Dick Cavett

Dick Cavett, 2008

Richard Alva "Dick" Cavett (* 19th November 1936 in Gibbon , Nebraska ) is an American talk show - presenter and actor . He was best known in the 1960s and 70s for hosting The Dick Cavett Show .

Life

Dick Cavett is the son of the teacher couple Era (nee Richards) and Alva B. Cavett. Cavett's mother died when the boy was ten years old. Even while he was still in school, Cavett presented a radio show that was broadcast live every Saturday. One of his classmates was actress Sandy Dennis . In 1952 he joined the International Brotherhood of Magicians in St. Louis . Around the same time he met Johnny Carson . Cavett graduated from Yale University and did a variety of odd jobs. For the university radio station, WYBC, he directed and acted several plays and appeared in Shakespeare productions, a. a. in Stratford , Connecticut. In June 1964, Cavett married his classmate Caroline Nye McGeoy. In the following years he played in several off-Broadway productions in New York , such as B. in the play The Trojan Women ( Die Troerinnen ). Further smaller engagements in film productions brought Cavett no success. After all, he worked as a Gofer ( mainly an errand boy ) for Time magazine. There he came across an article about Jack Paar, who was hosting the Tonight Show at the time . Cavett began writing some jokes and skits and applied to the RCA . There he met Jack Paar, who agreed to include some of Cavett's skits on his show. Eventually Cavett got a job as a talent scout at the broadcaster. While doing this, Cavett became friends with Woody Allen . At the funeral of George S. Kaufman , a well-known playwright and screenwriter who had written several plays for the Marx Brothers in the 1930s , Cavett met Groucho Marx . A few years later, Cavett would be the presenter of Groucho's one-man show at Carnegie Hall .

In the 1960s, Cavett, who also speaks German fluently, worked briefly as a gag writer for Johnny Carson, who had just taken over the Tonight Show , but quit to write for Jerry Lewis . In 1964 Cavett returned to the Tonight Show in the wake of Groucho Marx , who was an interim host there. In the mid-1960s, Cavett also made guest appearances as a stand-up comedian in various nightclubs in New York's Greenwich Village and in the legendary Hungry i in San Francisco . He has also written for Mel Brooks and Merv Griffin , as well as the Ed Sullivan Show . From 1968 Cavett appeared with The Dick Cavett Show for the first time in its own, tailored talk show format, which was broadcast in prime time by numerous radio and television stations such as ABC , CBS or PBS over the next 30 years .

The interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971 became famous. An excerpt from it was used in a scene from the film Forrest Gump , in which Tom Hanks , with trickery, appeared as an additional talk guest. Dick Cavett himself was a frequent guest in various shows such as Saturday Night Live , had cameo appearances in several films (for example Nightmare III - Freddy Krueger lives , 1987 and Beetlejuice , 1988) and worked as a narrator in television and radio productions.

Filmography

• 1960: Playhouse 90 (TV series, one episode)
• 1972: Your Chance to Live: Technological Failures (short film)
• 1972: aka Smith and Jones (TV series, episode)
• 1973: A Very Special Place (Nightside) (TV)
• 1977: The Urban Neurotic (Annie Hall)
• 1983: Parade of Stars (TV)
• 1983: The Edge of Night (TV series)
• 1987: Invisible Thread (TV)
• 1987: Nightmare III - Freddy Krueger is alive
• 1988: Beetlejuice
• 1988: Another World (TV series, one episode)
• 1990: True Blue (TV series, an episode)
• 1991: In Love with Danger (Year of the Gun)
• 1996: Good Money
• 1997: Elvis and the President (Elvis Meets Nixon) (TV)
• 2000: Behind the Seams
• 2005: Duane Hopwood
• 2012: Driving Me Crazy
• 2012: Excuse Me for Living

literature

• Cavett . Dick Cavett's autobiography, with Christopher Porterfield, Bantam Books, August 1974, ISBN 0-15-116130-5

Web links

• Dick Cavett in the Internet Movie Database (English)