Rodney Dangerfield mini-bio: Rodney Dangerfield was born in Babylon New York in 1921. His birth name was Jacob Cohen. He began writing jokes at the age of 15, and started performing before he was 20. He took his act to the road for ten years under the stage name of Jack Roy and also worked as a singing waiter during this time.
Years later he made another attempt at a career in comedy under the name of Rodney Dangerfield. When he appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" ("Toast of the Town" (1948)), he made Ed Sullivan laugh. Few people ever provoked any kind of reaction out of the legendary Ed Sullivan. Dangerfield had the image of a lovable disgruntled everyman type that became a hit all across nightclubs in the 1960s. Dangerfield also made many appearances on the "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962) and "The Dean Martin Show" (1965) in the 1970s.
By the mid 1970s he had cemented his image as a comedian constantly tugging at his red tie, always proclaiming he gets no respect. His big break came with many appearances on "Saturday Night Live" (1975), bringing himself to a much wider audience and proving hysterical on many occasions.
In 1980, Dangerfield became a cornerstone of American comedy playing the role of Al Czervik in the classic Caddyshack (1980). Also in 1980 Rodney came out with a popular comedy album, 'Rappin Rodney'. The album earned Dangerfield a Grammy for best comedy album. The next movie on Rodney's agenda was Easy Money (1983), a comedy that showed him as an insulting working class person that suddenly becomes a millionaire. The movie was also a big hit. Dangerfield became very sparse in his roles on TV and film about this time. The year 1986 saw the comedy Back to School (1986), his biggest film to date. The comedy was one of the first to gross over 100 million. In 1994 Dangerfield starred in his first dramatic role in the successful Oliver Stone film, Natural Born Killers (1994). He played an abusive father that drove one of the killers crazy. His part was critically acclaimed. In 1995 Dangerfield entered the world of cyberspace, becoming the first entertainer to have a website on the world wide web.
Dangerfield had made a record 70 appearances on the "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962), and had discovered many struggling comedians, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Roseanne, Robert Townsend, Sam Kinison and Tim Allen. The comedian owned a legendary nightclub in Manhattan called Dangerfield's. In the 1990s he made highly publicized appearances on "The Simpsons" (1989), "In Living Color" (1990), "Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist" (1995), "Home Improvement" (1991), "Suddenly Susan" (1996), among others.
He died on October 5, 2004 after falling into a coma following heart surgery.
