Rodney Dangerfield

Rodney Dangerfield, born Jacob Cohen on November 22, 1921, in Babylon, New York, was an American stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer who built a career around self-deprecating one-liner humor and his signature catchphrase, "I don't get no respect!" He died on October 5, 2004, following complications from heart valve surgery that left him in a coma for a month.

Cohen was the son of Dorothy "Dotty" Teitelbaum and vaudevillian performer Phillip Cohen, who performed under the name Phil Roy. His mother was born in Hungary. His father was rarely present, visiting his son only approximately twice a year before eventually abandoning the family altogether. After the family's relocation to Kew Gardens, Queens, Cohen attended Richmond Hill High School, graduating in 1939. To help support his family during those years, he worked delivering groceries and selling newspapers and ice cream at the beach.

He began writing material for stand-up comedians at age fifteen while performing at the Nevele resort in Ellenville, New York. At nineteen, he legally changed his name to Jack Roy. The early years of his career were marked by financial hardship; he worked at one point as a singing waiter before being fired, and later took a job selling aluminum siding in the mid-1950s to support his wife and family. He accumulated roughly $20,000 in debt and struggled to secure bookings. During a comeback attempt, club owner George McFadden suggested the name Rodney Dangerfield when Roy sought to avoid recognition from longtime patrons at the Inwood Lounge in Manhattan. The name may have originated from a character on NBC radio's The Jack Benny Program, which had used it as early as 1941.

Dangerfield reached national prominence with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in March 1967, after which he began headlining in Las Vegas and became a regular presence on both The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show. He appeared on The Tonight Show more than seventy times. In 1969, he partnered with Anthony Bevacqua to open Dangerfield's comedy club in New York City, which operated continuously until October 14, 2020, and served as the venue for HBO comedy specials featuring performers including Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Tim Allen, and Sam Kinison, among others. In 1978, he was invited to deliver the keynote address at Harvard University's Class Day ceremony.

His 1980 comedy album No Respect won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, one of seven comedy albums he released over the course of his career. A follow-up album, Rappin' Rodney, appeared in 1983, and its title single became one of the first Hot 100 rap records in December of that year. The accompanying music video featured cameo appearances by Don Novello and Pat Benatar.

Dangerfield's film career accelerated in the early 1980s. His role in the 1980 golf comedy Caddyshack, in which he played an obnoxious nouveau riche property developer clashing with a country club's establishment, was initially limited in scope but expanded significantly during production due to his improvisational work alongside Chevy Chase and Bill Murray. The film's success led to starring roles in Easy Money (1983) and Back to School (1986), for which he also served as co-writer. He continued acting in Rover Dangerfield (1991), Ladybugs (1992), and Meet Wally Sparks (1997). He took a departure from comedy with a dramatic role as an abusive father in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994).

In 1988, Dangerfield brought his stand-up work to the Broadway stage in Rodney Dangerfield On Broadway!, performed in New York City. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. Health difficulties in the early 2000s reduced his professional output in the years before his death.