Kevin Pollak

Kevin Elliot Pollak (born October 30, 1957) is an American actor, impressionist and comedian. He started performing stand-up comedy at the age of ten and touring professionally at age twenty. In 1988, Pollak landed a role in George Lucas’ Willow, directed by Ron Howard, and began an acting career.

Actor

As an actor, Pollak's trademark is usually playing the best friend or confidant characters to the leading men, as he did in Ricochet, End of Days, A Few Good Men (1992) and The Wedding Planner. However, Pollak has played a wide variety of parts; he played a gangster in The Whole Nine Yards (2000) and a criminal in The Usual Suspects (1995). He also briefly hosted Celebrity Poker Showdown in its first season. His most substantial role to date was in Deterrence (1999), in which he played the main character: a Vice President who must take over for a deceased President and deal with a nuclear crisis.

In December 2006, he played Karl Kreutzfeld in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries The Lost Room. He has a recurring role as a District Attorney on the television series Shark.

In March 2008, Pollak played himself in the web series The Writers Room on Crackle.^[1] In the summer of 1985 Kevin was in the sketch comedy show "Comedy Break" with Mack Dryden, Jamie Alcroft and Jan Hooks.

Comedian

As a comedian, Pollak's most popular work was his 1992 HBO special Stop With the Kicking: Kevin Pollak in Concert, directed by comedian David Steinberg and produced by Boston comedy writer Martin Olson.

Pollak is also known for having one of the best Christopher Walken impersonations in show business. One specific Walken impression routine, "Frankenstein never scared me", has become one of the most requested sound bites on the Bob and Tom Show.^{[citation needed]} In an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Pollak recounted that he was invited to introduce Walken at the unveiling of his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, despite the fact that the two had never met.^{[citation needed]}

Pollak is also known for his impression of William Shatner; specifically, imitations of Shatner's role as Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek. In a 1994 special edition of Canadian TV Guide, published to commemorate the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Pollak writes a guide of how to do an impersonation of Kirk. Shatner himself has said that Pollak does the best impersonation of him that he had ever seen.^{[citation needed]}

Kevin Pollak's Chat Show

In April 2009, Pollak began a weekly internet talk show, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. Guest for the show include film directors Kevin Smith and Mike Binder, actors Nia Vardalos, Illeana Douglas, Adam Carolla, Dana Carvey, Mathew Perry, Jon Hamm and Jason Lee. A recurring segment of the show is called "The Larry King Game," which requires the guest to do a bad Larry King impression, reveal something about oneself (in the persona of Larry King) and then go to the phones.

Personal life

Pollak was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Elaine Harlow and Bob Pollak.^[2] He went to high school at Pioneer High School in San Jose. In 2008, he filed for divorce from Lucy Webb his wife of 13 years.^[3]

Filmography

References

External links

• Official website
• Kevin Pollak on Twitter
• Kevin Pollak's YouTube
• Kevin Pollak at the Internet Movie Database
• Kevin Pollak's Chat Show