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Jon Lovitz
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Jonathan M. "Jon" 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.
tz was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was a doctor in Encino, California.
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.
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Encyclopedia
Jonathan M. "Jon" 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.
Early life
Lovitz was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was a doctor in Encino, California.
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 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!" 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", Jay Sherman again in the Season 6 crossover episode "A Star Is Burns", and paparazzo Enrico Irritazio in the season eighteen episode "Homerazzi". He played a brief role as Cheapo, the worlds cheapest bad guy, as well as Professor Lombardo and Aristotle Amadopolous, in the short lived series Stripperella. He is also the voice of the radio, in the Disney movie, The Brave Little Toaster.
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 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 a 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 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. 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 Schwartz, Craig Shoemaker, Russell Peters, Kevin Nealon, Dennis Miller, Ryan Robinson etc.
Filmography
Films
Television
External links
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