Actors - Al Franken

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	Actors - Al Franken

Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, author, screenwriter, political commentator, and radio host, noted for his liberal politics.

Franken first achieved national prominence on Saturday Night Live
as the writing and performing partner of Tom Davis. His more recent career accomplishments are politically-oriented, authoring books such as Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, serving as host of the flagship program from Air America Radio, and taking steps (such as creating a PAC) which may lead to a possible 2008 run against U.S. Senator Norm Coleman as Minnesota's Democratic candidate.

Personal life

Franken was born in New York City into a Jewish family, and grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota in suburban Minneapolis. He graduated from The Blake School in 1969, where he was on the school wrestling team. He attended Harvard University and graduated cum laude in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in government.

He and his wife Franni have a son, Joe, and daughter, Thomasin (both attended New York City's prestigious Dalton School). Joe attends Princeton University and Thomasin is a public school teacher in New York City, with a degree from Harvard University. The Frankens reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Franken is also a Grateful Dead fan, as made evident in the use of their music as segues to commercials on his radio show.

Al Franken is a distant cousin of CNN's Bob Franken. His older brother, Owen Franken, is a photojournalist.

Career

Writer and performer

Franken's performing career began in high school, where he and Tom Davis (his long-time writing partner) were known as class clowns. Franken honed his writing and performing skills at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis, a theater specializing in political satire. He and Davis soon found themselves in "a life of near-total failure on the fringes of show business in Los Angeles."

Franken and Davis were recruited as two of the original writers on Saturday Night Live
(1975-1980, 1985-1995). Franken was awarded three Emmy Awards and seven Emmy nominations for his television writing and production. He created characters such as self-help guru Stuart Smalley and schticks such as proclaiming the 1980s to be the "Al Franken Decade". Franken was associated with SNL for more than 15 years and in 2002 interviewed former Vice President Al Gore while in character as Smalley. Franken and Davis wrote the script to the 1986 comedy film One More Saturday Night
and they both had roles as rock singers in a band called "Bad Mouth."

Franken's most notorious SNL sketch may have been "A Limo for the Lame-O," a commentary delivered by Franken near the end of the 1979–80 season. Franken mocked the controversial president of NBC, Fred Silverman, describing him as "a total unequivocal failure" and displayed a chart showing the poor ratings of NBC programs. Al proclaimed that Silverman did not deserve a limo, but that Al — who was a comedian on a popular NBC program — deserved it instead. According to associates of the show, Silverman's anger over the sketch was one of the factors prompting him to abandon negotiations with the show's creator Lorne Michaels and seek a different producer for the sixth season of SNL.

Besides having written five #1 New York Times bestselling books (including Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations), Franken co-wrote (with his former partner Tom Davis) the screenplay for The Coneheads movie. He also wrote the original screenplay and starred in the theatrical flop, Stuart Saves His Family
. Though the movie failed at the box office, it is still used to this day at rehabilitation and family counseling centers. He also co-wrote the hit film When A Man Loves A Woman. He co-created and starred in the NBC sitcom LateLine, but low ratings led to its cancellation halfway through the second season, with only twelve of the nineteen episodes airing. He had a cameo as "Baggage Handler #2" in the Eddie Murphy/Dan Aykroyd film Trading Places
.

In 2003, Franken served as a Fellow with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. He also became the first nationally syndicated radio talk show host to visit Iraq, where he headlined two USO shows. Franken has done five USO tours to date.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Al Franken ]

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