Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States Executive summary:Fernwood 2night
Military service: (two years)
Fred Willard is a comedian and actor who has made a long career of supporting and character roles, usually as charming albeit somewhat dim and self-unaware characters. In 1962, Willard and pal Vic Greco formed a comedy act that was funny and successful enough to earn them an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. When Greco & Willard broke up, Willard settled in Chicago to work with Second City, alongside Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Gilda Radner, and Catherine O'Hara. In the late 1960s, he appeared on stage with Second City in the improv piece 20,000 Frozen Grenadiers, and in scripted comedies including Jules Feiffer's Little Murders, with Vincent Gardenia and Linda Lavin, and Arf / The Great Airplane Snatch, with Paula Prentiss and Lily Tomlin.
Later, living in Hollywood, Willard joined another improv group, The Committee, and co-founded a third, the Ace Trucking Company. With other ATCers, Willard had small roles in 1973's The Harrad Experiment and its sequel, Harrad Summer. In 1973, Willard had national exposure in the cast of The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour, a summer replacement show, running only a few months. In 1977, Norman Lear offered him the role that made him far more famous: Jerry Hubbard, sidekick to Martin Mull's Barth Gimble on the first satirical talk show, Fernwood 2Night. He has since co-hosted an early reality show, Real People, played sidekick to Alan Thicke on the legendarily lousy Thicke of the Night talk show in 1983, and co-hosted a revival of Candid Camera with Allen Funt in 1990.
Willard has also been a regular in a handful of other sitcoms, some good (Sirota's Court) and some not so good (Watching Ellie). He was the bartender on the political and pop culture puppet comedy D.C. Follies in the late 1980s. He has also had recurring roles on Ally McBeal, Family Matters, Mad About You, and Everybody Loves Raymond. He played the President in several episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and re-teamed with Mull as gay lovers on Roseanne.
Willard says he almost turned down This is Spinal Tap, until Rob Reiner showed him a ten-minute "demo" reel. He has appeared in several largely-improvised comedies directed by Spinal Tap's Christopher Guest, including Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. Best in Show was perhaps Willard's funniest performance, as the clueless play-by-play announcer at a dog show. "Chris sent me a tape of the Westminster Dog Show and he said, 'Notice that Joe Garagiola [the retired baseball player and sportscaster] has taken no effort to learn anything about dogs.' That was my cue."
Willard lives in Los Angeles with his wife, playwright Mary Willard. Once a week, they run a comedy workshop called the MoHo Group.
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AKA Frederick Charles Willard