[14][15]

In March 2001, Griffin returned to singing with the release of the album It's Like a Dream.

Personal life[link]

Griffin kept many details of his personal and business life private. On being wealthy he said that "if people know you're rich they don't talk with you when you walk down the street." He kept his wealth as an open secret, amassing media outlets, hotels and casinos with a net worth widely estimated at more than a billion dollars. Griffin stated he didn't really know his worth because it “would keep me from sleeping at night.”^[16] He and former First Lady Nancy Reagan exchanged birthday greetings each July 6, for they shared the same birthday. Griffin was also an honorary pallbearer at the funeral of President Ronald Reagan in 2004. He was friends with both of the Reagans for many years.^[17] He remained friends with his ex-wife, whom he credited with creating the premise of Jeopardy!.

Illness and death[link]

Merv Griffin's grave

Griffin's prostate cancer, treated originally in 1996, returned and he was admitted to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where his condition deteriorated, leading to his death on August 12, 2007.^[18][19] Griffin is survived by his son, Tony, born in 1959 during Griffin's marriage to Julann Wright from 1958 to 1976. He is also survived by two grandchildren.^[20]