Del Close

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Del Perry Close (born March 9, 1934 in Manhattan , Kansas , † March 4, 1999 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American film and theater actor , improvisational comedian and acting teacher.

Life

Del Close was born in 1934, the son of a jeweler . He was a second cousin of Dwight D. Eisenhower .

He left the family as a teenager and joined a traveling circus. In the mid-1950s, he joined the comedy group Compass Players in St. Louis . From 1962 he was also active with The Second City . His appearances with the group repeatedly resulted in conflicts, as his preference for improvisation was difficult to reconcile with the troupe's fully scripted skits. In the early 1980s he left The Second City for good and joined Charna Halpern's improvisational theater group Improv Olympic .

Numerous appearances in film and television productions followed. In the 1980s in particular, he was seen as a high-profile supporting actor in films such as The Loner , Ferris Makes Blue , The Untouchables , The Blob and Call for Retribution .

As an acting teacher, he taught later comedy and film greats such as John Belushi , John Candy , Bill Murray , Tina Fey , Harold Ramis , Gilda Radner , Chris Farley , Betty Thomas , Tim Meadows and Mike Myers . Close was considered one of the most important improvisation artists in the USA, not least because he was a formative influence on the comedy style of many of his later famous students. His student Amy Poehler therefore called Close the "most famous person in comedy that nobody knows".

In March 1999, at the age of 64, he died at the Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago of complications from a lung disease.

Filmography (selection)

Theater (selection)

  • 1959: The Nervous Set (Henry Miller's Theater, New York City)
  • 1985: Hamlet (Wisdom Bridge Theater, Chicago)

Discography (selection)

  • 1959: Del Close - The "Do It Yourself" Psychoanalysis Kit (Hanover)
  • 1961: Del Close & John Brent - How To Speak Hip (Mercury)

literature

  • Kim "Howard" Johnson: The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close . Chicago Review Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-55652-712-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Bruce Weber: Del Close, 64, a Comedian With a Flair for Improvisation . In: The New York Times, March 16, 1999.
  2. ↑ a b Del Close. In: The iO Theater. Retrieved June 3, 2020 (American English).
  3. ↑ Del Close; Improvisational Comedy Pioneer. In: Los Angeles Times . March 8, 1999, accessed June 3, 2020 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Close, Del
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Close, Del Perry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film and stage actor, improvisational comedian and acting teacher
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Manhattan , Kansas
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1999
Place of death Chicago , Illinois