Chevy Chase

For other people with the same name, see Chevy Chase (disambiguation)

Chevy Chase

Cornelius Crane Chase, better known as Chevy Chase (born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, writer and television and film actor.

Background

Early years

Chase was born in Woodstock, New York to Edward Tinsley Chase (better known as "Ned Chase"), a prominent Manhattan book editor and magazine writer, and Cathalene Crane, a member of the Crane plumbing fixture family; his paternal grandfather was painter/teacher Frank Swift Chase. His middle name, Crane, refers to Crane Castle, his childhood vacation home in Massachusetts, where he liked to spend his summer and other vacations at a castle on a beautiful beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Chevy was actually a childhood nickname -- possibly based on the Washington, D.C. suburb which is mostly in Maryland -- bestowed by his grandmother. The Chase family was affluent and distinguished, and Chevy was listed in the Social Register at an early age.

His parents divorced when he was four, and his father remarried into the Folgers coffee family, while his mother's third marriage was to Juilliard School professor/composer Lawrence Widdoes.

High school and College

Chevy Chase was the valedictorian of his high school class. He was a long-time class clown expelled from private schools like New York City's Dalton School, but did well at Stockbridge School in Massachusetts. He also attended Riverdale Country School in New York City. He entered Haverford College but was expelled (or 'separated') from it after one semester. He then transferred to Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he dated actress Blythe Danner and graduated in 1967.

Students at Haverford College tell several stories of elaborate pranks that Chase supposedly pulled during his short time there, some of which may be urban legends. As far as is known, none of these stories has been verified.

One is that Chase and some friends led a cow up to the fourth floor of his dormitory, Barclay Hall. Once there, the cow was stuck, because cows -- according to this particular story, at least -- cannot climb down stairs, but only up. Therefore, the college administration was forced to kill the cow, dismember it, and remove it in pieces from Barclay. (This particular story bears similarities to legends told at other colleges and universities.)

Another of Chase's stunts is supposed to be a faked suicide. During Parents Visitation Weekend, he stuffed some of his clothes to create a scarecrow-like dummy. He sat the dummy on the sill of his open window in Barclay Hall, which overlooks Founders Green, the center of the campus. As students and parents milled around the green, Chase screamed, "I can't take it anymore!" and pushed the dummy out the window. People turned at the sound to see a human-like figure hit the pavement four stories below.

The most elaborate prank that Chase is said to have arranged involves the streets that border the campus to the north and east. Late one evening, Chase and some friends went out, uprooted some traffic signs, and re-positioned them so as to divert all the traffic on Lancaster Avenue, a major public artery, through the college campus. Not only was the interior of the campus served solely by a winding one-lane road not intended for heavy traffic, but the road empties out on to Old Railroad Avenue, a narrow side road that connects Lancaster Avenue and Haverford Road (to the west of campus). The next morning, the campus was the site of an enormous traffic jam, extending from the Lancaster Avenue entrance through the whole of the campus road, as well as all of Old Railroad Avenue between Lancaster Avenue and Haverford Road. This prank, however, was not in fact Chase's, but is attributed to alumnus Clyde Lutton[1].

Aspirations

He really wanted to be a doctor and was pre-med in college. Besides an actor, he says he was also a writer, a rock drummer, a jazz drummer, a pianist, a truck, cab and motorcycle driver, a construction worker, a fruit picker, a waiter and bus boy, the head of produce in a supermarket, an audio engineer, a salesman in a wine store and a theater usher.

He was the drummer a couple of times for what he called "a bad jazz band" - the college band "The Leather Canary". The band also included Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. That band became Steely Dan. He has perfect pitch, which is a musical ability to remember the exact frequency of a note.

Career

Saturday Night Live

Chase is perhaps best known as one of the original cast members for NBC's Saturday Night Live television series from 1975 to 1976. Chase was the original anchor for the Weekend Update segment, which he began with the catch phrase "I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not," a takeoff of New York news anchor Roger Grimsby's "Here now the news" opening line. Another trademark was his pratfalls during many of the opening skits, including making fun of Gerald Ford. He also had a recurring gag as the Landshark. He was the first cast member to be injured after doing his pratfall on a unpadded podium, which injured his testicles and caused him to miss two shows.

In a 1975 New York magazine cover story, NBC executives referred to Chase as "The first real potential successor to Johnny Carson" and claimed he would begin guest-hosting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson within six months of the article (which proved to be false).

Immediately tagged by the media as the star of the show, and only signed to the show for one year, Chase left in 1976 to pursue a career in film. Contrary to popular belief, was never signed as a cast member. He had signed a one year writer contract and only became a cast member during rehearsals before the show's premiere. Chase has said that he regrets leaving after just one year.

Chevy was the first member of the original Saturday Night Live cast to leave the show, and was replaced by Bill Murray, who got into a legendary backstage brawl with Chase moments before Chase's scheduled 1978 hosting stint on SNL. Witnesses report that Murray initially provoked Chase about his "hated" status on the show, leading Chase to make fun of Murray's bad skin condition (comparing it to the surface of the moon). This in turn inspired Murray to mock Chase's marital troubles, saying "Why don't you fuck your wife once in a while? She needs it." The two men were pulled apart by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who some credit with riling up Murray in the first place. Though the altercation occurred off the air, the story became so notorious that Chase and Murray dueted together during Chase's next hosting appearance, singing a "unity" medley including "We Write the Songs," "We Can't Get No Satisfaction," "We Shot the Sheriff" and "We Are the Walrus." Chase claims he and Murray have long since buried the hatchet on the incident.

After leaving as a cast member, Chevy Chase hosted Saturday Night Live eight times. He was banned from ever hosting the show again after the February 15, 1997, episode due to his verbal abuse of the cast and crew during the week. Chase became notorious for his treatment of certain cast members when hosting past episodes, particularly his remarks to openly gay cast member Terry Sweeney in 1985 when he suggested that a perfect skit for Sweeney would be one in which Sweeney plays an AIDS victim who gets weighed every week. Chase's abusive behavior during the 1985 episode and others are detailed in the Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live book. Although Chase has not hosted the show since 1997, he appeared on the 25th anniversary special in 1999 and was interviewed for the 2005 special on the first five years at SNL.

Film

Chase's earliest major film roles were Foul Play (1978) and Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980). He followed these with the more successful Caddyshack (1980), and Modern Problems (1981), where Chevy Chase was nearly killed (electrocuted) during the filming, when, during the sequence in which he is wearing "landing lights" as he dreams that he is an airplane, the current in the lights short-circuited through his arm, back, and neck muscles. The near-death experience caused him to experience a period of deep depression. His career continued in 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation, directed by Harold Ramis and written by John Hughes. Chase's most enduring, if not endearing, film was the second sequel to Vacation, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), which became a television perennial around the holidays. In 1985, he starred in the first of two films based on the Gregory Mcdonald Fletch books.

In 1986, Chase joined SNL veterans Steve Martin and Martin Short in the Lorne Michaels produced comedy ¡Three Amigos!. He admitted in an interview that making ¡Three Amigos! (1986) was the most fun he has had on a film. The trio would host Saturday Night Live that year, the only time the show would have three hosts on one show.

The role of Eric 'Otter' Stratton in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) was originally written with him in mind, but owing to a scheduling conflict, he had to turn the role down. The role went to Tim Matheson instead.

At the height of his career he earned around $7 million per film.

Later years

A comedy star in the late 1970s and early-to-mid-1980s, Chase saw his career take a garish downturn in the 1990s. Few of Chase's subsequent films have been able to duplicate the critical or commercial success of his early career. As fellow SNL personality Paul Shaffer later joked, "You made us laugh so much. And then you inexplicably stopped, in about 1978."

Chase's fanbase abandoned him, as illustrated by three consecutive film flops from his later period: 1991's Nothing But Trouble, 1992's Memoirs of an Invisible Man, and 1994's Cops & Robbersons. The three releases grossed a dreary $34 million in the U.S., combined. Even the durable Vacation series ground to a halt, following the apathy that greeted 1997's Vegas Vacation installment, the only one without the National Lampoon imprimatur. Some of the more recent movies starring Chase (e.g., Vacuums, Rent-A-Husband, Goose!) have not been released in the United States.

In September 1993 he hosted a talk show, The Chevy Chase Show, which premiered a week after David Letterman's first show for CBS, and a week before the first Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Those programs lasted through the 1990s and beyond. Chase barely made it to October. The show was cancelled by FOX after five weeks and remains one of the most notorious failures in the history of broadcast television. It was billed as a Cornelius Production, Cornelius being Chevy's real first name. He later appeared in a Super Bowl Doritos commercial which made humorous reference to the show. The Chevy Chase Show is often referred to as "The Edsel of Television".

1995 saw Chase team up with Farrah Fawcett and many precocious kids in Man of the House, which immortalized the YMCA Indian Guides program. He was also convicted of drunk driving this same year.

Chevy was a winner of the Harvard Lampoon's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

When he visited Cuba, his room was bugged with both video and audio recording devices, says former Cuban intelligence officer Delfin Fernandez. Later at Earth Day 2000 in Washington, D.C., Chase stated, "Socialism works. I think Cuba can prove that."

He was roasted by the New York Friar's Club on September 28, 2002, though the occasion was notable for the near-total disconnect between the subject's career and the list of performers who agreed to appear. The televised version was considered so joyless and leaden that Comedy Central decided not to re-air the special again.

Chevy Chase is a member of the exclusive Hollywood Gourmet Poker Club of fellow card players Martin Short, Steve Martin, Carl Reiner, Barry Diller, and Neil Simon.

On May 30, 2005, Chase was the keynote speaker at Princeton University's Class Day, part of commencement activities for the graduating Class of 2005. Though he mentioned that he "left his written speech on the corner of the bathtub at home," he spoke for about fifteen minutes about sense of humor and the perspective on life that it creates, while also memorably proclaiming, "I strapped my dong down this morning."

He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song "Voices That Care." He appeared alongside Paul Simon, who is one of his best friends, in the music video "You Can Call Me Al," in which he lip-syncs all of Simon's lines.

Statements about President Bush

Chase has regulary attacked President George W. Bush with comments like, "This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck . . . and we still couldn't beat him with a bore like Kerry." In the same speech he stunned the crowd at the Kennedy Center honors, referring to the President as a "dumb fuck". Even Bush detractors present at the event distanced themselves from Chase's comments, with Norman Lear remarking, "he'll live with it, I won't".[2]

Trivia

He prefers to do family-oriented movies, suffers from a fear of snakes, runs five miles a day to stay fit and healthy, and helped campaign for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election.

He likes it when people enjoy his work, but dislikes the lack of privacy within show business.

He was sued by Cary Grant for saying that Grant was a homosexual during a talk show appearance. The case was settled out of court.

At 6' 4", he was the tallest original cast member of Saturday Night Live.

He played drums and keyboards for an early acid rock band, Chamaeleon Church, which released an album on MGM records in 1968.

Chevy Chase was the first to be offered the role as Lester Burnham in the film American Beauty but pulled out. He said "He only liked doing family movies". Tom Hanks was also offered the same role later on, but also pulled out.

During a 1978 appearance on Saturday Night Live (as guest host), Chevy was involved in a backstage altercation with co-star Bill Murray

Filmography

• Walk... Don't Walk (1968) (short subject)
• The Groove Tube (1974)
• Tunnel Vision (1976)
• Foul Play (1978)
• Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980)
• Caddyshack (1980)
• Seems Like Old Times (1980)
• Under the Rainbow (1981)
• Modern Problems (1981)
• National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
• Deal of the Century (1983)
• Fletch (1985)
• National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)
• Spies Like Us (1985)
• Three Amigos (1986)
• The Couch Trip (1988)
• Funny Farm (1988)
• Caddyshack II (1988)
• Fletch Lives (1989)
• Christmas Vacation (1989)
• Nothing But Trouble (1991)
• Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
• A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
• Cops and Robbersons (1994)
• Man of the House (1995)
• Vegas Vacation (1997)
• Dirty Work (1998)
• Snow Day (2000)
• Vacuums (2002)
• Orange County (2002)
• Bad Meat (2003)
• Bitter Jester (2003) (documentary)
• Rent-a-Husband (2004)
• Goose! (2004)
• Funny Money (2005)
• Ellie Parker (2005)
• Your Mom (2006)

References

• Who's Who in Comedy by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 102-103. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387.
• Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. Back Bay Books.

External links

• Chevy Chase at IMDb
• The Chevy Chase Show - Jump The Shark.com
• Fansite of Chevy as "Fletch"
• Chevy Chase Central
• World's Largest Online Chevy Photo Gallery
• Short Bio
• Interviewed by his daughter
• discography