HARRY SHEARER

'Harry Julius Shearer' (born December 23, 1943 in Los Angeles, California) is an American comedic actor and writer. Shearer, a voice actor on ''The Simpsons'' (1989 to present), provides the voices of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Lenny Leonard, Principal Seymour Skinner, Otto Mann and Rainier Wolfcastle among others.

Contents

Biography

Personal life

Career

Recurring characters on SNL

Celebrity impersonations on SNL

Filmography

Video Games

Bibliography

References

External links

Biography

Personal life

Shearer was born in Los Angeles, California to Mack Shearer and Dora Kohn, a bookkeeper.^[1] His parents were Jewish immigrants from Austria and Poland.^[2][3] Shearer has been married to singer-songwriter Judith Owen since 1993. Shearer attended UCLA and Harvard. In May 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Goucher College.

Career

He began his career as a child actor in 1950s movies (''The Robe'') and television (''The Jack Benny Program''). Shearer also played the precursor to the Eddie Haskell character in the pilot episode of the TV series ''Leave It to Beaver''. Shearer was later a member of Los Angeles radio comedy group The Credibility Gap, 1968–1974, and a writer for such television shows as Fernwood 2-Night and Laverne and Shirley. In August 1979, Shearer was hired as a writer and cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'', an unofficial replacement for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, who were both leaving the show. According to the book ''Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live'', Shearer did not get along well with the other writers and castmembers, who regarded him as "prickly." His first tenure on the show ended when Lorne Michaels left SNL, taking the entire cast with him.
Shearer returned to Saturday Night Live in the 1984–1985 season, leaving for good in January 1985 over "creative differences." When reached for comment over the nature of his departure, Shearer replied "I was creative; they were different".
Shearer co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in Rob Reiner's 1984 film ''This Is Spinal Tap'' with Michael McKean and Christopher Guest; the three of them also collaborated on the acclaimed 2003 spoof ''A Mighty Wind'', which was written by Guest and Eugene Levy (but largely improvised by the cast members) and directed by Guest. Shearer's television work also includes two specials for Cinemax, "It's Just TV", and "This Week Indoors" (co-created with Merrill Markoe) and "The Magic of Live". He directed the entire six-episode cable series, "The History of White People in America", co-created by Martin Mull and Allen Rucker, as well as the two-hour feature finale of the series, "Portrait of a White Marriage". He also co-wrote and directed Paul Shaffer's fantasy special for HBO, "Viva Shaf Vegas" (with Shaffer and Tom Leopold). His first theatrical feature, which he wrote and directed, was "Teddy Bears' Picnic", a dark comedy loosely based on the workings of Bohemian Grove, the secret retreat of the elite.
Shearer has three books published, "Man Bites Town" (a collection of his Los Angeles Times Magazine columns), "It's the Stupidity, Stupid", and "Not Enough Indians", a comic novel about Native Americans and gambling.^[4]
Shearer may be best known for his prolific work as a voice actor on ''The Simpsons'' (1989 to present), where he provides voices for Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Lenny Leonard, Principal Seymour Skinner, Otto Mann and Rainier Wolfcastle among others. He was one of three Simpsons voice actors to guest star on the show ''Friends'' ("The One With the Fake Monica"); the other two were Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria. He also appeared in ''Godzilla'' with Hank Azaria, which had a cameo appearance from Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson.
Since 1983, Shearer has been the host of the public radio comedy/music program ''Le Show'' on Santa Monica's NPR-affiliated radio station, KCRW. The show airs on public radio stations throughout the country, and is offered as a podcast. Shearer is the regular announcer for TV Land and, since May 2005, has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. Shearer has homes in both Santa Monica, California and the Faubourg Marigny of New Orleans, Louisiana. According to a telephone call on ''Ask Mr. KABC'', his house survived Hurricane Katrina.
Shearer is recording for a BBC Radio 4 sitcom with Brian Hayes called Not Today, Thank You. He plays Nostrils - a man so ugly he can't stand to be in his own presence. He resides in washed up radio presenter Brian Hughes' (played by Hayes) garage (in the house belonging to his grandmother), sometimes appearing in other rooms of the house. On October 30, 2006, he appeared on ''Graham Norton's Bigger Picture'' in the UK.

Recurring characters on SNL

★ Tom Clay, a spokesman for several fake commercials on SNL

★ Vic Raker, a Weekend Update commentator

Celebrity impersonations on SNL

★ Alan Thicke

★ Carl Sagan

★ Curt Gowdy

★ Frank Reynolds

★ Franklin Roosevelt

★ Jack Perkins

★ Joe Garagiola

★ Mike Wallace

★ Mr. Blackwell

★ Robin Leach

★ Rod Serling

★ Ronald Reagan

★ Tom Brokaw

★ Tom Snyder

★ Vin Scully (Shearer also impersonated Vin Scully on several episodes of ''The Simpsons''.)

Filmography

★ ''The Simpsons Movie (2007)

★ ''Not Today, Thank You (2006) (Radio)

★ ''For Your Consideration (2006)

★ ''Chicken Little'' (2005)

★ ''A Mighty Wind'' (2003)

★ ''Teddy Bears' Picnic'' (2002)

★ ''Haunted Castle'' (2001)

★ ''Out There'' (2001)

★ ''Haiku Tunnel'' (2001)

★ ''Catching Up with Marty DiBergi'' (2000) (V)

★ ''Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big'' (2000)

★ ''Dick'' (1999)

★ '' (1999)

★ ''Encounter in the Third Dimension'' (1999)

★ ''Edtv'' (1999)

★ ''Small Soldiers'' (1998) (voice)

★ ''The Truman Show'' (1998)

★ ''Almost Heroes'' (1998)

★ ''Godzilla'' (1998)

★ ''My Best Friend's Wedding'' (1997)

★ '' (1996) (TV)

★ ''Blazing Dragons'' (1996) (VG)

★ ''The Show Formerly Known as the Martin Short Show'' (1995) (TV)

★ ''Sliders'' (1995) (TV) (uncredited)

★ ''The News Hole'' (1995) TV Series

★ ''Speechless'' (1994)

★ ''Little Giants'' (1994)

★ ''I'll Do Anything'' (1994)

★ ''Wayne's World 2'' (1993)

★ '' (1993) (TV)

★ ''A League of Their Own'' (1992)

★ '' (1992) (V) (as Derek Smalls)

★ ''The Fisher King'' (1991)

★ ''Blood and Concrete'' (1991)

★ ''Pure Luck'' (1991)

★ ''Oscar'' (1991/I)

★ ''Sunday Best'' (1991) TV Series

★ ''Hometown Boy Makes Good'' (1990) (TV)

★ ''The Simpsons'' (1989 - present)

★ ''My Stepmother Is an Alien'' (1988)

★ ''Plain Clothes'' (1988)

★ ''Portrait of a White Marriage'' (1988)

★ ''Spaceballs'' (1987) (uncredited)

★ '' (1987) (TV)

★ ''Flicks'' (1987) (voice)

★ '' (1986) (TV)

★ '' (1986) (TV)

★ ''Viva Shaf Vegas'' (1986) (TV)

★ ''The History of White People in America'' (1985) (TV)

★ ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (1984)

★ ''The Right Stuff'' (1983)

★ ''Million Dollar Infield'' (1982) (TV)

★ ''Likely Stories, Vol. 1'' (1981) TV Series

★ ''One Trick Pony'' (1980)

★ ''Loose Shoes'' (1980)

★ ''Animalympics'' (1980)

★ ''Saturday Night Live'' (1979-80, 1984-85)

★ ''The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh'' (1979)

★ ''The T.V. Show'' (1979) (TV)

★ ''Real Life'' (1979)

★ ''Cracking Up'' (1977)

★ ''American Raspberry'' (1977)

★ '' (1976) (TV)

★ ''The Jack Benny Program'' (1955) (guest voice) TV Series - Harry Beaver

★ ''The Jack Benny Program'' (1953) (guest voice) TV Series - Jack as a Child

★ ''The Robe'' (1953) (uncredited)

★ ''Abbott and Costello Go to Mars'' (1953) (uncredited)

Video Games

★ Science Vessel/Magellan in ''Starcraft''

Bibliography

★ Man Bites Town, , Harry, Shearer, St Martins Press, 1993, ISBN 0-312-08842-6

★ It's the Stupidity, Stupid : Why (Some) People Hate Clinton and Why the Rest of Us Have to Watch (Library of Contemporary Thought), , Harry, Shearer, Ballantine Books, 1999, ISBN 0-345-43401-3

★ Not Enough Indians, , Harry, Shearer, Justin, Charles and Company, 2006, ISBN 1-932112-46-4

References

1. http://www.filmreference.com/film/37/Harry-Shearer.html
2. http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=8329
3. http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/31034/edition_id/581/format/html/displaystory.html
4. http://justincharlesbooks.com/book/?GCOI=19321100322880

External links

★ Harry Shearer's official site

★ archived Harry Shearer site

★ Harry Shearer's blog at the Huffington Post

★ Harry Shearer at Voice Chasers

★ Harry Shearer 'takes aim' with "Not Enough Indians" (video of an appearance at Cody's Books, Berkeley, CA Nov 26, 2006)

★ Harry Shearer on The Hour

★ Scene Missing Magazine Interviews Harry Shearer