Harry Shearer

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Harry Shearer

Shearer at Wordstock on November 10, 2007
Born Harry Julius Shearer
December 23, 1943 (1943-12-23) (age 64)
Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s) Judith Owen (1993-)
Official website

Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American comedic actor and writer. Shearer, a voice actor on The Simpsons (1989 to present), provides the voices of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Lenny Leonard, Principal Seymour Skinner, Otto Mann, Scratchy and Rainier Wolfcastle among others.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

Shearer was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Dora Warren (née Kohn), a bookkeeper, and Mack Shearer.[1] His parents were Jewish immigrants from Austria and Poland.[2][3] He was married to Penelope Nichols in 1974, divorcing in 1977. Shearer has been married to singer-songwriter Judith Owen since 1993. Shearer attended UCLA and Harvard. In May 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Goucher College.

[edit] Career

He began his career as a child actor in 1950s movies (The Robe) and radio (The Jack Benny Program). Shearer also played the precursor to the Eddie Haskell character in the pilot episode of the TV series Leave It to Beaver. Shearer was later a member of Los Angeles radio comedy group The Credibility Gap, 1969–1976,[4] at stations KRLA (where he also interviewed Creedence Clearwater Revival for the Pop Chronicles[5]) and KPPC.

He also wrote for such television shows as Fernwood 2-Night and Laverne and Shirley. In August 1979, Shearer was hired as a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live, an unofficial replacement for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, who were both leaving the show. According to the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, Shearer did not get along well with the other writers and cast members, who regarded him as "prickly." His first tenure on the show ended when Lorne Michaels left SNL, taking the entire cast with him.

Shearer returned to Saturday Night Live in the 1984–1985 season, leaving for good in January 1985 over "creative differences." When reached for comment over the nature of his departure, Shearer replied "I was creative; they were different".

Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls
Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls

Shearer co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in Rob Reiner's 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap with Michael McKean and Christopher Guest. The three of them also collaborated on the acclaimed 2003 spoof A Mighty Wind, which was written by Guest and Eugene Levy (but largely improvised by the cast members) and directed by Guest, and Shearer had a major role in the Guest-directed parody of Oscar politicking For Your Consideration (2006). Shearer's television work also includes two specials for Cinemax, "It's Just TV", and "This Week Indoors" (co-created with Merrill Markoe) and "The Magic of Live". He directed the entire six-episode cable series, "The History of White People in America", co-created by Martin Mull and Allen Rucker, as well as the two-hour feature finale of the series, "Portrait of a White Marriage". He also co-wrote and directed Paul Shaffer's fantasy special for HBO, "Viva Shaf Vegas" (with Shaffer and Tom Leopold). His first theatrical feature, which he wrote and directed, was "Teddy Bears' Picnic", a dark comedy loosely based on the workings of Bohemian Grove, the secret retreat of the elite.

Shearer has three books published, "Man Bites Town" (a collection of his Los Angeles Times Magazine columns), "It's the Stupidity, Stupid", and "Not Enough Indians", a comic novel about Native Americans and gambling.[6]

Shearer may be best known for his prolific work as a voice actor on The Simpsons (1989 to present), where he provides voices for Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Lenny Leonard, Principal Seymour Skinner, Otto Mann and Rainier Wolfcastle among others. He was one of three Simpsons voice actors to guest star on the show Friends ("The One With the Fake Monica"); the other two were Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria. He also appeared in Godzilla with Hank Azaria, which had a cameo appearance from Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson. (In a SFGate Podcast, Shearer said one person who took him under his wing during his early days in show business was voice actor Mel Blanc, who voiced many animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, and Tweety Bird, just to name a few.)[7]

Since 1983, Shearer has been the host of the public radio comedy/music program Le Show on Santa Monica's NPR-affiliated radio station, KCRW. On the weekly program Shearer alternates between DJing, reading and commenting on the news of the day after the manner of Mort Sahl, and performing original (mostly political) comedy sketches and songs. The show airs on public radio stations throughout the country, and is offered as a podcast. Shearer is the regular announcer for TV Land and, since May 2005, has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. Shearer has homes in both Santa Monica, California and the Faubourg Marigny of New Orleans, Louisiana. According to a telephone call on Ask Mr. KABC, his house survived Hurricane Katrina.

In 1995 Shearer appeared in the Australian comedy series Frontline, in the episode "Changing the Face of Current Affairs". In it he played the character of Larry Hadges, employed by the Frontline team to improve the look and style of the show, with hilarious results.

In 2006 Shearer appeared with Brian Hayes in a six-part BBC Radio 4 sitcom called Not Today, Thank You, in which he plays Nostrils, a man so ugly he can't stand to be in his own presence.[8]

[edit] Recurring characters on SNL

  • Tom Clay, a spokesman for several fake commercials on SNL
  • Vic Raker, a Weekend Update commentator

[edit] Celebrity impersonations on SNL

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Video games

[edit] Bibliography

  • Shearer, Harry (1993). Man Bites Town. St Martins Press. ISBN 0-312-08842-6. 
  • Shearer, Harry (1999). It's the Stupidity, Stupid : Why (Some) People Hate Clinton and Why the Rest of Us Have to Watch (Library of Contemporary Thought). Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-43401-3. 
  • Shearer, Harry (2006). Not Enough Indians. Justin, Charles and Company. ISBN 1-932112-46-4. 

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Nominations

  • Grammys 2008 Best Comedy Album - "Songs Pointed and Pointless"

[edit] References

  1. ^ Harry Shearer Biography (1943-)
  2. ^ JewishJournal.com
  3. ^ j. - ‘Hi-diddly-ho, Marin!’ Man of many voices Harry Shearer comes to JCC
  4. ^ Mark Deming. The Credibility Gap. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.,
  5. ^ John Gilliland. Index to Interviews. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  6. ^ Not Enough Indians, A Novel
  7. ^ Chronicle Podcasts : New Orleans economy stillborn, says Harry Shearer
  8. ^ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Simpsons star in BBC radio comedy

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The Simpsons cast members
Main cast
Recurring cast
Recurring guest stars
Former cast
Persondata
NAME Shearer, Harry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shearer, Harry Julius
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actor
DATE OF BIRTH 1943-12-23
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles, California
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH