Biography
This page uses content from the John Ratzenberger biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
John Deszo Ratzenberger (born April 6 1947 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is an American actor. Ratzenberger is perhaps best known for his role as "Clifford C. 'Cliff' Clavin, Jr." in the Cheers (1982) TV Series.
Life and career
Ratzenberger was born to Deszo Alexander Ratzenberger, a German-American, and Bertha Grohowski, a Polish-American, and was raised as a Roman Catholic, and attended St. Ann's School.
His acting credits include 47 productions and an additional 22 notable television appearances. His first role was a Patron in The Ritz (1976), before appearing in minor roles in movies including Firefox; A Bridge Too Far; Superman: The Movie as a missile controller; Superman II as the NASA control man; Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as "Major Bren Derlin"; Gandhi (1982) as an American Lieutenant; and House II: The Second Story (1987) as Bill Towner.
Cheers
Ratzenberger is best known for playing postal worker Clifford Clavin on Cheers. Ratzenberger had read for the part of Norm Peterson, but was rejected. Sensing an opportunity, he asked if they had written a bar know-it-all, which the producers decided was a great idea. Cliff became known for his outlandish stories of plausible half-truths, irrelevant trivia, and ignorant misinformation, and Cliff and Norm, the primary customer characters, became iconic bar buddies. Though Ratzenberger enjoyed his time on Cheers, he was critical of the series' spin-off, Frasier, which he described as a "snob" show that lacked the working-class appeal of Cheers. While several Cheers cast members made guest appearances on Frasier, Ratzenberger did not appear until a special Cheers reunion episode of Frasier.
Pixar
All of Pixar Animation's feature films include Ratzenberger, who has become something of a "good luck charm" to the studio. John has appeared in the following Pixar films:
- Hamm the Piggy Bank in Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999)
- P.T. Flea the Circus Ring Leader in A Bug's Life (1998)
- The Abominable Snowman in Monsters Inc. (2001)
- The School of Moonfish in Finding Nemo (2003)
- The Underminer in The Incredibles (2004)
- Mack in Cars (2006)
He also voiced the bathhouse's assistant manager in the English dub of Spirited Away, overseen by Pixar's John Lasseter. He has become such a stable part of the company that he plays on its softball team. It seemed that luck had come to him when he worked on Irvin Kershner's The Empire Strikes Back as Commander Derlin which George Lucas supervised. Coincidentally, George Lucas would later help start Pixar four years after the release of Episode V. Ratzenberger is also set to voice-in for Ratatouille in 2007.
Ratzenberger had the chance to make fun of his tenure at Pixar during the end credits of Cars, where his character, Mack, watching car-themed versions of Pixar movies ("Toy Car Story", "Monster Trucks, Inc.", and "A Bug's Life" (as in VW Bugs)), notes that all the characters Ratzenberger has played were excellent, until he realizes that they're the same actor, at which point he asks "what kind of a cheap cut-rate production is this?"
Recently, John Ratzenberger indicated he would not reprise the role of Hamm for the proposed movie Toy Story 3 on the grounds that Pixar would not have been involved. However, in February 2006 Pixar took over production following its purchase by Disney, which held exclusive rights to make additional Toy Story sequels. It is unknown if this will affect his decision. It is presumable that he will indeed be cast, as Tom Hanks and Tim Allen had previously adopted this stance, but have since been confirmed as part of the cast since Pixar took over production. [1]
Other TV and voice work
He currently (2006) is host of a Travel Channel TV series about things made in the USA called John Ratzenberger's Made in America.
Ratzenberger also hosts the Wildcard section in Atari's PC game based on the popular board game, Trivial Pursuit.
Additionally, Ratzenberger appeared on television commercials promoting the Pitney Bowes personal post office. His sign off tag line is "Hey, I look good in red!"
In the first season of fellow sitcom veteran John Ritter's sitcom 8 Simple Rules, Ratzenberger guest-starred in three episodes. He played Fred Doyle, Ritter's character's pesky and annoying neighbor. For the "Doyle Wedding" ex-Cheers co-star Shelley Long played Fred's wife Mary Ellen. For his other two appearances Laverne and Shirley's Cindy Williams played Mary Ellen. Ratzenberger's last appearance on 8 Simple Rules was on the first segment of the Goodbye episode following Ritters's death from an aortic dissection in 2003.
On the short-running Nickelodeon show Yakkity Yak, he plays Keo the Pineapple's father.
John also appeared on That 70's Show as Glen, a sad man stuck in an awful marriage with his high school sweetheart whose negative example gives Eric second thoughts about marrying Donna.
Ratzenberger has co-authored a book, We've Got it Made in America: A Common Man's Salute to an Uncommon Country (ISBN 1-931722-84-6). Ratzenberger co-founded the Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation, dedicated to raising awareness of skilled trades and engineering disciplines among young people.
In Production
John Ratzenberger just left Napa, California, filming The Village Barbershop actually taking place in Reno, Nevada, playing one of the protagonists. He will also provide an unknown voice in Pixar's Ratatouille (2007).
Character gallery
Image:Cheers cliff.jpg|Ratzenberger as Cliff on Cheers Image:Brenderlin.jpg|Ratzenberger as Bren Derlin in Star Wars Image:Hamm.jpg|Hamm the Piggy Bank in Toy Story, voiced by Ratzenberger Image:Cars mack.jpg|Mack in Cars, voiced by Ratzenberger Image:Underminer.jpg|The Underminer from The Incredibles, voiced by Ratzenberger.
Workplace
International Creative Management
References
External links
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
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