In Remembrance: Rodney Dangerfield

     Rodney Dangerfield the bumbling, bug-eyed, tie-tugging comic famous for his one liners and who coined the catchphrase “I don’t get no respect”, died Tuesday, October 5, at the age of 82. Dangerfield, who starred in television and movies, had been in a coma after receiving after undergoing heart surgery in late August.

     He was born Jacob Cohen on Nov. 22, 1921, on New York's Long Island. He had a tough childhood growing up in the borough of Queens. Young Jacob's parents divorced, he stayed with his mother and helped in the finances by selling ice cream at the beach and working at a grocery store. Cohen had a difficult time around schoolmates but countered his feelings by being “the funny guy”. At 15 he was writing down his jokes and storing them in a duffel bag.  He decided to try his jokes on a bigger audience once he left high school. Cohen adopted the name Jack Roy and eked out a meager living performing at a resort in the Catskills, an area famous for such talent as Sid Caesar, Danny Kaye, and Jerry Lewis.  

     He took on an assortment of odd jobs (including driving a fish truck) to bring in more money. In 1949, he met his first wife, Joyce Indig, a singer at a nightclub he was working. He decided he couldn’t support her on the money he was making struggling at stand up. So, the two moved to New Jersey and they raised two kids, while he tried to make an honest living as an aluminum siding salesman. The marriage proved to be rocky and he was eager to try his act on the road again. At age 42, Jack Roy searched for work and scored a gig at New York’s Inwood Lounge, but requested that he not be billed as Jack Roy. The club owner suggested the name Rodney Dangerfield and the name fit.

     Dangerfield knew he needed a hook if his jokes were going to be memorable. So he tried a few and “I don’t get no respect” had the right comic spark. His first big break came when he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan was impressed with the comedian and Dangerfield appeared on the show another 15 times. Dangerfield quickly earned the attention of Dean Martin and Johnny Carson. In fact, Carson liked him so much; Dangerfield appeared on his show a record 70 times.

     Dangerfield’s comic persona became unforgettable, the nervous everyman dressed in a white shirt and a red tie which he readjusted over and over.  He was becoming a huge success. He had a part in 1971’s seldom seen The Projectionist and was a regular on the Dean Martin Show in the early 1970’s.  Dangerfield had become a touring headliner, and was offered an acting job for a big screen movie starring Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, Caddyshack (1980).  As Al Czervik, Dangerfield had a commanding comic presence in the goofy comedy as the rich but vulgar slob in the eye-wincing plaid jackets who disliked the other snobbish rich members of a country club.  Easy Money (1983) was Dangerfield’s first starring comedy film, and he plays Monte Capuletti, a slob who vows to give up all his vices for one year in order to collect a million dollar inheritance. The movie was a hit, and Hollywood was eager to cash in on his persona. In 1986, audiences saw Dangerfield in Back to School as Thornton Melon, a self-made but uneducated millionaire who decides to enroll at college to encourage his dawdling son. This raucous movie, which also starred Sally Kellerman as a loving professor, showcased his classic one-liners and earned the distinction as one of the first $100 million grossing comedies. He later starred in and wrote other films, including the 1992 “tween” movie Ladybugs, Oliver Stone’s gritty 1994 drama Natural Born Killers (Mallory’s sadistic father), and the satirically dry Meet Wally Sparks (1997). 

     Dangerfield owned a successful Manhattan comedy club since 1969 that carried his namesake. He was responsible for discovered many comics including Roseanne, Jerry Seinfeld, Rita Rudner, Jim Carrey, Tim Allen, Robert Townsend, Jeff Foxworthy and the late Sam Kinison. He understood the struggles young comics could have trying to make a life in the funny business, and provided them with the right venue or showcased them on his TV specials, mostly on cable giant HBO. Little did he know he had certainly earned their respect. Roseanne once quoted, ''He was like a big father figure to all of us. He made it his business to help young talent along, and boy, that's something. I don't know if anybody does that anymore.''

     In 1980 he won a Grammy for his comedy album I Don’t Get No Respect. Through the 1990s he made numerous TV appearances including The Simpson’s, Home Improvement and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.

     Entertainment Weekly recently cited him as the one of the Top 50 comedians, and he published a biography in May 2004 entitled It Ain't Easy Being Me. He was working hard to release a new album and most recently Dangerfield could be seen at L.A.’s famous Laugh Factory, still making young audiences laugh and winning the respect of many.

-John Gibbon