Biography

Penny Marshall let him live at her house when he was first starting out in show business.

Met Phil Hartman at the Groudlings in 1984. Suggested and encouraged Saturday Night Live (1975) creator Lorne Michaels to hire Hartman for the show, telling Lorne, "If you think I'm good, you should see Phil. He's even better!" He and Phil helped each other get acting jobs through the rest of Phil's life.

Has a twin sister named Leslie.

Was originally considered for the role of Marcus Burnette in Bad Boys (1995), with Dana Carvey as Mike Lowrey. Director Michael Bay today says it would have ruined their careers.

Once worked at the New York Renaissance Faire (in Tuxedo, NY) and was almost fired for referring to himself as "the town Jew."

[To Conan O'Brien] I heard you call me immature earlier. Well, you're just a big poop-head.

[about his portrayal of Harvey Fierstein on Saturday Night Live (1975), and Fierstein's response to it] I did Harvey Fierstein. He didn't like it. He came in to the show to complain about it. His point was that he was getting more famous as me than as him . . . He came in to talk about it and, watching him, I realized that I was doing him quite well. He thought I was doing a gay stereotype.

At a certain point, if you work really hard and you get good and people like your work, you do deserve the fame -- but you shouldn't take it for granted.

I like getting up in front of an audience. It's fun when you go to a baseball game and the crowd is cheering you. I can't deny it. And it's very funny, too. Sometimes you're shy; you go somewhere and everyone's looking at you, so you feel a little self-conscious.

(2010, on Tales from the Crypt in the episode "Top Billing") That was really fun. John Astin and Bruce Boxleitner were in it. I remember Joel Silver was producing the series and he asked me to do it. I had the lead, and when you have the lead, it's fun. I was playing a struggling actor, and it wasn't that long after I'd been struggling-maybe five years. I remember thinking, "I have to lose some weight. I'm too fat! I don't look like a struggling actor." I weighed 145 in high school; when I was in New York, when I was 24, I weighed 136 pounds. I didn't have much money to eat.