Actors - Jay Leno

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	Actors - Jay Leno

Jay Leno (born April 28, 1950) is an American comedian of Italian and Scottish extraction who is best known as the host of the long-running NBC television variety and talk show The Tonight Show. He also owns the production company which co-produces The Tonight Show called Big Dog Productions.

Early years

Leno was born James Henry Muir-Leno in New Rochelle, New York to a Scottish mother and Italian-American father and grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and received his Bachelor's degree in Speech therapy from Emerson College in 1973.

Stand-up

Leno started his career performing in nightclubs, bars and any place that would give him even five minutes of stage time. He quickly became known for his work ethic and nice demeanor both on- and offstage, as well as for his striking appearance, in particular his large chin. Though he had made the occasional foray onto television in the form of guest appearances on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Johnny Carson, stardom eluded him and he continued to work wherever he was allowed. It has been reported that Leno would sometimes work as many as eight or nine clubs in one evening. During the late 1970s he was frequently featured as the opening act at John Denver concerts. He began making more frequent appearances on television when many of his friends and contemporaries became more influential on late night programs. Leno made a record number of appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. His popularity was noted by NBC executives, who decided to make Leno the permanent guest host for The Tonight Show when Joan Rivers left that position.

Even after serving as the Tonight Show host for 14 years, Leno still performs stand-up on a regular basis; he often performs weekend shows in Las Vegas after wrapping up show production for the week.

Host of Tonight Show

When Carson retired in 1992 Jay Leno became the new permanent host of The Tonight Show after a long period of debate and negotiations with Leno and David Letterman (who had been considered by many to be Carson's heir apparent). Letterman signed a deal with CBS, sparking an ongoing late-night rivalry between the two talk-show hosts. Although Letterman's Late Show led in the ratings at the start, The Tonight Show took over the lead in 1995 and has, on the whole, had higher ratings ever since.

Although known mainly for his wit, he has also shown his sensitive side on air. When The Tonight Show came back after the September 11 attacks, he nixed his usual monologue to talk about what had happened. He also spoke about the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. In addition, following the skating controversy surrounding the ice skating pairs event at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Leno invited the Canadian pairs teams onto his show the following day and waved a Canadian flag and played "O Canada" for them. And when Johnny Carson passed away in January 2005, he did one night of the The Tonight Show as a tribute to his predecessor.

In 1998, Jay Leno and his show partner Kevin Eubanks were invited to a wrestling show called WCW Road Wild 1998, from Sturgis, South Dakota, in which Leno teamed with Diamond Dallas Page to wrestle against Hulk Hogan and WCW President Eric Bischoff, following a prelude in which the wrestling stars had appeared on The Tonight Show. The match ended with Page and Leno's victory when Eubanks snuck a fast Diamond Cutter on Bischoff.

In 2002, Leno had a group of professionals build him a robot called "Chin Killa" for Battlebots. Although the officials from the show let his robot fight in fun matches, they wouldn't allow it to fight in tournaments because it was built by professionals.

On May 12, 2003, he and Katie Couric switched places, meaning Leno co-hosted the Today Show with Matt Lauer.

On The Tonight Show's 50th anniversary episode (September 27, 2004), he announced that he would retire as host in 2009, when his current contract expires, as part of an arrangement that allowed NBC to have Late Night host Conan O' Brien replace him.

Acting, Cameos and voice acting

Leno is not widely known as an actor (legendarily, in auditioning for a role on Mork & Mindy which would go to Jay Thomas, he was told that he had a face that would scare children), but he had a number of small roles early in his career in mostly unsuccessful movies; an exception was a bit part in the more popular film, American Hot Wax. His most prominent role was in the 1989 film Collision Course
, a comedy about a mismatched crime fighting pair, in which he played a detective opposite the late Pat Morita. Leno also appeared in an episode of the television series Good Times, in which his character promotes getting tested for venereal diseases. His acting debut actually found himself as one of the "pool guys" in the original 1977 version of Fun with Dick and Jane
.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Jay Leno ]

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Actors - Jay Leno

Early years

Stand-up

Host of Tonight Show

Acting, Cameos and voice acting

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