Bill Maher

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Bill Maher (2010)

William "Bill" Maher, Jr. [ mɑːɹ ] (born  January 20, 1956 in New York City ) is an American stand-up comedian , television presenter , television producer , publicist , actor and writer . He hosted the late night talk show Politically Incorrect on Comedy Central and ABC . He currently hosts the weekly Real Time with Bill Maher show on HBO . Maher's political and sociocultural comments cover a wide range of topics. Topics covered include bureaucracy , religions , feminism , political correctness , Hollywood, the mass media and political celebrities.

Life

Maher was born to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father and grew up in River Vale , New Jersey . He graduated from Pascack Hills High School in Montvale , New Jersey, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Cornell University in 1978 .

Maher started his career as a stand-up comedian and continues touring today. He hosted Catch a Rising Star at the New York Comedy Club in 1979 . Thanks to Steve Allen , he appeared on the 1982 television shows of Johnny Carson and David Letterman .

Later he worked in various films and mainly played comic roles. He had his first role in the film Die Chaotenclique (1983), later cannibals in the avocado jungle of death (1988) and Pizza Man (1991). Maher also took on guest roles in various television series, including Newhart , Mord ist ihr Hobby , Roseanne (as an erotic photographer) and A terribly nice family .

In September 2010, he received the 2,417th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Political influence

Maher and Ingrid Newkirk (a PETA co-founder)

Maher had already supported Al Gore against George W. Bush in the 2000 election campaign . In the 2004 election campaign for the re-election of George W. Bush, he went so far as to literally kneel to the candidate Ralph Nader in his broadcast together with Michael Moore and to renounce his candidacy. The background was that Nader would take away votes as the left candidate John Kerry and thus secure the re-election of Bush. But Nader did not allow himself to be softened.

He is a member of the board of directors of the animal rights organization PETA .

After the abuse of some young people by Catholic priests became known in 2002, he repeatedly criticized the Catholic Church sharply for not having decided to take action against this abuse. On his April 2008 broadcast, he called the Catholic Church the " Bear Stearns " of organized pedophilia.

Maher describes himself as an apatheist and condemns religion in the strongest possible terms, as he sees it as a catalyst for wars and fundamentalism. In his film Religulous (2008) he criticizes a variety of religions and discusses with some controversial personalities. In addition to Yisroel Dovid Weiss , who caused a stir with his visit to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadineschad , the Dutch Islamic critic Geert Wilders also appears, with Wilders being referred to as a “hardliner” in the film.

In the 2012 presidential campaign, Maher donated $ 1 million to the Super-PAC in support of President Obama.

He made another $ 1 million donation in August 2018, this time to a Super-PAC to support the Democrats in the Senate election campaign .

Talk show host

Maher is best known as the former host of the talk show Politically Incorrect , which initially ran on Comedy Central and then on ABC .

ABC decided in 2002 not to renew Maher's Politically Incorrect contract after Maher made a controversial comment on the show. Together with political columnist Dinesh D'Souza , he rejected statements by President Bush and others that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were cowardly:

“We were the cowards who fired cruise missiles 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying on the plane until it hits the building, say what they want about it, that's not cowardly. "

- Bill Maher : Politically Incorrect (2001)

Maher then apologized, but the show was suspended on June 16, 2002. Six days later, Maher received the President's Award (for "Fighting Free Speech") from the Los Angeles Press Club . In 2003, Maher hosted the show Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO . It's a political talk show similar to Politically Incorrect , but with fewer guests. In 2004, Maher told Terry Gross ( on NPR's Fresh Air radio show ) that he enjoyed having serious and well-informed guests, as opposed to the celebrity starring on Politically Incorrect .

Since May 2005 he has been contributing to The Huffington Post weblog . On January 13, 2006, he hosted Larry King Live on CNN .

Trivia

Maher is on good terms with family guy inventor Seth MacFarlane , who also appeared on his show Real Time with Bill Maher . As the presenter of his own show, Maher appears as a guest star in the Family Guy episode Brian Writes a Best Seller (Original: Brian Writes a Bestseller ) together with Dana Gould and Arianna Huffington . Maher also appears, this time as a cartoon character of himself, in the episode Bigfat .

watch TV

  • 1985: Sara
  • 1987: Hard Knocks
  • 1990: The Midnight Hour
  • 1991: Charlie Hoover
  • 1993: A terribly nice family (season 7, episode 17 "You are my sweetheart")
  • 1994-2002: Politically Incorrect
  • 2000: Bill Maher: Be More Cynical
  • since 2003: Real Time with Bill Maher
  • 2003: Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home
  • 2005: I'm Swiss
  • 2007: The Decider
  • 2010: … but I'm not wrong
  • 2012: Crazy Stupid Politics

Filmography (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Bill Maher  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Is There A God ( Memento of December 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on the AV Club homepage.
  2. ↑ Aaron Couch: Bill Maher Donates $ 1 Million to Obama SuperPac. In: The Hollywood Reporter. February 24, 2012, accessed February 24, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Ted Johnson: Bill Maher Contributes $ 1 Million to Democrats' Senate Majority PAC (EXCLUSIVE). In: Variety. August 23, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2019 (American English).
  4. ↑ Family Guy Wiki: Let's Go Montreal the Way. Retrieved August 27, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Maher, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maher, William Jr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American comedian, actor, writer, television producer, television presenter
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City