Biography
American actor who performed his off-beat, highly original, stand-up
comedy and impressionist routine on TV, in clubs and concerts. His act
ranged from brilliant to boring to bizarre. His career snowballed after he
began appearing on Saturday Night Live, 1975, and then became a regular on
the series "Taxi", in 1978. He was in the film "Heartbleeps"
with co-star Bernadette Peters, in which he played a romantic robot.
He died of lung cancer 5/16/1984 at the age of 35. Fifteen years later
he had a resurgence of interest with a memoir by his friend Bob Zmuda,
"Andy Kaufman Revealed," (September 1999) and a biography by
Bill Zehme, "Lost in the Funhouse," (December 1999). On
12/22/1999 a movie based on his life, opened, with Jim Carrey playing
Kaufman.
The comic performed for himself from the time he was a kid, alone in
his room. As he grew older, he put on his acts for his two younger
siblings. As a teen he acted at kid's birthday parties. At Graham Junior
College, he discovered his lifelong interest in transcendental meditation,
which also gave him the confidence to take his act into small Manhattan
clubs, then to the Improv in Los Angeles. His pinnacle was a 1979
performance at Carnegie Hall, where he rented 20 school buses to take a
crowd of 2,800 out for milk and cookies at a nearby school after the show.
Kaufman's twist became darker and was often offensive. Not everyone was
amused at the cruelty he leveled at an audience, but eventually, his
viewers simply got tired of the abuse. In 1982, after his 14th appearance
on SNL, viewers voted him off the show in a call-in poll and the following
year, "Taxi" was canceled. Late in 1983, he was exiled from the
TM movement, a bitter blow.
At 20, Kaufman had a daughter with a girlfriend but for the rest of his
life, played the field, even when dating film editor Lynne Margulies. Near
the end of 1983, a persistent cough was diagnosed as lung cancer. Until
the end, he believed he'd get better, trying every remedy including
hypnotism and faith healing.
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For More Information:
- StarIQ.com has a fascinating article by Madalyn Hillis-Dineen
comparing the charts of Jim Carrey and Andy Kaufman. She makes a
convincing argument that he was "born" for the part
considering all the overlaps between their two charts – including
sharing the same birthday. While you are there, check out the rest of
this up and coming astrology portal site that combines newsy articles
with astrological input: http://www.stariq.com/pagetemplate/article.asp?pageid=402
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What Do You Think?
Where did Kaufman get his drive to keep probing for new depths in
comedy? In 1982-1983, he was kicked off of Saturday Night Live and Taxi,
and exiled from the Transcendental Meditation movement that was so dear to
him. It would take more than a single transit to take one down so fast.
What were the astrological factors and how could he have used them more
wisely?
View Others'
Answers
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