Artie Lange
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Artie Lange on The Howard Stern Show |
|
| Born: | October 11, 1967 Union Township, Union County, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Actor, Comedian, Radio personality |
| Website: | artie-lange.com |
Arthur Steven Lange, (born October 11, 1967 in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey) is an American television and movie actor, stand-up comic and radio personality. Lange is most notable as one of the original cast of the sketch comedy series MADtv and for replacing Jackie Martling on The Howard Stern Show, now on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 100.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Artie was born and grew up in New Jersey. His mother was a homemaker, and his father was a contractor who had briefly been involved with the mafia. Two weeks after Artie was born, his father went on trial for counterfeiting money, but was spared jail time out of sympathy for his young son. Growing up, his family identified themselves as Italian-Americans, despite having German and Native American ancestry on his father's side. Artie has said that his father's background "has always been a gray area". During high school Artie excelled in baseball, becoming an All County third baseman, and spent his free time working with his contractor father. Some time after Lange finished high school in 1986, his father became a quadriplegic after falling off a roof. He would eventually die from complications due to this fall, although Artie has speculated that his father may have committed suicide. Following his dad's death, Artie took up work as a longshoreman to help support his family; it was around this time that he first started doing stand-up comedy. Artie eventually quit his job to focus full time on his comedy career. In 1995 he got his big break landing a role in the original cast of FOX's sketch comedy show MADtv.
[edit] MADtv
Lange was one of the original nine cast members of MADtv when the series debuted in 1995. Unlike some of his fellow cast members on MADtv, Lange came to the show with limited sketch comedy experience, his background being in stand-up comedy. It was around this time that Artie became heavily involved with drugs, particularly cocaine. He states that his lowest point of cocaine use was during a shooting of the MADtv sketch "Babewatch" where Artie played a pig who was a lifeguard. Because the sketch involved Artie going through hours of make up to transform him into a pig, he would snort coke in his car, in full pig make up, during the shooting of the sketch. Upon returning from the shoot, Artie passed out in his hotel room, and woke up to find he had defecated in his own bed. His tenure with MADtv came to a dramatic end when, during a cocaine binge, the police were called to the studio. Lange proceeded to lead them on a foot chase through a number of back yards and stores before being arrested. He was charged with cocaine possession, assaulting an officer, and possessing an open alcoholic container in his car, among other charges. Upon Lange's arrest, legendary jazz producer and songwriter Quincy Jones, an executive producer for MADtv, stepped in and arranged for Artie to continue on the show for a second season. Lange's sobriety did not last and he was fired after two seasons.
Despite only being on the show for two seasons, he has become one of the most famous MADtv alums. During the shows tenth season, Artie was brought back for an episode to participate in some sketches.
Despite having some recurring characters on the show, such as "My White Momma", Artie was mostly used for impressions. His resume included, Ed Harris, Ed McMahon, F. Lee Bailey, George Clooney, Joe Pesci, Larry Csonka, Newt Gingrich, Richard Karn, Roseanne Barr, Rosie O'Donnell, Rush Limbaugh, Wayne Knight, and Yassir Arafat.
[edit] The Howard Stern Show
Following a short prison term and successful completion of a drug rehabilitation program, Lange was contacted by comedian Norm MacDonald and offered the role of Norm's character's brother in the 1998 movie Dirty Work. While promoting the movie, Norm brought Artie to The Howard Stern Show. Following that appearance, Artie showed up numerous times on the show, and was eventually asked to take over Jackie Martling's chair when he left the Stern show in 2001.
Since becoming a member of the show, Howard has often teased Lange for his eating habits, his role in the poorly-received movie Dirty Work and his unprofessionalism; however, he also makes a point to praise Lange's comedic talents. Stern is especially amazed by Artie's ability to memorize and deliver lines with perfect timing. Artie's almost flawless renditions of scenes from movies such as The Godfather have become a Stern and audience favorite. Stern and company have commented that Lange's life is a sort of perpetual adolescence; his mother delivers food parcels and cleans his apartment, he continually gorges himself on pizza and other high-fat foods, and his frequent drunken binges are legendary.
In early June 2005, Lange began missing work at the Howard Stern Show, prompting concerns of a possible relapse into the substance abuse which affected him previously. The situation climaxed in an on-air meltdown, where Lange began behaving incoherently and belligerently. Lange subsequently missed the next two days of work.
At the time, Lange's absence from the show went largely unmentioned and was written off as stress from doing the radio show and beginning production on his movie, Beer League. The real reason for Lange's absence was revealed in a spontaneous revelation on the September 21, 2006 Howard Stern Show where Lange acknowledged that he was regularly snorting heroin from February to June 2005. Lange discussed prior episodes of heroin use, beginning when he was a stand-up comedian, and continuing until Beer League was set to begin shooting. Lange detailed his painful detoxification, which included common side effects such as cold sweats, shaking and vomiting. Lange recalled disconnecting the telephone to avoid speaking with his mother, who intervened and ultimately helped Artie recover. Lange was threatened with legal action by the Beer League producers if he failed to show up for the first day of shooting in June 2005, which led Lange to secure a home visit from a doctor who prescribed Lange with buprenorphine to alleviate his heroin dependency. Since starting the medicine, Artie has claimed to be free of any illegal substances.
In the days leading up to Stern's departure from terrestrial radio, Lange revealed that he and Gary Dell'Abate were approached by Infinity Broadcasting about replacing Howard Stern on terrestrial radio with their own show. Lange was supposedly offered roughly $5 million to defect, but he and Dell'Abate claimed to have never given the offer much thought.
[edit] Personal life
Artie is not shy about sharing his personal life on the Stern show. Lange frequently discusses his on-again/off-again relationship with longtime girlfriend Dana Sironi. Most of their problems stemmed from Lange's lifestyle choices. In mid-2006 the couple officially broke up. Artie cited his heroin use as the primary reason for their break-up, and claimed to have warned her that she would be "tortured" if they stayed together. However, Lange stated on the show in early November 2006 that he and Dana were back together again, to some extent, but that the situation was a mystery even to him. On the November 27, 2006 show, Artie said that the relationship with Dana was now completely over and told that he had sex with a 30ish year old woman in Atlantic City during the Thanksgiving hiatus, who was not a hooker.
Artie has also shared many sexual stories on the show. In January of 2006, it was revealed that a small amount of another man's ejaculate had once landed on his sweatshirt during a cocaine and ecstasy induced sexual three-way with a porn star and another man. He has also talked about having sex with prostitutes, losing thousands of dollars through gambling, and has gone into graphic detail about his bowel problems.
Artie mentioned on Sid Rosenberg's sports talk radio show on WAXY "790 The Ticket" in Miami in October of 2006 that he has been good friends for a long time with Opie and Anthony sidekick Jim Norton and said that he is "above" the radio wars.
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | |||
| Entourage | TV series | ||
| Beer League | Artie DeVanzo | Film | |
| Supertwink | The Plumber | On Demand Film | |
| 2005 | Waltzing Anna | Jacob Kline | Film |
| 2004 | Game Over | Turbo | TV series |
| Artie Lange: It's the Whiskey Talkin' | Himself | Stand-up DVD | |
| A Piece of My Heart | Lenny Steinberg | ||
| 2003 | Elf | Fake Santa | |
| Mail Order Bride | Tommy | ||
| Old School | Booker | ||
| 2002 | Boat Trip | Brian | |
| 2001 | Gameday | Artie | |
| Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth | Swim Coach Hasselhoff | ||
| 1999 | The Norm Show | Artie Henderson | TV series |
| 1999 | The Bachelor | Marco | |
| Mystery Men | Big Red | ||
| Lost & Found | Wally | ||
| The 4th Floor | Jerry | ||
| Puppet | Alexie | ||
| 1998 | Dirty Work | Sam McKenna | |
| 1995 | Mad TV | various | TV series |
[edit] Catchphrases
- "Fi-yah!" (Imitation of AC/DC singer Brian Johnson yelling "fire".)
- Hey Retahd! (his "affectionate" term for Gary the Retard and Wendy the Retard, recurring stern show guests)
- "WAAAAAAA!!" (his outcry when a famous celebrity complains about something that would be insignificant for the average person. "WAAAAAAA!! I had to sit in my luxury trailer for three hours while it rained on the set.")
- "...moot-SA-del..." (in virtually any discussion of food or cooking; apparently how Italians pronounce mozzarella).
- "Hi, Fred," and "Who Dis?" (impersonating Crazy Alice)
- "Don't make me break my foot off in your ass!" (as the mother in My White Momma on MADtv)
[edit] Trivia
- As a teenager, Lange was arrested for attempted bank robbery. He claimed he was only trying to impress a cute bank teller by passing her a fake holdup note that said he was armed and demaded $50,000. Unfortunately, the note included his name -- and the teller took it seriously, triggering the silent alarm.
- His biggest comedic inspiration was John Belushi.
- When shooting Dirty Work, a girl who was hanging out with Artie tried to sell weed to Chris Farley.
- Has been asked to be on Celebrity Fit Club for four seasons in a row, but has declined each time.
- In May of 2004, KLAS-TV reported him dead, and everyone believed the story. The story turned out to be a prank by Stern show regular caller and wack packer Captain Janks.
- He is an avid fan and season ticket holder of the New York Yankees.
- He was once high on angel dust and booze while at a McDonald's, and hassled the manager about how Mayor McCheese was actually a woman, which Artie claimed was a good thing because then he could eat her and have sex with her at the same time.
- Has gained over 100 pounds since quitting heroin.
- He has indicated his favorite band is The Who, and that he's also a major fan of Neil Young.
- He has described a comically high number of women as "the hottest chick ever", often describing either a current or recent female guest as such, as well as a number of famous women who just happen to come up as topics of conversation. Some of Artie's favorites include playboy playmate Jennifer Walcott and actress Jessica Alba, whose movie Honey Artie claims to have purchased despite his implied opinion of said movie's cinematic shortcomings. On a May 2006 show, he said that his #1 hottest chick pick is Carmen Electra.
- He admitted to crying at a Michael Jackson concert during the song "Man in the Mirror" after his father's recent death. He played it off as being "really high" to his friends.
- The Dawson College shooter in Montreal, Canada, Kimveer Gill, was a fan of Artie and raved about his appearance on Conan O'Brien the night before the shooting. [1]
- Did promos alongside Jerry Stiller for the intro to the Fox Sports broadcasts of the 2006 World Series.
- Had a small part in the movie Jerry Maguire that got cut out.
[edit] Notes
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Artie Lange's Official Site
- Artie Lange at the Internet Movie Database
- Artie Lange (Part One) interview on Static Multimedia
- Artie Lange Deathwatch
- Fresh Air Interview
| Preceded by: Jackie Martling 1986-2001 |
The Howard Stern Show the Jackie chair 2001-present |
Succeeded by: incumbent |
| The Howard Stern Show | |
|---|---|
| Cast | Howard Stern • Robin Quivers • Artie Lange • Fred Norris • Gary Dell'Abate • Benjy Bronk • Richard Christy • Sal the Stockbroker • J. D. Harmeyer • Scott Salem • Will Murray • George Takei |
| Former Cast | Billy West • Jackie Martling • Stuttering John • K. C. Armstrong • Tom Chiusano • A. J. Benza |
| The Wack Pack | Beetlejuice • Eric the Midget • Miss Howard Stern • High Pitch Eric • Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf • Riley Martin • Siobhan Meow • Jeff the Drunk • More... |
| Howard Channels | Bubba the Love Sponge Show • Scott Ferrall • The Wrap-Up Show • Howard 100 News • Superfan Roundtable • More... |
| See Also | Show Celebrity Guests • Show Games and Bits • Sirius Satellite Radio • Sirius Canada • Ronnie Mund |
Categories: Articles with large trivia sections | 1967 births | Living people | American comedians | American film actors | American radio personalities | American television actors | Howard Stern Show | Italian-American actors | MADtv cast members | People from Hudson County, New Jersey | People from Union County, New Jersey | People treated for drug addiction | Sirius Satellite Radio personalities
