Since 1974 was Andy's first national television appearance, I went looking for something which mentions it... a relatively little-known spot on a summer replacement series known as "Dean Martin's Comedy World" in June of that year. The hosts of the show included Barbara Feldon (whose co-star in "Get Smart," Don Adams, recently passed and we talked about it here) and Nipsey Russell (whose recent passing we also talked about here).

So I found this recently posted bio which does mention it, on a site which is difficult to sneak text out of, even using Google's cache, without a membership. But I dood it! So here it is:

Kaufman, Andy (17 Jan. 1949-16 May 1984), comedian, actor, and performance artist, was born Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman in Queens, New York, the son of Stanley Lawrence Kaufman, manager of a prosperous costume jewelry business, and Janice Terry Bernstein Kaufman. Growing up in the affluent New York suburb of Great Neck, Long Island, Kaufman was a poor student at local public schools. A shy, solitary child, he developed a strong interest in television and popular music. He spent much time alone in the family den acting out imaginary television programs, listening to records, and impersonating show business celebrities. His behavior was so disturbing to his parents that they sent him to a psychiatrist. He received treatment from mental health professionals periodically throughout his childhood. At age fourteen he worked his show business-inspired imaginings, which included children's songs and mimicking of television cartoons, into a routine for neighborhood children's parties.

In 1967, after graduating near the bottom of his class at Great Neck North High School, Kaufman spent a year working at odd jobs around Great Neck, drinking heavily and experimenting with drugs. He was exempted from military service for psychological reasons. Hoping to realize his ambition to become a professional performer, in the autumn of 1968 he enrolled at Grahm Junior College in Boston, where he studied radio and television production. At college he revived his children's party routine for a student show. The children's entertainment was not intended as comedy, but it amused adult audiences. He went on to perform at other colleges and at coffeehouses in the Boston area. As a college student he began practicing Transcendental Meditation, promulgated by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which Kaufman felt calmed his mind and discouraged alcohol and drug abuse. He continued to meditate on a regular basis for the rest of his life. In 1969, while still in college, he fathered an illegitimate child, who was given up for adoption.

In December 1970 Kaufman earned his associate degree from Grahm. He spent three months at a Transcendental Meditation retreat in Majorca, then returned to Boston, where he performed his comedy routines at small-time venues. In 1972 he moved back to New York, where he found work at clubs, including the Improv and Catch a Rising Star, that showcased young comedians. Kaufman, with curly dark hair and bulbous eyes, expanded his comedy material to include "Foreign Man," a heavily accented character from a fictitious eastern European country whose lack of understanding of American culture is manifested in his pathetically unfunny efforts at being a stand-up comedian. His performances also featured impersonations of show business personalities, most notably the singer Elvis Presley, whom Kaufman greatly admired.

In 1974 Kaufman made his first national television appearance on NBC's Comedy World, a summer replacement program for The Dean Martin Show. In October 1975 Kaufman made his first of many appearances on NBC's Saturday Night Live, which was then a fledgling comedy program aimed at the youth market. Also in the mid-1970s he began making regular appearances as "Foreign Man" on NBC's Tonight Show, a long-established mainstream talk show. Unlike many comedians of his generation, such as Robin Williams and Jay Leno, Kaufman's humor had almost no sexual or political references. His material was based on concepts, not jokes, and blurred the line between real life and staged performance. "By keeping his audience guessing ceaselessly as to what about him and his act was real and what wasn't, he reinvented the enchantment that entertainment was once able to provide, back before everyone became wise to its tricks," wrote Steve Bodow in Extreme Exposure.

In 1976 Kaufman moved to Los Angeles. Almost entirely focused on his career and having little interest in domestic life, he resided as a tenant in the houses of associates in the Transcendental Meditation movement. In the fall of 1976 he was part of the supporting ensemble on Van **** and Company, a short-lived NBC variety hour starring the comedian-actor Dick Van Dyke. Kaufman then worked in nightclubs and toured college campuses. He enjoyed life on the road and had frequent liaisons with female fans and prostitutes. In 1977 he taped his own television special for ABC. Deeming its contents odd and unfunny, ABC executives declined to broadcast the program. After much prodding by Kaufman and his manager, the special finally aired in 1979. In the late-1970s he added a new character, Tony Clifton, a middle-aged, overweight Las Vegas lounge singer, to his repertoire. As Clifton, Kaufman wore a wig and a rubber face mask, sang off-key, and hurled verbal abuse at audience members and fellow performers to provoke genuine annoyance. Kaufman insisted that the obnoxious Clifton was a real person, not him in costume, and supported the hoax by occasionally having someone else play Clifton while he was onstage as himself. Long fascinated by the artificiality of professional wrestling, Kaufman introduced wrestling matches into his act in the early 1980s.

Kaufman had a regular part on Taxi, a half-hour television situation comedy about a New York cab company, playing the garage mechanic Latka Gravas, a variation on his "Foreign Man" character. Taxi, which also featured Judd Hirsch and Danny DeVito in its ensemble cast, ran on ABC from 1978 to 1982. It was picked up by NBC for an additional season and left the air in 1983. Though Kaufman stayed with Taxi for its entire run, he felt inhibited by the show's conventional format. His discontentment led to strained relations with fellow cast members. On-screen Kaufman had a supporting role as an evangelist in In God We Tru$t (1980), starring Marty Feldman as a monk in Hollywood trying to raise money for his monastery, and he costarred with Bernadette Peters in Heartbeeps (1981), about a romance between two robots. Both films were poorly received.

Many people found the offstage Kaufman self-absorbed and inconsiderate. Others were drawn to his childlike energy and imagination. He remained close to his family, and his father managed his financial affairs. Kaufman never married. In late 1983 he was diagnosed with large-cell carcinoma of the lung, a rare form of cancer. He died a few months later in Los Angeles after undergoing standard and experimental treatments. His love of hoaxes led to the rumor that his death had been faked.


------------------------------------------------------

Bibliography

David Hirshey, "Andy Kaufman: Beyond Laughter," Rolling Stone, 30 Apr. 1981, pp. 15-21, is an interview with Kaufman with analysis of his comedy. Julie Hecht, Was This Man a Genius? Talks with Andy Kaufman (2001), is an amusing record of Hecht's offstage interactions with Kaufman during the late 1970s, when she was gathering material for a Harper's article on him that was never published. Bill Zehme, Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman (1999), is a thorough if melodramatically written biography of Kaufman. Bob Zmuda, Andy Kaufman Revealed! (1999), is a lively and detailed memoir written by one of Kaufman's few close friends. Jo Bonney, ed., Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (2000), contains a short essay on Kaufman by Steve Bodow and a description of Kaufman's 1979 Carnegie Hall show. Man on the Moon (1999), a film directed by Milos Forman and starring Jim Carrey, is a dramatization of Kaufman's life. An obituary is in the New York Times, 18 May 1984.

Mary C. Kalfatovic

------------------------------------------------------
Back to the top


Citation:
Mary C. Kalfatovic. "Kaufman, Andy";
http://www.anb.org/articles/18/18-03769.html;
American National Biography Online Sept. 2005 Update.