Jon Lovitz

Jonathan "Jon" Lovitz (born July 21, 1957) is an American actor, comedian and singer. He is best known for serving as a cast member of Saturday Night Live between 1985 to 1990 and voicing Jay Sherman on The Critic.

Early life
Lovitz was born in Los Angeles, California. His paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Romania who settled in Jacksonville, Florida. His maternal grandmother was an immigrant from Hungary, while his maternal grandfather was born in Chicago, but his family were immigrants from Russia. He attended Harvard 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 his future SNL fellow Phil Hartman.

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!" as he, after visible effort, finally finished constructing his latest lie. Some of his other recurring characters included Master Thespian, Tonto, Mephistopheles, 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.

Hanukkah Harry, one of his most memorable roles, cast him in 1989 as a Jewish contemporary of Santa Claus who lives on Mount Sinai and travels the globe with a cart flown by three donkeys to give bland gifts to Jewish boys and girls. Harry is asked to fill in when Santa falls ill on Christmas Eve.

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", as well in the episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" as Andre, a man whom Patty and Selma attempt to set Marge up with, Jay Sherman again in the Season 6 crossover episode "A Star Is Burns", as well as Professor Lombardo and Aristotle Amadopolous, and paparazzo Enrico Irritazio in the season eighteen episode "Homerazzi". He was also the voice of Radio in the Hyperion-produced, Disney-distributed animated movie, The Brave Little Toaster and he lent his voice for a promo video for the video game Banjo-Kazooie.

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 in ads for Subway and in a cameo in the movie Matilda, as Million Dollar Sticky Man.

His first starring role was in Mom and Dad Save The World as the film's main character and antagonist Emperor Tod Spengo. He also starred in the film High School High also as the main character but this time he was the hero of the story, unlike Mom and Dad Save The World.

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 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 six 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 (a mental patient in the hospital where Phil Hartman's character was committed and a suicidal man threatening to jump off a window ledge outside the studio) before becoming a cast member in the show's final season. In the final season, he played Max Louis, the news radio announcer who replaced Phil Hartman's Bill McNeal.

In 2003, he appeared in 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 as Fred Puterbaugh, up to the end of the second series.

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.

Stand-up comedy
In 1984, 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 1996, he became the spokesperson in an advertising campaign for the Subway restaurant chain.

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, sponsored by RR-Ex. It currently presents one show a night at 9pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The club has played host to David Spade, Ralphie May, Carlos Mencia, Dana Carvey, Jo Koy, Eric Schwartz, Craig Shoemaker, Joe Rogan, Russell Peters, Kevin Nealon, Dennis Miller, and Ryan Robinson.

There is also a second Jon Lovitz Comedy Club location on City Walk in Universal Studios, Hollywood. A comic short film starring Ken Davitian ('Borat') and featuring Lovitz was filmed there, directed by Emmy nominee Brent Roske and written by Aaron Davitian.

Other work

 * Cranium Command (1989) - Right Brain
 * Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget (2008) - Himself
 * The Critic (webisodes) (2000-2001) - Jay Sherman