Jon Lovitz

Jonathan Michael Lovitz (born July 21, 1957) is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. He starred as Jay Sherman in The Critic and has appeared in numerous other television series and films.

His film credits include roles in The Brave Little Toaster, Rat Race, Big, A League of Their Own, The Wedding Singer, High School High, and The Benchwarmers.

Early life
Lovitz was born Jonathan Michael Lovitz on July 21, 1957 in Tarzana, Los Angeles, California. His father was a doctor. His family is Jewish (they emigrated from Romania, Hungary, and Russia).

Saturday Night Live
Lovitz was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. He later said in an interview for the book Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live that his time on SNL was the most memorable in his career. He went from having no money to being offered a $500,000 film contract. He was nominated for an Emmy Award his first two years on Saturday Night Live. One of his most notable SNL characters was "Tommy Flanagan, The Pathological Liar" who used an old Humphrey Bogart line "Yeah! That's the ticket!" as a catchphrase to punctuate painfully elaborated implausible lies. Other recurring characters included Annoying Man, Master Thespian, Tonto, Mephistopheles, Harvey Fierstein, and Michael Dukakis. In a 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live, he portrayed a virgin Trekkie, who was scripted to hang his head when asked by William Shatner if he had ever kissed a girl.

Hanukkah Harry, one of Lovitz's most memorable roles, cast him in 1989 as a Jewish contemporary of Santa Claus who lives on Mount Sinai and travels the globe with a cart flown by three donkeys to give bland gifts to Jewish boys and girls. Harry is asked to fill in when Santa falls ill on Christmas Eve.

On February 15, 2015, on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, he was named by Steve Martin as one of the many SNL cast members who had died over the years, with the camera cutting to show Lovitz's reaction. Later, his image was seen in a montage of deceased SNL members, with the camera once again cutting to his now "outraged" reaction.

Television series
Lovitz's first stint as a regular in a situation comedy was as Mole, an investigator for a New York City district attorney's office, in the short-lived 1985–86 series Foley Square, starring Margaret Colin.

Lovitz was a contestant on The New Celebrity Apprentice (also known as Celebrity Apprentice 8), playing for the charity St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He was the 6th contestant fired, finishing in 11th place and raising $50,000 for his charity.

Voiceover work
Lovitz has lent his voice to several cartoons and films. In The Critic, he played the title character of Jay Sherman (using his regular speaking voice). He has made several appearances on The Simpsons, including as Marge's prom date Artie Ziff in "The Way We Was," the art teacher in "Brush with Greatness", theater director Llewellyn Sinclair and his sister who owned a daycare center in "A Streetcar Named Marge", Andre in "Homer's Triple Bypass", and numerous other appearances (including the character of Jay Sherman in the episode A Star Is Burns, which was a crossover with The Critic). He was also the voice of Radio in the Hyperion-produced, Disney-distributed animated movie The Brave Little Toaster and he lent his voice for a promo video for the video game Banjo-Kazooie.

Music
Lovitz performed a duet with Robbie Williams on Williams' album Swing When You're Winning (2001), in the song "Well, Did You Evah." He also performed on the hit series Two and a Half Men singing "Save the Orphans" and beat Charlie (Charlie Sheen) out of the award for best jingle writer.

Broadway theatre
He has appeared on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in Neil Simon's play The Dinner Party, taking over the lead role from Henry Winkler. He sang at Carnegie Hall three times (including Great Performances' Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall) and sang the national anthem at Dodger Stadium and the U.S. Open.

On October 10, 2001, Lovitz sang a duet (with Robbie Williams) of the song "Well, Did You Evah!" at the Royal Albert Hall. The recording can be found on the Swing When You're Winning album.

Commercial work
Between 1999 and 2000 Lovitz appeared in a $33 million advertising campaign that featured a series of television commercials promoting the Yellow Pages. The comic premise was to present Lovitz as the Yellow Pages' author. One of them featured Lovitz saying, "The hardest thing to do is to come up with a simple idea that is also great. And I just thought, 'Oh, the alphabet!' "

In 2006, he became the spokesman in an advertising campaign for the Subway restaurant chain.

Stand-up comedy
In 2003, Lovitz began his stand-up career at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.

Feud with Andy Dick
On July 10, 2007, Lovitz and former Newsradio costar Andy Dick got into a physical confrontation at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. The two had a history of several previous disagreements concerning the death of their mutual friend Phil Hartman. According to Lovitz, Dick had given Hartman's wife Brynn cocaine at a Christmas party at Hartman's house in 1997; Brynn, a recovering addict, fell back into drug use, culminating in her killing Hartman and herself on May 28, 1998. When Lovitz joined the cast of Newsradio as Hartman's replacement, he and Dick got into an argument in which Lovitz reportedly said "I wouldn't be here if you hadn't given Brynn coke in the first place." Lovitz reportedly later apologized to Dick for the remark.

In early 2007, Dick approached Lovitz at a restaurant and said "I put the Phil Hartman hex on you—you're the next to die." At the Laugh Factory, Lovitz demanded an apology from Dick, who refused and accused Lovitz of blaming him for Hartman's death. Lovitz then smashed Dick's head into the bar.

The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club & Podcast Theatre
In 2009, The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club location on Universal CityWalk in Universal Studios Hollywood opened. A comic short film starring Ken Davitian ('Borat') and featuring Lovitz was filmed there, directed by Brent Roske and written by Aaron Davitian. Weekly episodes of The Adam Carolla Show, a podcast hosted by comedian Adam Carolla, have been recorded at the City Walk location since early 2011.

The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club in Universal Studios Hollywood was home to the first MMA Roasted standup comedy show in 2009.

On May 29, 2011, the name was changed to the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club & Podcast Theatre. A premiere event called Podammit was held, in which Kevin Smith hosted a variety of six podcasts, including Plus One 3D with his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach, Hollywood Babble-On with Ralph Garman and Jay & Silent Bob Get Old with Jason Mewes, as well as The ABCs of SNL with Lovitz himself, a 6-episode 'This Is Your Life' style biographical interview about Lovitz's life and career. The Club periodically hosted other podcasts such as Rob Paulsen's Talkin' Toons (which subsequently left in October 2013). The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club & Podcast Theater closed on November 5, 2014.

Other work

 * Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget (2008) - Himself
 * Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen (2011) - Himself
 * Cranium Command (1989) - Right Brain
 * The Critic (webisodes) (2000–2001) - Jay Sherman