Actors - Fred Willard

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	Actors - Fred Willard

Fred Willard (born September 18, 1939) is an American comedian and actor known for his improvisational flair, never-ending smile, and a unique charm that has made some regard him as one of his generation's most gifted comic character actors.

A veteran of sketch comedy, Fred is heralded for his quick wit and improvisational expertise. His fifty appearances in sketches on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno are indicative of his ability to transform any character into a unique comic portrayal.

Fred recently completed a sold-out run of his one man show, Fred Willard: Alone At Last! (with a cast of twelve) and received two Los Angeles Artistic Director Awards, for Best Comedy and Best Production.

He is an alumnus of The Second City and currently heads a sketch comedy workshop, The MoHo Group. He got his start performing in a comedy duo and was a founding member of the improvisational comedy group Ace Trucking Company. Fellow members of Ace included Bill Saluga, Patti Deutsch among others. He achieved wider fame as Martin Mull's impossibly dense sidekick, Jerry Hubbard, on the television shows Fernwood 2Nite, Forever Fernwood and America 2-Night that parodied the night-time talk shows of the day. Fred Willard also had a short role on Roseanne as Leon's husband.

His most recent notable work has been in Christopher Guest films, such as A Mighty Wind
, where he played Mike LaFontaine, a character known for his catch phrase "Wha' happened?", and Best in Show
, in which he portrayed Buck Laughlin, a dog show announcer who offered up an unending stream of bad jokes and off-color comments. He will appear in Guest's next film, entitled For Your Consideration
. He also appeared as KVWN news director Ed Harken in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
.

Willard also had a recurring role as Hank MacDougall on the later seasons of CBS' Everybody Loves Raymond. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for this role in 2003, 2004, and 2005. Willard was also the host of a VH1 documentary series called Totally Obsessed about people obsessed with their hobbies.

He also guest-starred on the adult swim cartoon, Tom Goes to the Mayor.

Trivia

He is friends with actor Richard Steven Horvitz
, and along with Richard is a member of the Fred Willard Players.
Willard auditioned alongside Robert Klein
for The Second City, which consisted of a nightclub manager and his employee. The audition helped the two secure the job.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Fred Willard ]

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