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Andy Dick

, Actor / Comedian
Andy Dick
Andy Dick
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  • Born: 21 December 1965
  • Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina
  • Best Known As: Host of MTV's The Andy Dick Show

Andy Dick became a star on MTV's The Andy Dick Show, specializing in outrageous and rude humor helped along by his own nerdy and chin-dimpled appearance. (He is sometimes compared to a similar MTV personality, Tom Green.) Dick also starred with Phil Hartman on the hit TV show News Radio, playing the clumsy reporter Matthew Brock. He has played character roles in many films, including Reality Bites (1994, with Janeane Garofalo), The Cable Guy (1996, with Jim Carrey), Inspector Gadget (1999, with Matthew Broderick), Road Trip (2000, with Green), and Employee of the Month (2006, with Jessica Simpson. In 1999 Dick pleaded guilty to cocaine and marijuana possession after crashing his car in Hollywood; he entered an 18-month drug diversion program, then returned to acting in 2001.

Dick is known for his brushes with doomed celebrities: besides co-starring with the late Phil Hartman, 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.

 
 
Artist: Andy Dick
Born:
in Charleston, South Carolina

Representative Albums:

Do Your Shows Always Suck?, Andy Dick & the Bitches of the Century

Similar Artists:

  • Genre: Comedy
  • Active: 2000s
  • Instrument: Guitar, Vocals, Performer

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
 
Actor:

Andy Dick

  • Born: Dec 21, 1965
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '90s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Comedy
  • 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.

Meanwhile, Dick voiced Mambo in director Paul J. Bolger's Happily N'Ever After (2007), an animated, revisionist satirical version of the Cinderella story; other stars in the cast include George Carlin, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr..

~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide

 
Wikipedia: Andy Dick
Andy Dick
Birth name Andrew Dick
Born December 21 1965 (1965--) (age 41)
Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Occupation comedian, actor
Years active 1992present
Spouse(s) Ivone Kowalczyk (1986–1990)
Children Lucas Dick (b. 1988)
Jacob Dick (b. 1994)
Meg Dick (b. 1997)
Parents Allen Dick
Sue Dick

Andrew Dick[1] (born December 21, 1965) is an American comedian and actor best known for his roles in the popular sitcoms NewsRadio and Less Than Perfect.

Early life

Dick was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He was adopted at birth by Allen and Sue Dick. He lived in CT and Pittsburgh, PA. He had a small dog named Moppet. In 1980 he attended Lassiter High School which was being temporarily housed at George Walton High School in Cobb County, Georgia.

Dick graduated from Joliet West High School (Joliet, Illinois) in 1984. He was in numerous theater productions during high school, and was elected homecoming king his senior year in the fall of 1983. Even in high school, Dick tended to use his name as a joke; one day, he dressed in a homemade superhero costume and presented himself at school as "Super Dick." He's good friends with actor Anthony Rapp, who has known him since childhood.

He attended Columbia College Chicago and is registered as one of the school's "distinguished alumni".

Career

He started his 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. He also starred as the son of Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 in a Get Smart TV remake.

He was a regular cast member on the sitcom NewsRadio for the duration of its run on NBC (1995–1999).

In 1998, he lent his voice to the villian Nuka in the Disney direct-to-video animated film The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.

In 1999, he provided a voice of Dilbert's assistant on the Dilbert animated series.

In 2000, he made a cameo role in the motion picture Dude, Where's My Car?.[2] He also appeared in the teenage comedy film Road Trip, playing a motel clerk.

In 2001, Dick created a show on MTV called The Andy Dick Show; the series ended in 2003 after three seasons. He also starred in a satirical reality television show on the same channel called The Assistant in 2004. The show spoofed themes and scenes from The Apprentice, The Bachelor, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Survivor, among others.

Dick is the lead singer of his band Andy Dick and the Bitches of the Century. They have appeared together on television, and released a self-titled album in 2002.

In earlier live shows, Dick had Rodleen Getsic perform as his opening act. Each night she would play the song she wrote for him called "Fucker".

Dick also appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager as the Mark II Emergency Medical Hologram in "Message in a Bottle".

Dick provides the voice of Maurice from the radio station WCTR's segment "Gardening with Maurice" in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In 2005, Dick was featured in the documentary The Aristocrats (film), and provided the voice of Aunt Beth in the 2006 video game Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.

Dick competed in the eighth season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown. He finished in last place, behind Robin Tunney, Christopher Meloni, Macy Gray, and Joy Behar.

Recently, Dick wrote and directed his first feature film, Danny Roane: First Time Director. He portrayed "Owen Kronsky" on the ABC sitcom Less Than Perfect, until its cancellation on June 6, 2006. He also starred in Jessica Simpson's music video for her song "A Public Affair".

In 2004, while dining at Swingers Diner in Los Angeles, Dick became a producer of The 1 Second Film by donating $111.11 to the non-profit collaborative film project. Later that year at the Toronto Film Festival comedian Tom Green became a producer by donating $120, effectively outbidding Dick, which 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 dollar, and 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.

He provided the voice of Boingo Bunny for the 2006 animated movie Hoodwinked!

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.

On May 16, 2007, Dick was roasted on The Howard Stern Show by Artie Lange, Lisa Lampanelli, Reverend Bob Levy, Sal Governale, Shuli, Colin Quinn, Benjy Bronk, Dave Atell, Greg Fitzsimmons, and Yucko the Clown.

Personal life

Relationships

Dick is openly bisexual. He says both heterosexual and gay people have told him "C'mon, you know you're just gay." However, he says: "There is such a thing as bisexual. People want black and white. And I enjoy being bisexual."[3] From 1986 to 1990, he was married to Ivone Kowalczyk, with whom he has a son, Lucas (b. 1988). He also has a son, Jacob (b. 1994), and a daughter, Meg (b. 1997), from his relationship with Lina Sved.

He is a supporter of animals rights and PETA. He and his band, Bitches of the Century, have played for the PETA Animal Emergency Fund.[4]

Public incidents

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 cancelled.[5]

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.[6] 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 without her permission. After rubbing Trump's legs and touching 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 were forced to literally drag an uncooperative Dick off-set.[7] There is speculation that the incident was staged. 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. Although he exchanged some dialogue and playful "touching" with Kimmel's other guest, Danica Patrick, the show passed without incident.

In August 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 stand up performances and groped patrons at a comedy club. Upon his return to Los Angeles, LA County deputies were called to his residence to respond to a complaint that Dick was throwing beer bottles into his neighbor's yard. On August 29, 2007 Dick slapped a reporter in the face outside a Los Angeles nightclub. [8]

Drug use

On May 15, 1999, Dick drove his car into a telephone pole in Hollywood. He was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, 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.

In 2006, Dick made a widely-publicized appearance at the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner; he licked the faces of Farrah Fawcett, Carrie Fisher, and Patton Oswalt, and groped and bit the hand of New York Post reporter Mandy Stadtmiller backstage.[9] Dick, who holds that Stadtmiller "slanted" the incident,[10] returned to rehab after the roast.[11]

Conflicts with other actors

Comedian and actor Jon Lovitz has long blamed Dick for reintroducing Phil Hartman's wife Brynn to cocaine (after 10 years of sobriety) just five months before she would murder her husband and commit suicide. On July 11, 2007 Dick had a run-in with Lovitz at the Laugh Factory. The club's owner, Jamie Masada, said that Lovitz picked Dick up by the head and smashed him into the bar. Dick had on a previous occasion said to Lovitz he would "put the 'Phil Hartman hex' on you - you’re the next one to die." Lovitz told Page Six, "All the comedians are glad I did it because this guy is an asshole."[12]

Dick refuted Lovitz's story on July 25, 2007, on Tom Green Live, saying that Masada was not there to witness the incident, and that in fact he had never even met Masada. Dick said the confrontation happened in the outer lobby, and that the most Lovitz did was grab him by the lapel and throw him against the wall. Lovitz confirmed this version on Larry King Live, adding that he had thrown Dick into a table.

Filmography

Films

Television

References

External links


Persondata
NAME Dick, Andy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomlinson, Andrew
SHORT DESCRIPTION comedian
DATE OF BIRTH December 21 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Charleston, South Carolina, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

 
 

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Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Andy Dick biography from Who2.  Read more
Artist. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Andy Dick" Read more

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