 |
Dana Carvey Biography |
focusdep.com |
 |
||
| ~back to authors profile on focusdep~ | |||||
|
Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955 in Missoula, Montana) is an United States actor and comedian best known for his work on Saturday Night Live and the spin-off movie Wayne's World (film).
When Carvey was three years old, his family moved to San Carlos, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his first drum kit at an early age. He attended Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, and received his Bachelor's degree in communications from San Francisco State University. He is a member of the Lutheran Church. Career First roles Carvey's first movie role was a small part in the 1981 horror film Halloween II. He then costarred on One of the Boys in 1982, a short-lived television Situation comedy that also starred Mickey Rooney, Nathan Lane, and Meg Ryan. In 1984, Carvey had a small role in Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap film, where he played a mime artist, with fellow comedian Billy Crystal. Also starred in the short-lived movie-based action show Blue Thunder. SNL referred to Carvey simply as "The Lady." Carvey's other original characters included Garth Algar (from "Wayne's World"), Hans (from Hans and Franz) and The Grumpy Old Man (from Weekend Update appearances). Garth Algar is actually an affectionate caricature of Dana's brother, Brad Carvey, an accomplished electrical engineer who invented the Video Toaster. Carvey also became known for his impressions, most notably of George H. W. Bush during the 1988 campaign and after he was elected president. Other notable impressions included Jimmy Stewart, Johnny Carson, John McLaughlin (host), Keith Richards, Charles Grodin and Woody Allen. During the 1992 campaign, he did a dead-on impression of independent candidate Ross Perot; in a prime-time special before the election, Carvey played both Bush and Perot in a three-way debate with Bill Clinton, who was played by Phil Hartman. Carvey left SNL in 1993. In 1992, Carvey joined Mike Myers (actor) to bring their popular "Wayne's World" sketch to the silver screen with Wayne's World (film) the movie. A sequel was filmed and released in 1993, titled Wayne's World 2. After SNL NBC executives hoped to get Carvey to take over the 12:30 a.m. weeknight spot in the network's lineup in 1993 when David Letterman left his show Late Night with David Letterman for an 11:30 p.m. show on CBS. A big Letterman fan, Carvey rejected the offer, causing embarrassment for the network, which had publicly floated his name. The 12:30 spot eventually went to Conan O'Brien. In 1994, he starred in Clean Slate. In 1996, he reprised many of his SNL characters for The Dana Carvey Show, a critically acclaimed but short-lived prime-time variety show. The show was most notable for launching Robert Smigel's cartoon The Ambiguously Gay Duo. In 1997, he underwent open-heart surgery for a blocked artery. Unfortunately, the doctors operated on the wrong artery. Carvey later sued for medical malpractice and was awarded $7.5 million. Carvey has had to undergo a total of five operations to correct his heart problems. Carvey stated in an interview with Larry King that he donated all the money awarded to him from the lawsuit to charity. In 2002, he returned to the silver screen in the comedy Master of Disguise, which was panned by critics but managed around $40 million at the North American box office. He is number 90 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. A very private person, Carvey withdrew from the limelight to focus on his family. He later said in an interview that he doesn't want to be in a career where his kids are already grown up, and he neglected all those moments beforehand. Filmography See also 
Courtesy of: http://www.wikipedia.org/ |
|||||
|
|
Random Biographies |
focusdep.com |
|
|
|
||||
