Jon Lovitz

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Jon Lovitz

Born Jonathan Lovitz
July 21, 1957 (1957-07-21) (age 50)
Los Angeles, California
Occupation Actor

Jonathan M. Lovitz (born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian perhaps best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live and the voice of Jay Sherman in The Critic.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Lovitz was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was an internist in Encino, California .[1] He attended Harvard-Westlake School and studied theater at the University of California at Irvine and graduated in 1979. He studied acting with Tony Barr at the Film Actors Workshop. He became a member of The Groundlings comedy troupe where he befriended Phil Hartman. His father's parents were immigrants from Romania who settled in Jacksonville, Florida. His mother's mother was an immigrant from Hungary. His mother's father was born in Chicago, but his family were immigrants from Russia.

[edit] Career

[edit] Saturday Night Live

Lovitz was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. He later said in an interview for the book Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live that his time on SNL was the most memorable in his career. He went from having no money to being offered a $500,000 movie contract. He was nominated for an Emmy his first two years on Saturday Night Live. One of his most notable SNL characters was "Tommy Flanagan, The Pathological Liar" who used the old catch phrase, "Yeah! That's the ticket!" Some of his other recurring characters included Master Thespian, Tonto, Mephistopheles, Hanukkah Harry, and Michael Dukakis. In a 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live he played a virgin Trekkie, who was scripted to hang his head when asked by William Shatner if he had ever kissed a girl.

[edit] Voiceover work

Lovitz has lent his voice to several cartoons and films. In the series The Critic he played the title character of Jay Sherman. On The Simpsons he played Marge's ex-prom date Artie Ziff, theater director Llewellyn Sinclair (and his sister, who runs a daycare center) on the season four episode "A Streetcar Named Marge", Jay Sherman from The Critic in the Season 6 crossover episode "A Star Is Burns", and paparazzo Enrico Irritazio in the season eighteen episode "Homerazzi". He also played Professor Lombardo and Aristotle Amadopolous. He also was the voice behind the radio, on the Disney movie, "The Brave Little Toaster"

[edit] Movie cameos and television guest appearances

In the late 1990s, Lovitz was "the man who wrote the Yellow Pages", in a series of commercials and print ads for the American Yellow Pages industry. He has also appeared for ads for Subway and in a cameo in the movie Matilda, as Million Dollar Sticky Man.

He also had an uncredited cameo as a rival crooner to Adam Sandler in the movie The Wedding Singer, and had a small role in another of Sandler's movies, Little Nicky. He also was a supporting character in "Mr. Destiny" with James Belushi.

Lovitz has also appeared on Friends twice. He first appeared in the Season 1 episode "The One with the Stoned Guy" as a restaurateur who gets stoned on marijuana trip just prior to interviewing Monica Geller for a job. He reappeared years later in the Season 9 episode "The One with the Blind Dates", where it is revealed that he lost his restaurant due to a drug problem.

He also appeared on Seinfeld as Gary Fogel, a man who lies about having cancer ("The Scofflaw") and later dies in a car accident.

In 1991, Lovitz appeared in the season seven episode of Married With Children entitled "Kelly Does Hollywood part 2" as sleazy hollywood producer Mr. Littlehead.

In 1998, Lovitz made a dramatic turn when he appeared in a small but pivotal role in Todd Solondz's film Happiness as a depressed man who attacks his date for thinking of him as nothing. His insults set the tone for her character throughout the film.

Lovitz guest-starred twice on Newsradio as two separate characters before becoming a cast member in the show's final season (playing a third character).

In 2003 appeared on an episode of Just Shoot Me as a man married to Nina.

He appeared on Two and a Half Men in 2006 as a jingle writer named Archie and has also had multiple guest appearances on the TV show Las Vegas.

[edit] Broadway theatre

He has appeared on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in Neil Simon's play The Dinner Party, taking over the lead role from Henry Winkler. He sang at Carnegie Hall three times (including Great Performances' Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall) and sang the national anthem at Dodger Stadium and the U.S. Open.

On October 10, 2001, Lovitz sang a duet (with Robbie Williams) of the song "Well, Did You Evah" at the Royal Albert Hall in the UK. The recording can be found on the Swing When You're Winning album.

[edit] Stand-up comedy

In 2005, Lovitz entered stand-up comedy for the first time in his career. He also appeared in the film The Producers as the strict accounting firm chairman, Mr. Marx. In 2006, he became the spokesperson in an advertising campaign for the Subway restaurant chain.[citation needed]

[edit] The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club

On November 8, 2007 Jon Lovitz had the grand opening for his new comedy club "The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club at Aubergine" in the Downtown Gaslamp District in San Diego, CA. It currently presents one show a night at 9pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Already, the top comedians in the country have played and been booked for the club, such as David Spade, Ralphie May, Carlos Mencia, Dana Carvey, Jo Koy, Eric Shwartz, Craig Shoemaker, Russell Peters, Kevin Nealon, Dennis Miller, etc.


[edit] Filmography

[edit] Films

Film Year Role
Hamburger... The Motion Picture 1986 Security Guard
Last Resort 1986 Bartender
Jumpin' Jack Flash 1986 Doug
Ratboy 1986 Party Guest
¡Three Amigos! 1986 Morty
The Brave Little Toaster 1987 The Radio (voice)
Big 1988 Scotty Brennen
My Stepmother is an Alien 1988 Ron Mills
Cranium Command (theme park attraction) 1989 Right Cranium
Mr. Destiny 1990 Clip Metzler
Tales from the Crypt 1991 Barry Blye
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West 1991 T.R. Chula
A League of Their Own 1992 Ernie Capadino
Mom and Dad Save The World 1992 Emperor Todd Spengo
Loaded Weapon 1 1993 Becker
Coneheads 1993 Dr. Rudolph, Dentist (uncredited)
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold 1994 Glen Robbins
North 1994 Arthur Belt
Trapped in Paradise 1994 Dave Firpo
The Great White Hype 1996 Sol
Matilda 1996 Million $ Sticky Host
High School High 1996 Richard Clark
The Wedding Singer 1998 Jimmie Moore (uncredited)
Happiness 1998 Andy Kornbluth
Lost and Found 1999 Uncle Harry
Small Time Crooks 2000 Benny
Little Nicky 2000 Pepper
Sand 2000 Kirby
3000 Miles to Graceland 2001 Jay Peterson
Cats & Dogs 2001 Calico (voice)
Rat Race 2001 Randall 'Randy' Pear
Good Advice 2001 Barry Sherman
Eight Crazy Nights 2002 Tom Baltezor (voice)
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star 2003 Sidney Wernick
The Stepford Wives 2004 Dave Markowitz
Pancho's Pizza (short film) 2005
Bailey's Billion$ 2005 Bailey (voice)
The Producers 2005 Mr. Marks
The Benchwarmers 2006 Mel
Southland Tales 2007 Bart Bookman
Farce of the Penguins 2007 My eyes are up here Penguin (voice)
I Could Never Be Your Woman 2007 Rob

[edit] Television

Show Years Role
Saturday Night Live 1985-1992 various
Seinfeld 1995 'Gary Fogle' in The Scofflaw
The Simpsons 1991- Llewellyn Sinclair, Ms. Sinclair, Professor Lombardo, Enrico Irritazio, Artie Ziff, Aristotle Amadopoulos, and Jay Sherman.
Friends 1995 & 2003 Restaurant owner who interviews Monica Geller and later goes out on a date with Rachel Green
The Critic 1994-1995 Jay Sherman
NewsRadio 1997-1999 Max Lewis, Fred,[2] and Mike Johnson[3]
Las Vegas 2004-2005 'Fred Puterbaugh'
Two and a Half Men 2006 'Archie Baldwin'

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jon Lovitz Biography (1957-)
  2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001484/filmoseries#tt0112095
  3. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsradio#Cast

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Will Smith		 MTV Movie Awards host
1995 (with Courteney Cox)		 Succeeded by
Janeane Garofalo and Ben Stiller
v • d • e
The Simpsons cast members
Main cast
Recurring cast
Recurring guest stars
Former cast