Brad Garrett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brad Garrett (born April 14, 1960 in Woodland Hills, California, USA) is a three-time Emmy Award-winning, American actor and comedian best known for his role as Robert Barone on the television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Winners of the Celebrity Poker Showdown Championship Table 3 Partial filmography 4 External links

[edit] Biography

Born to jewish parents as Bradley H. Gerstenfeld, his father was a hearing aid specialist working in geriatrics and his mother a housewife. He attended Hale Jr. High School in Woodland Hills, California and graduated from El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California in 1978. He attended UCLA for less than two months before dropping out to pursue his comedy career. He is 6ft 8 ½ inches (2.04 m) in height.

He started out at various improv clubs in Los Angeles, including The Improv in Hollywood and The Ice House in Pasadena.

In 1984, he became the first $100,000 grand champion winner in the comedy category of the TV show Star Search. This led to his first appearance, at age 23, on "The Tonight Show" starring Johnny Carson, making him one of the youngest comedians ever to perform on the show. His appearance with Carson brought Garrett a lot of national attention, and soon he was appearing as an opening act for such headliners as Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli. He also worked in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, David Copperfield, Smokey Robinson, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Beach Boys, and Julio Iglesias.

After achieving a strong measure of success with stand-up comedy, Garrett decided to change gears and try his luck with performing on TV. He was the voice of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan for the short-lived cartoon series Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling, He was featured on Family Feud during Ray Combs's tenure during a Funny Men vs. Funny Women week during November sweeps. He then appeared in the short-lived summer comedy "First Impressions" (CBS, 1988), in which he was a divorced father who makes a living doing impressions and "The Pursuit of Happiness" (NBC, 1995-96), in which he was the hero's gay best friend. Though prior to these roles, Garrett had also had a minor part on Transformers, voicing the Decepticon base Trypticon in season three and as an ill-fated thug in Suicide Kings. He soon won the role of Ray Romano's brother Robert Barone on the long-running sophisticated but family-oriented comedy hit Everybody Loves Raymond.

Garrett's distinctive deep voice has landed him notable work as a voice actor, such as on the animated series 2 Stupid Dogs, A Bug's Life, and Finding Nemo. He also provided the voice of Hulk Hogan in the World Wrestling Federation Rock 'N' Wrestling cartoons of the 1980s. His role on Everybody Loves Raymond won him five Emmy nominations, and the 2002, 2003 and 2005 Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy.

In 1990, Garrett appeared as a semi-regular panelist on the 1990 revival of Match Game

On the May 2, 1996 of the popular sitcom Seinfeld, called "The Bottle Deposit", Garrett played a deranged auto mechanic. That series' ubiquitous syndication ensures frequent repeats of that episode.

In 1998, Garrett proposed to his then girlfriend Jill Diven on the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and they were married on May 18, 1999. Their first child, Maxwell Bradley Garrett, was born on October 14, 1998; their second child, daughter Hope Garrett, was born in January 2000. Garrett and Diven separated in 2005 and Diven filed for divorce in July 2006.[1]

In 2003, he was also nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Gleason. With his Raymond castmates, he won the 2003 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. He won the fifth season championship of Celebrity Poker Showdown, and played in the 2005 and 2006 World Series of Poker.

Garrett was hoping to do a spinoff with his character Robert Barone from "Everybody Loves Raymond" when the show ended its nine-year run on TV in 2005, but he withdrew in October 2005 due to inaction from CBS that led to a number of the writers from "Raymond" leaving and taking other jobs.

In 2005, Garrett appeared on Broadway playing Murray the Cop in the revival of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

In 2006 FOX network announced they would pick up a new sitcom called 'Til Death starring Brad Garrett in the lead role. The plot revolves around a long married couple whose new next door neighbors are a pair of feisty newlyweds. Joely Fisher (daughter of Connie Stevens and Eddie Fisher) will play Garrett's wife in the new series.

[edit] Winners of the Celebrity Poker Showdown Championship Table

Season	Winner	Runner- Up
One	Nicole Sullivan	David Cross
Second	Maura Tierney	Lauren Graham
Third	Seth Meyers	Dave Navarro
Fourth	Mekhi Phifer	Neil Patrick Harris
Fifth	Brad Garrett	Colin Quinn
Sixth	Kathy Najimy	Steven Collins
Seventh	Steven Culp	Dule Hill
Eighth	Jason Alexander	Robin Tunney

[edit] Partial filmography

• Ratatouille (2007)
• Asterix and the Vikings (2006) (English dubbing)
• 'Til Death (2006)
• The Pacifier (2005)
• The Moguls (2005)
• Garfield (2004) (voice)
• Justice League (2003) (voice)
• Finding Nemo (2003) (voice)
• The Country Bears (2002) (voice)
• Stuart Little 2 (2002)
• House of Mouse (2001) (TV series) (voice)
• An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000) (V) (voice)
• Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
• Mickey Mouse Works (1999) (TV series) (voice)
• A Bug's Life (1998) (voice)
• King Of Queens (1998) (guest star) (TV series)
• Suicide Kings (1997)
• One Saturday Morning (1997) (TV series) (voice)
• Everybody Loves Raymond (1996) (TV series)
• Superman: The Animated Series (1996) (TV) (voice)
• The Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series (1996) (TV) (voice)
• Spy Hard (1996) (voice)
• Project G.e.e.K.e.R. (1996) (TV series) (voice)
• Casper (1995) (voice)
• 2 Stupid Dogs (1993) (TV series) (voice)
• Bonkers (1993) (TV series) (voice)
• Biker Mice From Mars (1993) (TV series) (voice)
• Eek! The Cat (1992) (TV series) (voice)
• Porco Rosso (1992) (voice)
• Where's Waldo? (1991) (TV series) (voice)
• Jetsons: The Movie (1990) (voice)
• Transformers (1984) (TV series) (voice of Trypticon)

Preceded by: John Ritter

Host of TV Land Awards 2004

Succeeded by: Cedric The Entertainer

[edit] External links

• Brad Garrett at the Internet Movie Database
• Brad Garrett at the Voice Chasers Database