JON LOVITZ Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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JON LOVITZ

Name: Jonathan Lovitz                                                                     
Born: 21 July 1957 Los Angeles, California                                                 
                                                                                           
Jonathan M. Lovitz (born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian                 
perhaps best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live and the voice of Jay           
Sherman in The Critic.                                                                     
                                                                                           
Lovitz was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was an internist in                 
Encino, California . He attended Harvard-Westlake School and studied theater               
at the University of California at Irvine and graduated in 1979. He studied               
acting with Tony Barr at the Film Actors Workshop. He became a member of The               
Groundlings comedy troupe where he befriended Phil Hartman. His father's parents           
were immigrants from Romania who settled in Jacksonville, Florida. His mother's           
mother was an immigrant from Hungary. His mother's father was born in Chicago,             
but his family were immigrants from Russia.                                               
                                                                                           
Lovitz was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. He later said           
in an interview for the book Live From New York: An Uncensored History of                 
Saturday Night Live that his time on SNL was the most memorable in his career.             
He went from having no money to being offered a $500,000 movie contract. He was           
nominated for an Emmy his first two years on Saturday Night Live. One of his               
most notable SNL characters was "Tommy Flanagan, The Pathological Liar" that               
generated the catch phrase, "Yeah! That's the ticket!" Some of his other                   
recurring characters included Master Thespian, Tonto, Mephistopheles, Hanukkah             
Harry, and Michael Dukakis. In a 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live he played a           
virgin Trekkie, who was scripted to hang his head when asked by William Shatner           
if he had ever kissed a girl.                                                             
                                                                                           
Lovitz has lent his voice to several cartoons and films. In the series The                 
Critic he played the title character of Jay Sherman. On The Simpsons he played             
Marge's ex-prom date Artie Ziff, theater director Llewellyn Sinclair (and his             
sister, who runs a daycare center) on the season four episode "A Streetcar Named           
Marge", Jay Sherman from The Critic in the Season 6 crossover episode "A Star Is           
Burns", and paparazzo Enrico Irritazio in the season eighteen episode "Homerazzi".         
He also played Professor Lombardo and Aristotle Amadopolous. He also was the               
voice behind the radio, on the Disney movie, "The Brave Little Toaster"                   
                                                                                           
In the late 1990s, Lovitz was "the man who wrote the Yellow Pages", in a series           
of commercials and print ads for the American Yellow Pages industry. He has also           
appeared for ads for Subway.                                                               
                                                                                           
He also had an uncredited cameo as a rival crooner to Adam Sandler in the movie           
The Wedding Singer, and had a small role in another of Sandler's movies, Little           
Nicky.                                                                                     
                                                                                           
Lovitz has also appeared on Friends twice. He first appeared in the Season 1               
episode "The One with the Stoned Guy" as a restaurateur who gets stoned on                 
marijuana trip just prior to interviewing Monica Geller for a job. He reappeared           
years later in the Season 9 episode "The One with the Blind Dates", where it is           
revealed that he lost his restaurant due to a drug problem.                               
                                                                                           
He also appeared on Seinfeld as Gary Fogel, a man who lies about having cancer             
("The Scofflaw") and later dies in a car accident.                                         
                                                                                           
In 1991, Lovitz appeared in the season seven episode of Married With Children             
entitled "Kelly Does Hollywood part 2" as sleazy hollywood producer Mr.                   
Littlehead.                                                                               
                                                                                           
In 1998, Lovitz made a dramatic turn when he appeared in a small but pivotal               
role in Todd Solondz's film Happiness as a depressed man who attacks his date             
for thinking of him as nothing. His insults set the tone for her character                 
throughout the film.                                                                       
                                                                                           
Lovitz guest-starred twice on Newsradio as two separate characters before                 
becoming a cast member in the show's final season (playing a third character).             
                                                                                           
He appeared on Two and a Half Men in 2006 as a jingle writer named Archie.                 
                                                                                           
He has also had multiple guest appearances on the TV show Las Vegas