Andy Dick got his start in comedy TV in the 1990s, as a regular on The Ben Stiller Show (1992) and News Radio (1995-99). His career peaked in 2001, as the star of MTV's The Andy Dick Show a talk show of sorts that capitalized on his nerdy persona and over-the-line jokes. (A specialist in outrageous and rude humor, he has been compared to a similar MTV personality, Tom Green.) Dick has played character roles in many films, including Reality Bites (1994, with Janeane Garofalo), The Cable Guy (1996, with Stiller and Jim Carrey), Inspector Gadget (1999, with Matthew Broderick), Road Trip (2000, with Green), and Employee of the Month (2006, with Jessica Simpson. Dick pleaded guilty to cocaine and marijuana possession in1999 after crashing his car in Hollywood, the first of many brushes with the law. He still works in movies and on TV -- he was a regular on the sitcom Less Than Perfect from 2002 to 2006 and had a talk show (House Arrest) in 2009 -- but in recent years he's gained more fame from news accounts of drug possession and public indecency.
Dick is known for his brushes with doomed celebrities: besides co-starring with the late Phil Hartman on News Radio, he was a rehab partner of comedian Chris Farley and he had been out in Las Vegas with Suddenly Susan co-star David Strickland hours before Strickland committed suicide in 1999.
Representative Albums: "Andy Dick & the Bitches of the Century", "Do Your Shows Always Suck?"
Biography
Comedian Andy Dick is one of the many actors to experiment with a recording career after their star rises high enough to afford them such side projects. Brashly funny and often utilizing a manic personality to get his humor across, Dick was more often infamous for his legendary heavy partying and drug use before an incident with the law helped him change his habits.
Raised in a military family, he knew early on that he was an attention hound and looked to comedy to relieve this feeling. He moved to Chicago to study at the Second City training facility, eventually making friends with actor Ben Stiller, who was developing his own humor and trying to escape the shadow of his famous parents. The two hit it off, and when Stiller had the chance to develop his own Fox television show, Dick was one of the first cast members. Although the show's cutting-edge humor was a ratings bomb, an Emmy Award helped dull the pain when Fox canceled the show.
The various cast members moved on to successful comedy careers, but Dick kept relatively quiet until he was cast in NBC's News Radio. Enjoying his first successful national exposure, Dick also started gathering headlines over his hard partying. Rumors of drug use persisted, but appearances in several high-profile movies helped him avoid bad publicity for a while. But everything came to a head when friend and partying buddy Chris Farley was found dead after an especially heavy binge. Dick was crushed, but the worst was yet to come as costar and friend Phil Hartman was shot to death in 1998 following an argument with his wife. Dick's drug intake grew, and by 1999 he was being investigated after allegedly exposing himself at a Florida concert. Later that same month, he was the last-known person to be seen with David Strickland, an actor who hung himself in a Las Vegas hotel room.
Finally, after News Radio was canceled that summer, he was arrested after driving his car into a telephone pole. He was high on cocaine and marijuana and was sentenced with possession of both as well as other charges relating to the incident. Given a choice of either jail or rehab, the actor began a laborious stint in a clinic where he kicked his habits and emerged clean. After a short-lived series on NBC got him back on his feet, he was asked to start his own show on MTV and soon he had the most popular sketch comedy show the network had in years. With his newfound success, he decided to try his hand at recording an album and put together Andy Dick & the Bitches of the Century in 2002. Five years later he returned with the live album Do Your Shows Always Suck? ~ Bradley Torreano, All Music Guide
Career Highlights: The Cable Guy, The Ben Stiller Show, The Hebrew Hammer
First Major Screen Credit: The Ben Stiller Show (1992)
Biography
Comedian Andy Dick triumphed over personal tragedy, drug and alcohol addiction, and bad press to become one of Hollywood's most unforgettable -- and unconventional -- jokesters. Born on December 21, 1965 in Charleston, SC, Dick is the adopted son of the late Allen and Sue Dick. His father, an officer on a nuclear submarine, carted the family with him all over the world: Dick and his brood lived in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, and Yugoslavia before settling in Illinois. There, at Joliet West High School, Dick learned that the way to keep people's attention was to make them laugh. He began honing his comedic skills by giving a spontaneous standup routine during freshman orientation and eventually won the race for Homecoming King with the slogan, "Don't vote for a jock, vote for A. Dick." After graduation, Dick briefly attended a local college before abandoning school work for the Chicago comedy scene. He studied improv under Del Close and performed at Chicago's celebrated Second City and the ImprovOlympics while appearing in various commercials. By his early twenties, Dick was doing standup or improv every night of the week, but still worked various day jobs to support his then-wife, Ivonne, and their young son.
Dick labored as a delivery guy, a waiter, and as a tour guide before leaving Chicago for Los Angeles in 1988. The move was not an immediate success: Dick's agent dropped him upon arrival, and the comedian could not find a new one. He and Ivonne divorced a year later. Dick continued to perform at coffee houses and open-mike nights when Ben Stiller (whom he met in Chicago) tapped him to appear in the short film Elvis Stories (1989). Three years later, Stiller gave Dick his big break on Fox's The Ben Stiller Show. Performing opposite the likes of Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, and Bob Odenkirk, Dick created the memorable characters Manson Lassie and Skank the sock puppet for the Emmy-winning, but short-lived, sketch comedy program. Dick went on to guest-host Talk Soup and appear on The Nanny, before making a cameo in Stiller's first feature film, Reality Bites (1994), and stealing the Pauly Shore vehicle In the Army Now (1994) from its star. In the meantime, Dick met and romanced artist Lena Sved, with whom he had a son and daughter. In 1995, Dick played the son of agents 86 and 99 on Fox's doomed remake of Get Smart. That same year he had much better luck as the naive, bewildered cub reporter Matthew Brock on NBC's NewsRadio. The sitcom was a critical smash, making Dick a tabloid favorite. During breaks from NewsRadio, he appeared in the independent Bongwater (1998) and opposite Stiller in Permanent Midnight (1998), as well as lent his voice to the villain Nuka in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998).
Meanwhile, Dick instantly made headlines for his frequent drinking and marijuana use, as well as his unique living arrangement: Dick, Sved, and their two children shared a house with Dick's first wife, Ivonne, their son, and her boyfriend. For a time, this unconventional lifestyle appeared to work, more or less. But then, warning bells began to sound for Dick. It began when his Alcoholic Anonymous sponsor and friend since his Chicago days, comedian Chris Farley, died of a drug overdose in December 1997. Then, after a painful drugged-out phone call to The Howard Stern Show during which he discussed his narcotics addiction and disclosed his bisexuality, Dick checked himself into a rehab center. Shortly after his release, Dick's NewsRadio costar and surrogate father Phil Hartman was killed by his wife in a murder-suicide. A year later, Dick's mentor and friend Del Close also passed away. The next day, at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, CO, the obviously inebriated Dick shocked audiences during a reunion of The Ben Stiller Show by accosting Stiller and Garofalo. A couple of weeks later, he went bar hopping in Vegas with actor David Strickland, who tragically killed himself later the same night.
NBC canceled NewsRadio, which could not recover from the death of Phil Hartman. On the heels of the show's last episode, Dick crashed his car into a Hollywood streetlight and then fled the scene, which was filled with drug paraphernalia. He spent the night in jail before being sentenced to weeks of rehab. Dick emerged later that year with an awe-inspiring comeback. He guest starred as David Spade's romantic rival on Just Shoot Me and appeared as himself in Being John Malkovich (1999). He toured with his rock opera, Andy Dick's Circus of Freaks, and recorded voices for the cartoons Hey Arnold!, Dilbert, and King of the Hill.
Dick appeared in several independent pictures and filmed memorable cameos in Road Trip (2000), Loser (2000), and Dude, Where's My Car? (2000). He also reunited with NewsRadio alum Maura Tierney for Spade's prime-time animated series Sammy, before headlining the Family Channel Christmas movie Special Delivery (2000). Tierney then tapped him to appear in her husband Billy Morrissette's directorial debut, Scotland, PA (2001). Dick's biggest coup came in 2001, when MTV let him write, direct, and star in The Andy Dick Show. With such characters as Daphne Aguilera (Christina's mother's friend who lives on the same block) and Zitty McGee (an acne-infested supermodel wannabe), the series became one of the network's highest-rated shows and attracted scores of celebrity guest stars. Rolling Stone dubbed The Andy Dick Show "the funniest thing on TV" and gushed over the first installment of its 2002 season, which opened with an E! True Hollywood Story-like parody of Dick's life entitled, "The Little Angel Clown Who...That Cries."
Never complacent, the drug-free, alcohol-free Dick followed up his show's success with roles opposite Luke Wilson and Will Ferrell in Old School (2003) and on television in Less Than Perfect. Dick contributed a monologue to The Aristocrats (2005), then voiced the character of Boingo in the late 2005 animated feature Hoodwinked, a kind of madcap, CG-animated reworking of the Little Red Riding Hood story. 2006 marked Dick's busiest year yet, as the seemingly inexhaustible actor immersed himself in three major productions. Employee of the Month, a fall 2006 frat-boy comedy starring Dane Cook and Dax Shepard as fellow clerks comically vying for the affections of a sensuous co-worker (Jessica Simpson), finds Dick in an unusually low-key turn (as Lon, one of Cook's buddies). That same year, Dick provided a voice for Queer Duck: The Movie, the feature version of a Showtime animated series about a gay mallard (Jim J. Bullock). In 2006, Dick also agreed to be interviewed for Fired, Annabelle Gurwitch's celebrity-studded documentary about what it means to be sacked in the American economy.
Andrew R. "Andy" Dick[1] (born December 21, 1965) is an Americancomedian, actor, musician and television/film producer. He is perhaps best known for portraying eccentric characters in films and television series and his sensationalistic and controversial behavior that potentially related to his struggles with illegal drugs and alcohol.
Dick started his television comedy career as a cast member on the sketch comedy program The Ben Stiller Show, which aired on the Fox Network from September 1992 to January 1993.
In 1993, on the fourth night of David Letterman's new CBS show, Dick appeared as "Donnie the CBS Page Who Likes to Suck Up", during which he gave a watch to Letterman. The host then handed him a pencil, prompting Dick to cry and then walk backstage to much applause.
In 1994, Dick played the part of Pepé the stylist in the episode "Maggie the Model" on The Nanny. He also starred as the son of Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 in a Get Smart TV remake, a role he reportedly tried to escape in order to go into work with NewsRadio. In 2001, Dick starred along with Kieran Culkin on the short lived NBC summer television series Go Fish.
Andy Dick has been a series regular on several sitcoms for their entire duration including NewsRadio on NBC (1995–1999) as portraying Matthew Brock, and on the ABC sitcom Less Than Perfect as Owen Kronsky.
He took improv comedy classes at iO WEST, a comedy club in Hollywood, California, during the mid-1980s. In 2008, he informed the cast of The Real World: Hollywood they would be doing this as their season-long group assignment, in the third episode of that series, which aired April 30, 2008.[6][7]
He currently appears on VH1's Celebrity Rehab spin-off Sober House.[9]
Films
One of his earliest film roles was a fictional version of himself in video-game-to-film adaptation, Double Dragon.
In 1997, Dick had a supporting role alongside Luke Wilson and Jack Black in Bongwater, as Luke Wilson's gay friend who gives him a place to stay after his house burns to the ground. In 1999, Dick played a warm-hearted yet cowardly scientist that helped Dr. Claw in the movie Inspector Gadget.[10]
In 2000, he made a cameo role in the motion picture Dude, Where's My Car?. That same year, he also appeared in the teenage comedy film Road Trip, playing a motel clerk. In 2001, Dick made a cameo in Ben Stiller's comedy Zoolander as Olga the Masseuse (Dick also made a cameo in Stiller's directorial debut, Reality Bites, back in 1994). In 2002, he was featured in the band Ash's music video "Envy" as a taxi cab driver. In 2003, he appeared in Will Ferrell's Old School as a gaysex education teacher, and as a villainous Santa in the movie The Hebrew Hammer. In 2005, Dick was featured in the documentary The Aristocrats. In 2006, he appeared in the film Employee of the Month as Lon, the optician who is strongly near sighted.
In late December 2008, Dick announced on his official website that he had finished writing a script for a film starring his alter-ego Daphne Aguilera titled, Daphne Aguilera: Get Into It.[11]
In 1999, he featured as the voice of Dilbert's assistant in the Dilbert animated series. He also was the voice of recurring character "Monkey Man" on the Nickelodeon TV series Hey Arnold.
In 2002, Dick provided the voice of Mr. Sheepman and various other characters in the short-lived animated series Clone High.
As of October 2006, Dick has hosted his own radio program, The Shit Show, on Howard Stern's Sirius channel Howard 101 every Thursday night at midnight eastern.
Music
Dick is the lead singer of his comedy band Andy Dick and the Bitches of the Century. They have appeared together on television, and released a self-titled album in 2002. On occasion, Dick has Rodleen Getsic perform as his opening act. Each night she plays the song she wrote for him called "Fucker".
Producer
In addition to the television series he has produced for himself, Dick became a producer of The 1 Second Film by donating $111.11 to the non-profit collaborative film project in 2004, while dining at Swingers Diner in Los Angeles. Later that year at the Toronto Film Festival, comedian Tom Green became a producer by donating $120, effectively outbidding Dick. This sparked an ongoing bidding war in which Green and Dick battle for top billing in the film's credits, in which anyone can be listed for a minimum donation of $1. Both will be prominently featured in The 1 Second Film's feature-length making-of documentary, which will accompany the 90 minutes of producer credits.
Drug and alcohol use
Erratic behavior
In 2005, Dick stirred controversy in Edmonton, Alberta, at Yuk Yuk's comedy club when he dropped his pants and exposed his genitals to the audience. Amid the uproar, he was ushered off the stage and the second night was canceled.[12] On December 2, 2006, he angered an audience at the Improv Club in Los Angeles by shouting "You're all a bunch of niggers!" following an improvised set with comedian Ian Bagg. This was a direct reference to Michael Richards' use of the same epithet to insult hecklers two weeks earlier.[13] He later issued an apology through his publicist:
“
I chose to make a joke about a subject that is not funny, in an attempt to make light of a serious subject. I have offended a lot of people, and I am sorry for my insensitivity. I wish to apologize to Ian, to the club and its patrons and to anyone who was hurt or offended by my remark.
”
On February 2, 2007, he was forcibly removed during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, after repeatedly touching guest Ivanka Trump. After Dick rubbed Trump's legs and touched her hair, Jimmy Kimmel begged him to behave himself. When Dick asked Trump to "give him a big, fat, sloppy kiss right on the lips" and grabbed her arm, Kimmel called in two security guards. Kimmel and the guards dragged Dick off-set.[14] On May 2, 2007, he made another appearance on Kimmel, which began by showing the clip of him being dragged out of his previous appearance, and then wheeled out, Hannibal Lecter-style, on a dolly. He exchanged some dialogue and playful touching with Kimmel's other guest, Danica Patrick.
On July 17, 2007, at the Laugh Factory comedy club in Los Angeles, Dick was in an altercation with his former NewsRadio co-star Jon Lovitz, who claimed that, a year earlier, Dick had approached him at a restaurant and said, "I put the Phil Hartmanhex on you; you're the next one to die," and demanded an apology from Dick. Lovitz has alleged that Dick gave Hartman's wife cocaine, a recovering addict, causing her to relapse and five months later, kill her husband in their home before committing suicide.[15] Upon joining the cast of NewsRadio as Hartman's replacement, Lovitz told Dick, "I wouldn't be here now if you hadn't given Brynn that cocaine."[16] Additionally, as reported in TV Guide, Dick was the last person in the company of Suddenly Susan star David Strickland in Las Vegas on March 22, 1999. Strickland was scheduled to report to his drug rehab probation officer on a routine check-in within a day of his death.[17]
On August 31, 2007, Dick was cited by Columbus, Ohio, police for urinating on a sidewalk and a building. During his weekend in Columbus he was reported to be intoxicated during his standup performance and groped patrons at a comedy club. Upon his return to Los Angeles, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were called to his residence to respond to a complaint that Dick was throwing beer bottles into his neighbor's yard. He also slapped a reporter in the face outside a Los Angeles nightclub.[18]
On July 16, 2008, Dick was arrested in Murrieta, California, on suspicion of drug possession and sexual battery. He was arrested for allegedly grabbing and pulling down a 17-year-old girl's tank top and brassiere, thereby exposing her breasts. During a search of his person, police reported finding a small quantity of marijuana and one Xanax tablet (for which Dick did not have a prescription) in his front pants pocket.[19][20]
Arrest and rehabilitation
On May 15, 1999, Dick drove his car into a utility pole in Hollywood. He was charged with possession of cocaine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs and hit-and-run driving. He later pleaded guilty to felony cocaine possession and two other misdemeanor charges: marijuana possession and possession of "a smoking device". After Dick completed an 18-month drug diversion program, a judge dismissed the felony and misdemeanor drug charges against him.
Dick can be seen on Sober House, a 2009 Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drewspin-off focusing on a sober living environment. Dick approached Dr. Drew Pinsky to ask for help with his addictions and agreed to enter the Sober Living house. In the penultimate episode, Dick explained that his excessive drinking led to many of the public incidents for which he has become notorious and for which he has ruined many of his relationships. In that episode, he visited a number of the people whose lives he had so affected, such as comedian Mo Collins, to apologize for disclosing information to her husband, information which led to her divorce.[24]
On September 20, 2009, Dick appeared on The Adam Carolla Podcast and reported that he had been sober for approximately one year.[25] More recently, on January 23, 2010, Dick was arrested around 4:00 a.m. in a bar in Huntington, West Virginia, on charges of sexual abuse.[26][27][28]
Personal life
Dick married Ivone Kowalczyk from 1986 to 1990, with whom he has a son, Lucas (b. 1988).[29] He also has two children from a different relationship. He self-identifies as bisexual.[30][31]
