Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,506
By This is the grave of Rodney Dangerfield.
Born in 1921 in Deer Park, New York, Jacob Cohen grew up in an entertainment family. His parents were vaudeville people. They were also horrific parents. His father basically abandoned the family, while his mother was known for her cruelty and complete lack of affection. As an adult, he had no real relationship with his parents. He was also molested as a child by a neighbor. So this was no easy childhood.
But Cohen started working in comedy. After all, this was in the family and in the neighborhood. He started writing for comedians looking for new material in 1936. Deciding that no one named Jacob Cohen in the mid 30s was going to hit it big, he legally changed his name to Jack Roy in 1939. He tried to make it in comedy, but really struggled. By the 50s, he was married with kids and unlike his own father, he wanted to actually raise his children. Plus there was little demand for his talent. So by the mid 50s, he had left entertainment entirely. He was selling aluminum siding to support his family. In the 60s, he started performing occasionally again, but did not give up his day job. He was trying to break in on the Catskill circuit, in those classic Jewish venues of postwar Jewish life. But he was going nowhere. He was in massive debt. He was a middle aged man who was basically a failure.
What changed is that he tried a new strategy. He created a strategy that was based on himself–a performance of a comedian who was a complete failure in life. He renamed himself Rodney Dangerfield, a name borrowed from a Jack Benny bit. This worked. Dangerfield began to create an act people started to like. He was a funny guy, no question. His star rose. He gained fans. In 1967, there was a last second cancellation for Ed Sullivan. Dangerfield was tapped to replace it. This was his big break, He killed it. Sullivan thought it was great too and he began making Dangerfield a frequent guest. The variety shows of the era had a lot of stand-up comedy and he became a regular on The Dean Martin Show and The Tonight Show as well.
Dangerfield started appearing in Vegas and his act got sharper and sharper. It was based on him just being the biggest loser in the world, being faux-serious while telling jokes about himself. These were just classics. “I played hide and seek; they wouldn’t even look for me.” I mean, this is limited I guess in scope and when written, but it’s funny when Dangerfield delivered it. His signature line became “I don’t get no respect” and you always knew one of his best zingers was coming.
It was Dangerfield’s role in 1980s Caddyshack that really launched him into the stratosphere. I have to confess–I have never understood the appeal of this movie. It is not funny. It just isn’t. I don’t get it. But good for Dangerfield. By this time, he had become almost a voice of a generation, in a sense. He wasn’t quite the most popular comedian of the era–I assume that has to be Eddie Murphy. But Dangerfield had really threaded of a needle of being the old-time Jewish comedian of the Catskills updated for the 1980s. He was old and he played the bit old. And the bit was fucking hilarious. If you think Dangerfield sucks, I just dunno about you. He’s one of the finest comedians to ever work. He was nominated for three Grammys in the 1980s for his albums and won Best Comedy Recording in 1981 for No Respect. He was in a lot of commercials in the 80s, including a series of Miller Lite commercials in that time when that beer flooded its ads with male celebrities, especially during football games. I saw these ads so many times as a kid that I remember them in at least some detail today.
Dangerfield continued working in films as well. His character became so iconic that he could just show up and do it and everyone would love it. That included in Easy Money in 1983 and Back to School in 1986. But he did have an interesting and unique for him role in Oliver Stone’s 1994 film Natural Born Killers, where he played a terrible abusive father. Good for Stone in seeing past the character into the actor. Still, his schtick did not wear on everyone well. In 1995, the Motion Picture Academy was going to offer membership to Dangerfield. But Roddy McDowell of all people was the head of the Actors Section and McDowell hated Dangerfield’s work, so he personally rejected him. This led to fan outrage, McDowell had to back down, but then Dangerfield told the Academy to stick it. Good for him.
The other thing about Dangerfield–that man loved marijuana. He would get real cranky if approached by people thinking he was his character. This is an understandable thing. But really was extraordinarily different than that character. He was basically a beatnik in real life, more or less. When he wrote his autobiography, the original title was My Love Affair with Marijuana. That seemed a bit narrow, so the publishers built it out, but a lot of it was about how much he loved weed. He also was a committed atheist. In addition, it is claimed that he was the first celebrity to start his own website, in 1995. This might well be true given the date. You could send him questions and he’d answer them on the site. No old man hating technology here.
Toward the end, Dangerfield’s heart started to give out. He spent his hospital stays getting in trouble for smoking marijuana in his hospital room. His heart finally got him in 2004. He was 82 years old.
OK, this is enough words. Let’s watch the master at work.
Rodney Dangerfield is buried in Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California. And what a great gravestone. Telling self-deprecating jokes to the grave. Love it very much. The reason behind it is that this was one of Dangerfield’s jokes about what would happen when he died and was buried. His wife decided to go for it. Good call.
If you would like this series to visit other comedians, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Redd Foxx is in Las Vegas (OK, this one would be great to visit) and Don Rickles is in Hollywood. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.