Bruce Vilanch

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Bruce Vilanch
Born	November 24, 1948 (1948-11-24) (age 59) New York City, New York, U.S.

Bruce Vilanch (born November 23, 1948) is an American comedy writer who caught the public eye when he became a wisecracking regular on the revamped Hollywood Squares with Whoopi Goldberg.

[edit] Biography

Vilanch attended Ohio State University as a theater and journalism student and graduated with a BFA in theatre in 1970. In 1978 he was one of the writers for The Star Wars Holiday Special. In the 1980s he had a few brief television acting appearance including a bit part in an episode of Bosom Buddies. His first television appearance as himself was in 1988 on Hollywood Today, where he was interviewed by Chris Aable. The show aired in 43 cities on Century Cable and the Manhattan Neighborhood Cable Network.

Vilanch is openly gay, and "a notorious meat eater".^[1] He has a penchant for wearing wacky T-shirts.^{[citation needed]}

He has provided topical joke material for a number of awards show hosts, notably Billy Crystal at the Academy Awards. He commands high fees for emergency Hollywood script rewrites, having "punched up" scripts for films like Die Hard 2 and Raiders of the Lost Ark.^{[citation needed]}

Vilanch has a musical comedy background (he co-wrote the book for the flop Platinum and contributed to far more successful concert shows starring Bette Midler, Diana Ross, and Michael Feinstein) and claims to have done every Stubby Kaye role ever written. In 2005, he starred on Broadway as Edna Turnblad in the musical Hairspray after originating the role in the First National tour. He was on the third edition of Celebrity Fit Club and lost 21 pounds over the course of the show.

Vilanch has been the subject of two documentaries: Get Bruce (1999) and Laughing Matters...The Men, also released as Laughing Matters: Gay Comedy in America (2007), where he shared the spotlight with Alec Mapa, Bob Smith and others.

Also has a small cameo as himself in 2008's You Don't Mess With The Zohan.