Fred Willard

Fred Willard's stage career began when he moved to New York in the late 1950s. His initial work included a production of Desperate Hours at a local YMCA where he worked with future comedy partner Vic Grecco. They later performed as Willard & Grecco in the Greenwich Village area, found some success touring, and appeared on The Dean Martin Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Tonight Show. They were offered roles in the television series Get Smart and The Carol Burnett Show, but the offers fell through due to poor management. The two parted ways in 1968. Willard's film debut was in the 1967 exploitation film Teenage Mother. He later reported that the audience at one screening booed when his character interrupted an attempted sexual assault of the female lead. One of his earliest performing jobs was at The Second City, Chicago, where he shared the stage with Robert Klein and David Steinberg. He was a founding member of the improvisational comedy group Ace Trucking Company, whose other members included Michael Mislove and Bill Saluga. They performed sketches on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson over 50 times, and appeared regularly on This is Tom Jones. He achieved wider fame in 1977 and '78 as Martin Mull's sidekick and announcer Jerry Hubbard on the Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman spinoffs Fernwood 2 Night, Forever Fernwood and America 2-Night, which parodied current nighttime talk shows.He was an original cast member of the NBC series Real People in 1979, then again from 1981 to 1983. He played Tom Osbourne in the 1987 Academy Award–winning short film Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall. From 1987 to 1989 he starred as a bartender/straightman in Sid and Marty Krofft's D.C. Follies, and was host to the Krofft puppets portraying political figures of the time. Willard hosted the talk show What's Hot, What's Not, which aired from 1985 to 1986 and earned him a daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Talk Show Host. In 1990, he hosted the cable TV show Access America on the Ha! Comedy Network. As part of that show, on September 21, 1990 he appeared in episode 7 of the cult public-access television show Decoupage with Summer Caprice. In 1995, Willard reunited with his Fernwood co-star playing Scott, the romantic partner of Mull's character Leon Carp, on Roseanne. The couple married in the episode "December Bride," and Scott became a recurring character during the series' final two seasons. That same year, Willard guest-starred in three episodes of Sister, Sister, starring Tia and Tamera Mowry; Willard played Carl Mitushka, a teacher at Roosevelt High who often spoke popular teenage slang terms in order to sound cool to his students. Willard voiced travel agent Wally Kogen in the 1999 episode "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" for The Simpsons. From 2001 to 2002, he played the father of five children on Maybe It's Me, and also guest-starred in an episode of The Weird Al Show. He and Mull joined up again for the mockumentary The History of White People in America. He also played Mayor Deebs in Roxanne, starring Steve Martin.

Frederick Charles Willard was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap; the Christopher Guest mockumentary films Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, Mascots; and the Anchorman films. Wikipedia Born: September 18, 1939, Shaker Heights, OH Died: May 15, 2020 Height: 6′ 2″ Spouse: Mary Willard (m. 1968–2018) Education: Virginia Military Institute, Kentucky Country Day School, The Second City, Kentucky Military Institute Comic Actor Fred Willard Dead at 86: ‘We Loved Him So Very Much,’ Says Daughter Fred Willard died of natural causes, a rep for the actor confirms to PEOPLE Fred Willard Beloved film star Fred Willard has died. He was 86. The comedic star, whose numerous credits include Best in Show, This Is Spinal Tap, Everybody Loves Raymond and Modern Family, died of natural causes, a rep for the actor confirms to PEOPLE. "My father passed away very peacefully last night at the fantastic age of 86 years old. He kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end," his daughter Hope Mulbarger tells PEOPLE in a statement. "We loved him so very much!" "A fond farewell to Mr. Fred Willard," actress Jamie Lee Curtis, whose husband, Christopher Guest, has worked with Willard extensively over the years, wrote in an Instagram tribute."How lucky we all are that we got to witness his great gifts. Thanks for the deep belly laughs. You are now with Mary. Home safe." His death comes less than two years after his wife Mary died at 71. The pair had been married since 1968 and had one daughter.

Mary Willard (1947-2018), playwright, TV writer and wife of four-time Emmy nominee Fred Willard, has died at the age of 71. Willard died on July 13, but news of her death was recently made public. Champion is the one word that comes to mind when remembering Mary Willard and she wasn’t just Fred Willard’s best cheerleader, but she also mentored and nurtured a number of creative comedic writers and actors through the Willards’ Los Angeles-based comedy sketch group The Mohos over the last two-plus decades (which anecdotally I was a part of some years ago). ‘Let’s put on a show’ was an unofficial mantra, and within less than two-weeks time, the troupe would pull wigs out of the closet and brush up pages for performances at the IO West and The Bang Theater and even as far as the Inland Empire. Those trying out sketches at Mohos had the opportunity to cast and bounce material off of such distinguished comedic personalities as Fred Willard himself, Laugh-In‘s Jo Anne Worley, Saturday Night Live Emmy-winning writer T. Sean Shannon, CHiPs and Raising Hope actor Lou Wagner, late Groundling co-founding member Kip King (father of Chris Kattan), voice-over actor Bill Farmer (Disney’s official voice of Goofy and Pluto). Mary had a wonderful laugh and even when a joke fell flat in the room, she always got a writer back on track. In addition, Mary directed the Moho shows and always knew how to stage the laughs. She was also known for throwing great Christmas and July 4th parties at the Willard home where the evening was typically capped off by sketch performances related to the holiday. She also had a huge heart. When Moho member Charlie Shannon unexpectedly passed away many years ago, she had the Mohos hold a retrospective of his sketches with the group for a memorial performance. Mary was also a great philanthropist and worked very hard to raise money for PETA, Actors & Others for Animals and was President of Farrah’s Angels for The Farrah Fawcett Foundation. Mary was born March 8, 1947 in Boston Massachusetts and graduated from University of Maryland. She met Fred in San Francisco and they were married for 50 years. As a playwright, her first play, the comedy, Elvis and Juliet, opened in February 1994 and enjoyed a one year successful, sold out run at the Theatre at the Improv in Hollywood. In June 2007 Elvis and Juliet opened off Broadway at the Abingdon theatre and enjoyed a six week sold out run. The New Yorker called it a “zingy comedy of manners.” In October 2009 it had a successful run at the Grove Theatre in Upland, California. Elvis and Juliet had staged readings in five countries and 15 cities on the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s 70th birthday. Her musical comedy Moon Shine!, with music and lyrics by Marty Stuart, was produced at the Grove in the summer 2004. It garnered three Inland Empire awards. Moon Shine! was first presented at the ASCAP/Disney Musical theatre workshop at the Disney Studios in Burbank, in 2003. A production of Moon Shine! in Los Angeles was nominated for 11 and won three Artistic Director Awards in Spring of 2008. Other works include Her eight women and two men play An Occasional Sin, produced by the Company of Angels Theatre in Los Angeles in 2005; Deathtroupe, produced by the Grove Theatre in Upland, California in 2010; and A Really, Really, Good Time, Holly Jolly, Christmas Carol produced by the Grove in December 2012. In 1995 her short plays, Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch, At The Vanity Fair, The Old Folks At Home, The Wedding Waltz, A Little New York Romance, Murder, She Rewrote, and Chateaux Beaux Eaux were produced by the Burbage Theatre in Los Angeles as “A Show Of Farce.” Her television credits include A Year At The Top, produced by Norman Lear, starring Greg Evigan and Paul Shaffer; Fernwood Tonight and a “ghostwriting” stint for The Love Boat. She also appeared as a regular on ABC’s The Home Show. Mary started attending the Sewanee Writers’ Conference in the early 1990’s where she enjoyed studying playwriting with Marsha Norman, Horton Foote, Romulus Linney and Doris Baizley. She also enjoyed studying fiction writing with such luminaries as Tim O’Brien, Alice McDermott, Tony Early, Ernest Gaines and Richard Ford. In memory of Mary, The Mary Willard Scholarship in playwriting is funded by the friends of Mary Willard. The scholarship will cover the cost of tuition for a playwright to attend the Sewanee Conference each summer. Mary leaves behind Fred, their daughter Hope, Grandson Freddy, son-in-law Mitch Mulbarger and a multitude of friends who already miss her laugh.