Jon Lovitz

Jon Lovitz
Name	Jon Lovitz
occupation	Actor/Comedian/Singer

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Career

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1986	Hamburger... The Motion Picture	Security guard
	Last Resort	Bartender
	Jumpin' Jack Flash	Doug
	Ratboy	Party guest
	¡Kyle Nott's Pizza Party!	Kyle Nott Jr.
1987	The Brave Little Toaster	Radio	Voice
1988	Big	Scotty Brennen
	My Stepmother Is an Alien	Ron Mills
1990	Mr. Destiny	Clip Metzler
1991	An American Tail: Fievel Goes West	Chula	Voice
1992	The Buzz	Unknown
	A League of Their Own	Ernie Capadino
	Mom and Dad Save the World	Emperor Tod Spengo
1993	Loaded Weapon 1	Becker
	Coneheads	Dr. Rudolph	Uncredited
1994	City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold	Glen Robbins
	North	Arthur Belt
	Trapped in Paradise	Dave Firpo
1996	For Goodness Sake II	Unknown
	The Great White Hype	Sol
	Matilda	Million $ Sticky Host	Uncredited
	High School High	Richard Clark
1998	The Wedding Singer	Jimmie Moore	Uncredited
	Happiness	Andy Kornbluth
1999	Lost & Found	Uncle Harry
2000	Small Time Crooks	Benny
	Little Nicky	Peeper
	Sand	Kirby
2001	3000 Miles to Graceland	Jay Peterson
	Cats & Dogs	Calico	Voice
	Rat Race	Randall 'Randy' Pear
	Good Advice	Barry Sherman
2002	Eight Crazy Nights	Tom Baltezor
2003	Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star	Sidney Wernick
2004	The Stepford Wives	Dave Markowitz
2005	Bailey's Billion$	Bailey
	Pancho's Pizza	Unknown	Short film
	The Producers	Mr. Marks
2006	Farce of the Penguins	"My eyes are up here" Penguin	Direct-to-DVD release
	The Benchwarmers	Mel
	Southland Tales	Bart Bookman
2007	I Could Never Be Your Woman	Rob	Direct-to-DVD release

Television

Year	Series	Role	Notes
1984	The Paper Chase	Levitz	Episode 2.18: "Billy Pierce"
1985	Foley Square	Mole
1985-1992	Saturday Night Live	Various characters	Main cast member; appeared in 92 episodes
1991	Tales from the Crypt	Barry Blye	Episode 3.5: "Top Billing"
	Married... with Children	Jeff Littlehead	Episode 6.10: "Kelly Does Hollywood: Part 2"
1991-2007	The Simpsons	Various characters (including Jay Sherman)	Appeared in nine episodes
1993	A League of Their Own	Ernie Capadino	Episode 1.1: "Dottie's Back"
1994-1995	The Critic	Jay Sherman	Appeared in all 23 episodes
1995	Seinfeld	Gary Fogel	Episode 6.13: "The Scofflaw"
1995, 2003	Friends	Steve	Episodes 1.15: "The One with the Stoned Guy" and 9.14: "The One with the Blind Dates"
1997	The Naked Truth	Acer Predburn	Episode 2.8: "The Scoop"
1997-1999	NewsRadio	Fred Mike Johnson Max Lewis	Episode 3.20: "Our Fiftieth Episode" Episode 4.1: "Jumper" Main cast member in fifth season
1997-2003	Just Shoot Me!	Roland Devereaux	Episode 7.15: "A Simple Kiss of Fate"
2000	Bette	Himself	Episode 1.15: "Polterguest"
2002	Son of the Beach	Father of B.J.'s Baby	Episode 3.14: "Bad News, Mr. Johnson"
2004-2005	Las Vegas	Fred Puterbaugh	Appeared in three episodes
2006	Two and a Half Men	Archie Baldwin	Episode 3.17: "The Unfortunate Little Schnauzer"
2010	WWE RAW	Himself	Guest Host

Other work

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

External links

1. REDIRECT Template:IMDb name

• Jon Lovitz at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jon Lovitz On MySpace.com

Preceded by Will Smith

MTV Movie Awards host 1995 (with Courteney Cox)

Succeeded by Janeane Garofalo and Ben Stiller