RIP Fred Willard
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Fred Willard, the clever comic actor who played clueless characters to perfection on Fernwood 2 Night, Everybody Loves Raymond and as a member of a great ensemble in several Christopher Guest mockumentaries, has died. He was 86.
Willard died Friday night in Los Angeles of natural causes, his agent Michael Eisenstadt told The Hollywood Reporter.
His daughter, Hope, said he passed "very peacefully … He kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end. We loved him so very much! We will miss him forever."
Always amusing, Willard also elicited grins as station director Ed Harken in the two Anchorman films and as the voice of Shelby Forthright, the lone human in WALL-E (2008). He can be seen this month in a recurring role as Steve Carell’s dad on the Netflix series Space Force.
Willard received Emmy nominations in three consecutive years for portraying Hank MacDougall, the conservative father-in-law of Brad Garrett's Robert, on Everybody Loves Raymond, and more recently, he nabbed another one for playing Frank Dunphy, father of Ty Burrell's Phil, on Modern Family.
Willard was one of those actors who made you smile at first sight, and even his characters' names sounded funny: Mr. Stuffleby (from Wizards of Waverly Place), presidential assistant Feebleman (Buck Henry's First Family), Basil St. Mosely (The Wedding Planner), Mayor Deebs (Roxanne), Vincent Vanderhoff (Americathon), Vice Principal Mallet (Family Matters) and Sigvard Thorsten (Easy to Assemble).
Like Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy, Willard collaborated often with writer-director Guest on his comedies, which relied heavily on improvisation. His mind seemed to go a mile a minute.
"How lucky that we all got to enjoy Fred Willard's gifts," actress Jamie Lee Curtis, Guest's wife, wrote on Twitter.
He played an Air Force colonel in This Is Spinal Tap (1984), then was travel agent/amateur actor Ron Albertson in Waiting for Guffman (1996); dunderheaded announcer Buck Laughlin in Best in Show (2000); Mike LaFontaine, blond-haired manager of the New Main Street Singers, in A Mighty Wind (2003); and smarmy newsmagazine host Chuck Porter (supposedly modeled on Billy Bush) in For Your Consideration (2006).
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11:30 pm, "Fernwood Tonight!"
Martin Mull and Fred Willard.
It was hilarious, humor with several layers of humor.
I watched an episode on YouTube, wasn't funny because the context has changed so much since the 1970's, when local TV had morning shows focusing upon local "talent" whatever it might be, and the hosts were all hoping to hit the big time in some big city.
RIP Fred, you made us laugh for many, many years. -
Best in Show is in my top ten of comedy movies. Loved that movie
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@nobodyssock said in RIP Fred Willard:
Best in Show is in my top ten of comedy movies. Loved that movie
Yeeep. "A Mighty Wind" was an inferior followup. Funny, but not as side-splitting as "Best in Show."
You know much of it (Like "Spinal Tap") was ad-libbed? The whole scene where they check into the hotel was ad-libbed.
From IMDB: "Much of the film was improvised. The narrative outline was only 16 pages long."
