Andy Rooney
Born	Andrew Aitken Rooney (1919-01-14)January 14, 1919 Albany, New York[1]
Died	November 4, 2011(2011-11-04) (aged 92) New York City, New York
Notable work(s)	The weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" on 60 Minutes
Notable award(s)	Emmy 2003 Lifetime Achievement 1980 "Tanks" 1980 "Grain" 1978 "Who Owns What in America" 1968 "Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed"
Spouse(s)	Marguerite Rooney (m. 1942–2004) «start: (1942)–end+1: (2005)»"Marriage: Marguerite Rooney to Andy Rooney" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Andy_Rooney)(her death)
Children	Brian, Emily, Martha, Ellen
Influences Harry Reasoner, Mike Wallace, E. B. White

Andrew Aitken "Andy" Rooney (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer. He was most notable for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney," a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired October 2, 2011. He died one month later, on November 4, 2011, at age 92.

Early life[link]

Andrew Rooney was born in Albany, the son of Walter Scott Rooney (1888–1959) and Ellinor (Reynolds) Rooney (1886–1980). He attended The Albany Academy,^[2] and later attended Colgate University in Hamilton in Central New York,^[3] where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity, before he was drafted into the United States Army in August 1941.

World War II[link]

Rooney began his career in newspapers while in the Army when, in 1942, he began writing for Stars and Stripes in London during World War II.^[4]

In February 1943, flying with the Eighth Air Force, he was one of six correspondents who flew on the second American bombing raid over Germany.^[5] Later, he was one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II, and one of the first to write about them. During a segment on Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, Rooney stated that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist. He recounted that what he saw in those concentration camps made him ashamed that he had opposed the war and permanently changed his opinions about whether "just wars" exist.

For his service as a war correspondent in combat zones during the war Rooney was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal.^[6]

Rooney's 1995 memoir, My War, chronicles his war reporting. In addition to recounting firsthand several notable historical events and people (including the entry into Paris and the Nazi concentration camps), Rooney describes how it shaped his experience both as a writer and reporter.^[5]

Career[link]

Rooney joined CBS in 1949, as a writer for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts,^[5] when Godfrey was at his peak on CBS radio and TV. It opened the show up to a variety of viewers. The program was a hit, reaching number one in 1952, during Rooney's tenure with the program. It was the beginning of a close life-long friendship between Rooney and Godfrey. He wrote for Godfrey's daytime radio and TV show Arthur Godfrey Time. He later moved on to The Garry Moore Show,^[7] which became a hit program. During the same period, he wrote for CBS News public affairs programs such as The Twentieth Century.

According to CBS News's biography of him, "Rooney wrote his first television essay, a longer-length precursor of the type he does on 60 Minutes, in 1964, "An Essay on Doors."^[8] From 1962, to 1968, he collaborated with another close friend, the late CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner — Rooney writing and producing, Reasoner narrating — on such notable CBS News specials as "An Essay on Bridges" (1965),^[8] "An Essay on Hotels" (1966),^[8] "An Essay on Women" (1967),^[8] and "The Strange Case of the English Language" (1968).^[8] In 1968, he wrote two CBS News specials in the series "Of Black America,"^[8] and his script for "Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed" won him his first Emmy."^[9]

When CBS declined to broadcast "An Essay on War" in 1970, Rooney quit CBS and read the opinion himself on PBS — his first appearance on television.^[10] That show in 1971 won Rooney his third Writers Guild Award.^[8] Rooney re-joined CBS in 1973, to write and produce special programs.^[10] Rooney also wrote the script for the 1975 documentary FDR: The Man Who Changed America.

After his return to the network, Rooney wrote and appeared in several prime-time specials for CBS, including In Praise of New York City (1974),^[7] the Peabody Award-winning Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington (1975),^[7] Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner (1978),^[7] and Mr. Rooney Goes to Work (1977).^[7] Transcripts of these specials, as well as of some of the earlier collaborations with Reasoner, are contained in the book A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney. Another special, Andy Rooney Takes Off, followed in 1984.

[edit] A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney

Rooney's "end-of-show" segment on 60 Minutes, "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" (originally "Three Minutes or So With Andy Rooney"^[5]), began in 1978, as a summer replacement for the debate segment "Point/Counterpoint"^[5] featuring Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick. The segment proved popular enough with viewers that beginning in the fall of 1978, it was seen in alternate weeks with the debate segment. At the end of the 1978–1979 season, "Point/Counterpoint" was dropped altogether.^[5]

In the segment, Rooney typically offered satire on a trivial everyday issue, such as the cost of groceries, annoying relatives, or faulty Christmas presents. Rooney's appearances on "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" often included whimsical lists, e.g., types of milk,^[11] bottled water brands,^[12] car brands,^[13] sports mascots,^[14] etc. In later years, his segments became more political as well. Despite being best known for his television presence on 60 Minutes, Rooney always considered himself a writer who incidentally appeared on television behind his famous walnut table, which he made himself.

Controversies[link]

Rooney made a number of comments which elicited strong reactions from fans and producers alike.

Insensitivity towards minorities[link]

Rooney wrote a column in 1992 that posited that it was "silly" for Native Americans to complain about team names like the Redskins, in which he wrote in part, "The real problem is, we took the country away from the Indians, they want it back and we're not going to give it to them. We feel guilty and we'll do what we can for them within reason, but they can't have their country back. Next question."^[15]

In a 2007 column for Tribune media services, he wrote, "I know all about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but today's baseball stars are all guys named Rodriguez to me." Rooney later commented, "Yeah, I probably shouldn't have said it, [but] it's a name that seems common in baseball now. I certainly didn't think of it in any derogatory sense."^[15]

In 1990, Rooney was suspended without pay for three months by then-CBS News President David Burke, because of the negative publicity around his saying that "too much alcohol, too much food, drugs, homosexual unions, cigarettes [are] all known to lead to premature death."^[16] He wrote an explanatory letter to a gay organization after being ordered not to do so. After only four weeks without Rooney, 60 Minutes lost 20 percent of its audience. CBS management then decided that it was in the best interest of the network to have Rooney return immediately.^[17]

After Rooney's reinstatement, he made his remorse public:

Rooney always denied that he was a racist. In the 1940s, he was arrested after sitting in the back of a segregated bus in protest.^[19] Also, in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, Rooney applauded the fact that "the citizens of this country, 80 percent of whom are white, freely chose to elect a black man as their leader simply because they thought he was the best choice." He said that makes him proud, and that it proves that the country has "come a long way — a good way."^[20]

Remarks on Kurt Cobain's suicide[link]

In a 1994 segment, Rooney attracted controversy with his remarks on Kurt Cobain's suicide. He expressed his dismay that the death of Richard Nixon was overshadowed by Cobain's suicide, stating that he had never heard of Cobain nor his band, Nirvana. He went on to say that Cobain's suicide made him angry. "A lot of people would like to have the years left that he threw away," Rooney said. "What's all this nonsense about how terrible life is?" he asked, adding rhetorically to a young woman who had wept at the suicide, "I'd love to relieve the pain you're going through by switching my age for yours." In addition, he asked "What would all these young people be doing if they had real problems like a Depression, World War II or Vietnam?" and commented that "If [Cobain] applied the same brain to his music that he applied to his drug-infested life, it's reasonable to think that his music may not have made much sense either."^[21]

On the following Sunday's show, he apologized on the air, saying he should have taken Cobain's depression into account. He also read only critical feedback from listeners without interjecting any commentary of his own.^[22][23]

Collections and retirement[link]

Rooney's shorter television essays have been archived in numerous books, such as Common Nonsense, which came out in 2002,^[24] and Years of Minutes, probably his best-known work, released in 2003.^[25] He penned a regular syndicated column for Tribune Media Services that ran in many newspapers in the United States, and which has been collected in book form. He won three Emmy Awards for his essays,^[26] which numbered over 1,000. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003.^[27] Rooney's renown made him a frequent target of parodies and impersonations by a diverse group of comedic figures, including Frank Caliendo, Rich Little and Beavis.

In 1993, CBS released a two-volume VHS tape set of the best of Rooney's commentaries and field reports, called "The Andy Rooney Television Collection — His Best Minutes." In 2006, CBS released three DVDs of his more recent commentaries, "Andy Rooney On Almost Everything," "Things That Bother Andy Rooney," and "Andy Rooney's Solutions."^{[citation needed]}

Rooney's final regular appearance on 60 Minutes was on October 2, 2011,^[28] after 33 years on the show.^[29] It was his 1,097th commentary.^[30]

Views[link]

He claimed on Larry King Live to have a liberal bias, stating, "There is just no question that I, among others, have a liberal bias. I mean, I'm consistently liberal in my opinions."^[31] In a controversial 1999 book Rooney self-identified as agnostic,^[32] but by 2004 he was calling himself an atheist.^[33] He reaffirmed this in 2008.^[34] Over the years, many of his editorials poked fun at the concept of God and organized religion. Increased speculation on this was brought to a head by a series of comments he made regarding Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ (2004).^[35]

Though Rooney has been called Irish-American, he once said "I'm proud of my Irish heritage, but I'm not Irish. I'm not even Irish-American. I am American, period."

In 2005, when four people were fired at CBS News perhaps because of the Killian documents controversy, Rooney said, "The people on the front lines got fired while the people most instrumental in getting the broadcast on escaped." Others at CBS had "kept mum" about the controversy.^[36]

Personal life[link]

Rooney was married to Marguerite "Margie" Rooney (née Howard) for 62 years, until she died of heart failure in 2004. He later wrote, "her name does not appear as often as it originally did [in my essays] because it hurts too much to write it."^[37] They had four children; Brian, Emily, Martha and Ellen. His daughter Emily Rooney is a TV talk show host and former ABC News producer who went on to host a nightly Boston-area public affairs program, Greater Boston, on WGBH. Emily's identical twin, Martha, became Chief of the Public Services Division at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. The third daughter, Ellen, is a photographer based in London. His son, Brian Rooney, has been a correspondent for ABC since the 1980s.

Rooney also had a sister Nancy Reynolds Rooney (1915–2008).

Rooney lived in the Rowayton section of Norwalk, Connecticut,^[38] and in Rensselaerville, New York,^[39] and was a longtime season ticket holder for the New York Giants.^[40]

Death[link]

Rooney was hospitalized on October 25, 2011, after developing postoperative complications from an undisclosed surgery,^[41] and died on November 4, 2011, at the age of 92, less than five weeks after his last appearance on 60 Minutes.^[42][43]

Awards[link]

• 2001 — Emperor Has No Clothes Award from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.^[44]

Books[link]

Books written by Rooney:

• Conquerors' Peace; report to the American stockholders, by Oram C. Hutton and Andrew A. Rooney. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1947.
• A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney, 1981 (ISBN 0-689-11194-0)
• And More by Andy Rooney, 1985 (ISBN 0-517-40622-5)
• Pieces of My Mind, 1986 (ISBN 0-689-11492-3)
• The Most of Andy Rooney, 1986 (ISBN 0-689-11864-3)
• Word for Word, 1988 (ISBN 0-399-13200-7)
• Not That You Asked ..., 1989 (ISBN 0-394-57837-6)
• Most of Andy Rooney, 1990 (ISBN 0-88365-765-1)
• Sweet and Sour, 1992 (ISBN 0-399-13774-2)
• My War, 1997 (ISBN 0-517-17986-5)
• Sincerely, Andy Rooney, 1999 (ISBN 1-891620-34-7)
• The Complete Andy Rooney, 2000 (ISBN 0-446-11219-4)
• Common Nonsense, 2002, (ISBN 1-586482-00-9)
• Years of Minutes, 2003 (ISBN 1-58648-211-4)
• Out of My Mind, 2006 (ISBN 1-58648-416-8)
• 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit, 2009 (ISBN 1-58648-773-6)

References[link]

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal

• Andy Rooney at the Internet Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Andy Rooney in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Andy Rooney collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
• CBS Biography
• Archive of previous "A Few Minutes ..." segments
• Snopes.com on Rooney E-Mail Snopes.com's article on false e-mail claims
• Andy Rooney Interview at Archive of American Television
• A film clip "The Open Mind - Andy Rooney on Andy Rooney (2003)" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Andy Rooney at Find a Grave

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Ali G
F2F
Portrayed by	Sacha Baron Cohen
Duration	1996–1997 (F2F) 1998–2000 (The Eleven O'Clock Show) 2000, 2003–04 (Da Ali G Show) 2002 (Ali G Indahouse)
First appearance	F2F
Created by	Sacha Baron Cohen
Profile
Occupation	Interviewer, Singer, Rapper, Junglist
Residence	Staines
Relationships Parents Tina (mother) Sibling(s) Rory Romances Julie (fiancee) Grandparents Nana Aunts and uncles Jamal Derrick

Ali G (born Alistair Leslie Graham) is a satirical fictional character created and performed by English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Originally appearing on Channel 4's Eleven O'Clock show, as the title character of Channel 4's Da Ali G Show in 2000 and on HBO in 2003–2004, he is also the title character of the film Ali G Indahouse. Cohen's character Ali G, along with Borat and Brüno, has been retired.^[1]

Development of the character[link]

The character of Ali G is a stereotype of a white suburban male from Staines (now Staines-upon-Thames) who imitates rap culture as well as urban British and Jamaican culture, particularly through hip hop, reggae, drum and bass and jungle music. Ali G was part of a group called Berkshire Massif, and he ran and grew up in an area of Slough called Langley (both actual locations in the UK). He also lived part of his life in Staines. Baron Cohen has stated that BBC Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood was an influence on the development of the Ali G character – Westwood hosts Radio 1's Rap Show and speaks in a faux Multicultural London English and Hip-Hop dialect. Ali G's middle class credentials mirror Westwood's: the latter was brought up in Lowestoft, Suffolk as a bishop's son.^[2]

Prior to Ali G's appearance on The Eleven O'Clock Show, Baron Cohen had portrayed a similar character named MC Jocelyn Cheadle-Hume on a show he presented called F2F, which ran on a satellite channel called Talk TV (owned by Granada Television). While chatting to a group of skateboarders, in character, Baron Cohen realised that people could be led to believe the character was real, and filmed a number of segments which were ordered off air by London Weekend Television.^[2]

History and appearances[link]

Ali G, a boorish, uneducated, faux-streetwise poseur with a deeply stereotypical view of the world, first came to prominence on Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show as the "voice of da yoof" in 1998.^[3] He interviewed various public figures in the United Kingdom, always either embarrassing his interviewee by displaying a mixture of uninformed political incorrectness, or getting the interview 'victim' to agree to some breathtaking inaccuracy or insult. His key saying is "booyakasha".

Other examples of his bold interviewing style include getting Lindsay Urwin, the Bishop of Horsham, to admit that God created the Universe, and then asked him, "And since then, [God]'s just chilled?" Ali G asked the Bishop about God's appearance, to which the Bishop replied, "Well, he's sort of Jesus-shaped." During an interview with James Ferman (former director of the British Board of Film Classification), Ali G asks whether his made-up vulgarities would restrict a film to an over-18 audience, and suggests that film censorship be performed by younger persons who understand contemporary slang. In a interview with the Chairman of the Arts Council of England Gerry Robinson Ali G first question was: "Why is it that everything you fund is so crap?"

Ali G was in a series of ads for the 2005–06 NBA season, in which he used his brand of off-kilter journalism to interview various NBA stars. The spots were directed by Spike Lee.

Ali G was also featured in the music video "Music" by Madonna as her limo driver.

Background[link]

Ali G is a fictional gang member of the "West Staines Massif", who currently lives with his grandmother in a semi-detached house at 36 Cherry Blossom Close, in the heart of the "Staines Ghetto". He was educated at what he calls "da Matthew Arnold Skool"; the Matthew Arnold School is a real secondary school. He also has a short stint at Vanguard College Preparatory School.

Staines, a working-class commuter town to the west of London, is far different from the inner city ghetto that Ali G claims. In the same comic vein, he also makes reference to other similar working-class towns in the area, such as Egham, Langley and Englefield Green. Despite the incongruous nature of his home town, he purports to exemplify inner city culture. Ali's "real" name is later revealed to be Alistair Leslie Graham (revealed in the eponymous film).

Ali G speaks a comical patois in keeping with his delusions of being black of Jamaican ancestry and peppered with such catchphrases as "Aight" (alright), "Booyakasha", "Big up Yaself", "Wagwaan", "West Side", "Batty Boy" "Respek" (respect), "For Real", "Poonani", "Check It" and "Keep It Real". His trademark hand gesture closely resembles the "dip snap".

Family[link]

Ali was born on a Council Estate to mother Tina. He has an older sister and an older brother. He has a younger sister and other younger siblings. When Ali was fifteen he went to live with his grandmother when his mother had another baby and there was no room for him and his older brother and sister, who went to live with their father. Ali's baby brothers are called Rory, Jamie and Guy.

Criticisms of the character[link]

Although Baron Cohen has repeatedly stated that the Ali G character is a parody of suburban, privileged youth 'acting black', numerous commentators have opined that the force of the humour is derived from stereotypes of blacks, not poser whites. According to this view of the character, the suburban background written into Ali G's character serves as a false alibi.^[4][5][6]

The comedian Felix Dexter has said that he appreciated the humour of an innocent confronting an expert with neither understanding the other, but that 'I feel that a lot of the humour is laughing at black street culture and it is being celebrated because it allows the liberal middle classes to laugh at that culture in a safe context where they can retain their sense of political correctness.^[7]

Notable people interviewed by Ali G[link]

• Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, former astronaut, and the second man to walk on the moon. (Ali G also called him "Buzz Lightyear").
• Alex Alonso, author, professor and founder of Streetgangs.com
• David Beckham, football player and his wife Victoria Beckham, a member of the Spice Girls.
• Tony Benn, former British Labour MP, chairman and cabinet minister
• Boutros Boutros-Ghali,^[8] former Secretary General of the United Nations, mistakenly called 'Boutros Boutros Boutros Ghali by Ali-G. Boutros-Ghali clearly went so far as to participate in some of Ali G's notorious word games and providing the epilogue to the episode where, at Ali G's bidding, he tells youth viewers to 'enjoy the music of Bob Marley'. In response to Ali G's perceived ignorance, Boutros-Ghali provides a detailed explanation about why Disneyland is not represented in the United Nations, and reveals which foreign languages sound comical to his ear. The interview appeared on the War episode of the Da Ali G Show.^[9]
• Rhodes Boyson, former British Conservative education minister, who agreed with Ali G that metric system should not be taught in school because 'one deals in quarters and eighths of ounces'
• Pat Buchanan, American political commentator and former presidential candidate who began laughing uncontrollably when he realized he was being fooled
• Noam Chomsky, MIT professor and linguist
• Jarvis Cocker, Pulp singer
• Linda Cohn, ESPN anchor
• Gaz Coombes, Supergrass singer
• Paul Daniels, magician
• James X. Dempsey, privacy guru and Vice President for Public Policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology
• Sam Donaldson, veteran journalist
• Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner of Harrods and current owner of Fulham FC
• Marlin Fitzwater, former White House Press Secretary, who ended the interview after calling Ali G an idiot.
• Jerome Friedman, MIT Professor of physics and 1990 Nobel Prize winner
• John Kenneth Galbraith, economist and public intellectual
• Daryl Gates, former Los Angeles Police Chief (He was referred to as "Bill Gates" by Ali G).
• Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• John Gray, author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
• Leanna Heart, adult film star
• Neil Hamilton, former Conservative politician
• Kent Hovind, evangelist and Young Earth creationist
• Glenn Hubbard, former professional baseball player
• Reed Irvine, founder of Accuracy in Media
• Jenna Jameson, adult film star
• Ernie Johnson, Jr., sports broadcaster
• Steve Kerr, former American professional basketball player who, according to Ali G, works on "TMT"; Kerr is a basketball analyst with U.S. cable network TNT.
• C. Everett Koop, former US Surgeon General
• James Lipton, host of Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio
• John McCain, United States Senator from Arizona and 2000/2008 Presidential Candidate
• Ralph Nader, consumer activist and former US presidential candidate for the Green Party
• Thomas J. Pickard, former FBI Director
• Gail Porter, television presenter
• Sue Ramsey, Irish politician, Sinn Féin
• Sally Jessy Raphaël, former talk show host, (who congratulated him for 'being himself')
• Andy Rooney, of the CBS programme 60 Minutes, who furiously ended his interview abruptly
• Charles Schultze, former Chief Economic Advisor to President Jimmy Carter^[10]
• Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor and Air Force General
• Tomasz Starzewski, fashion designer
• Dick Thornburgh, former U.S. Attorney General
• Donald Trump, real estate developer, who walks off dismissively around one minute into the interview
• Stansfield Turner, former Director Central Intelligence Agency
• Lindsay Urwin, the Bishop of Horsham
• Gore Vidal, author and essayist, (whom Ali G mistook for Vidal Sassoon)
• Christine Todd Whitman, former New Jersey governor and United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ administrator
• Kobe Bryant, NBA basketball player (whom he asks about the number of springs in a basketball)
• Sammy Wilson, Northern Irish politician, Democratic Unionist Party
• Naomi Wolf, author and feminist
• Professional basketball players Steve Nash (who was an award winning player "MP3" according to Ali G and unable to speak proper English being Canadian), Ben Wallace (who he accuses of "playa-hating"), Shaquille O'Neal (who he argued with about the meaning of the NBA, Ali thinking it stood for Nationwide Basketball Society), Tim Duncan (who he tried to get a pair of free sneakers from), Robert Horry, Dwyane Wade (who he didn't realise was an NBA player, claiming he had snuck in to "hang with mah man Shaquille O'Neal"), Richard Jefferson (whom he called Thomas Jefferson his son), Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Reggie Miller

References[link]

External links[link]

Listen to this article (info/dl)

This audio file was created from a revision of the "Ali G" article dated 2006-04-28, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

• Channel 4 Ali G website
• Sacha Baron Cohen interview with NPR's Robert Siegel
• An article in the Guardian
• Tricked into Silly interview with Ali G, Alex Alonso, Streetgangs.com, March 12, 2002

Dana Carvey
Dana Carvey, September 1987
Birth name	Dana Thomas Carvey
Born	(1955-06-02) June 2, 1955 (age 57) Missoula, Montana, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1978–present
Genres	Character comedy, improvisational comedy, observational comedy, satire/political satire
Influenced	Frank Caliendo,[1] Jimmy Fallon[2]
Spouse	Leah Carvey (1979–80; divorced) Paula Zwagerman (1983–present)

Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955) is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth in the Wayne's World movies.

Early life[link]

Dana Carvey was born in Missoula, Montana, the son of Billie, a schoolteacher, and William Carvey, a high school business teacher.^[3] Carvey is the brother of Brad Carvey, the engineer/designer of the Video Toaster. The character Garth Algar (from the movie Wayne's World) is a loosely based portrayal of Brad. Carvey was raised Lutheran.^[4] When he was three years old, his family moved to San Carlos, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his first drum kit at an early age. He attended Tierra Linda Junior High in San Carlos, Carlmont High School in Belmont, California (where he was a member of the Central Coast Section champion Cross Country team),^[5] College of San Mateo in San Mateo, California, and received his Bachelor's degree in communications from San Francisco State University.^[6]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

He had a minor role in Halloween II, and co-starred on One of the Boys in 1982, a short-lived television sitcom that also starred Mickey Rooney, Nathan Lane, and Meg Ryan. In 1984, Carvey had a small role in Rob Reiner's film This Is Spinal Tap, in which he played a mime, with fellow comedian Billy Crystal (who tells him "Mime is money!"). He also appeared in the short-lived movie-based action show Blue Thunder.

[edit] Saturday Night Live

In 1986, Carvey became a household name when he joined the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL). He, along with newcomers Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon, Jan Hooks, and Victoria Jackson, helped to reverse the show's declining popularity and made SNL "must-see" TV once again. An important part of the show's revival was Carvey's breakout character, The Church Lady, the uptight, smug, and pious host of Church Chat.^[7] Carvey said he based the character on women he knew from church while growing up, who would keep track of other churchgoers' attendance. He became so associated with the character that later cast members like Chris Farley referred to Carvey simply as "The Lady."^{[citation needed]}

Carvey's other original characters included Garth Algar (from "Wayne's World"), Hans (from "Hans and Franz"), and The Grumpy Old Man (from Weekend Update appearances).

During the 1992 US presidential election campaign, Carvey did an impression of independent candidate Ross Perot; in a prime-time special before the election, Carvey played both George H. W. Bush and Perot in a three-way debate with Bill Clinton, played by Phil Hartman. As Perot—prerecorded and timed to give the appearance of interacting with the live Bush and Clinton—Carvey eschewed the show's signature "Live from New York" opening line, telling Bush "Why don't you do it, live-boy?" Carvey left SNL in 1993 but almost rejoined the cast in 1994, before the show's 20th season.^[8]

In 1992, Carvey joined Mike Myers in Wayne's World, the movie. A sequel, Wayne's World 2, was filmed and released in 1993.

Carvey's SNL work won him an Emmy in 1993 for "Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program." He has a total of six Emmy^[9] nominations. Carvey has returned to host SNL four times, in 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2011.

Celebrity impersonations[link]

[edit] After SNL

NBC executives hoped to get Carvey to take over the 12:30 a.m. (ET) weeknight spot in the network's lineup in 1993 when David Letterman left his show, Late Night with David Letterman, for an 11:30 p.m. (ET) show on CBS. A big Letterman fan, Carvey rejected the offer, causing embarrassment for the network, which had publicly floated his name.^{[citation needed]} The 12:30 spot eventually went to Conan O'Brien.

In 1994, Carvey starred in the film Clean Slate. The following year, in 1995, Carvey filmed his first HBO stand-up special, Critic's Choice. The show featured Carvey doing many of his SNL impersonations, as well as making fun of the premium channel's name, pronouncing it "huhbo."

He reprised many of his SNL characters in 1996 for The Dana Carvey Show, a short-lived prime-time variety show on ABC. The show was most notable for launching Robert Smigel's cartoon "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" as well as the careers of Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert.

In 2002, he returned to films in the spy comedy The Master of Disguise. Released a week after former colleague Mike Myers' successful (and similar) movie Austin Powers in Goldmember, most critics compared the movies and panned Carvey's effort. However the movie did manage about $40 million at the North American box office. In March 2007, aggregate review website Rotten Tomatoes ranked the movie as the 18th worst-reviewed movie of the 00's decade, with a 2% fresh rating.^[10] Comedian and former Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Michael J. Nelson named the film the third-worst comedy ever made.^[11] Carvey did not appear in a feature film again until Jack and Jill.

He is number 90 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.^[12]

Carvey eventually withdrew from the limelight to focus on his family. He later said in an interview that he does not want to be in a career in which his kids would already be grown with him having neglected spending time with them.

At the January 2, 2007 funeral of Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush reminisced in his eulogy about how Ford took it in stride when SNL's Chevy Chase made Ford the object of impressions. Bush cited this as a valuable lesson in learning to laugh at one's self as a part of public life. "I'd tell you more about that," Bush continued, "but as Dana Carvey would say, [imitating Carvey imitating him] 'Not gonna do it! Wouldn't be prudent!'".

Carvey made an appearance at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, reprising his SNL character Garth Algar with host Mike Myers for a Wayne's World sketch. On June 14, 2008, Carvey filmed a second HBO stand-up special, the first in 13 years, entitled Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies.

In 2010, Carvey appeared in the Funny or Die original comedy sketch, "Presidential Reunion." He played the role of President Bush alongside other current and former SNL president impersonators.

In early 2010, Carvey and comedian/writer Spike Feresten created and starred together in Spoof, a sketch comedy pilot for Fox. This included a sketch of a trailer for "Darwin", a mock movie in which he played the evolutionary biologist, as well as a spoof of the hit show Lost. Both of these sketches can be seen on the video website YouTube.^[13][14] On the animated TV series The Fairly OddParents, Carvey voiced Cosmo Cosma's con artist brother, Schnozmo.

Personal life[link]

In 1979, while performing at the The Other Cafe in San Francisco, he met Paula Zwaggerman, who would later become his wife. Soon after returning to the Bay Area in 1980, Dana and Paula were engaged. They have two sons together, Dex and Thomas, who were born in 1991 and 1993 respectively.

Health[link]

In 1997, he underwent heart-bypass surgery for a blocked coronary artery, but the surgeon operated on the wrong artery. The blocked artery was deeply buried in muscle and thus hard to find; another artery, though not blocked, was clearly accessible, so the surgeon bypassed it. Carvey, later suffering from angina pectoris, sued for medical malpractice and was awarded $7.5 million. He has had to undergo a total of five medical procedures (four angioplasties and one surgery) to correct his heart problems. Carvey stated in an interview with Larry King that he donated all the money awarded to him to charity.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography[link]