Simon Thompson looks at ten great comedic talents wasted by Hollywood…
The only thing that is possibly as difficult as being genuinely funny, is finding the right starring vehicle for a unique comic talent. While some of the names on this list have found great success in roles on the small screen, when it comes to starring in movies, for whatever reason, they weren’t able to replicate either their TV or stand-up success due to unimaginative executives shunting them into material beneath their talent.
Peter Cook
Peter Cook is one of the most important people in the history of British comedy. If you were to go back in time and somehow stop him from being born John Connor-style, the landscape of British humour would be a very different beast indeed.
Cook’s achievements in his home country are forever set in stone, such as writing for Kenneth Williams while still a student at Cambridge, the creation of the post war British satire movement (alongside writing partners Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore, and Jonathon Miller) with the stage play Beyond The Fringe, founding the Establishment Club in Soho without which comedy clubs in Britain wouldn’t exist today, investing heavily in/constantly paying the legal fees for Private Eye, and for creating one of the most intelligent, surreal, and inventive comedy TV shows with Not Only But Also alongside Dudley Moore.
Without Peter Cook, arguably, you wouldn’t have had series as diverse as The Last 1948 Show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Goodies, The Young Ones, Blackadder, The Fast Show as well as even more contemporary British comedy classics such as Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, The Mighty Boosh, and Big Train. This is because Not Only But Also showed that strange, yet highly sophisticated comedy had a large enough audience.
The only thing Cook didn’t achieve, however, much to his dismay, was a successful career as a leading man stateside. The closest he ever got was with the Cook and Moore scripted and Stanely Donen (of Singin’ in the Rain fame) directed Bedazzled, a hysterically funny modern re-telling of Faust with Cook in the part of the devil.
Bedazzled would sadly prove to be the height of Cook’s movie career, as his other movies, owing to a combination of alcoholism and poor choices (see The Hound Of The Baskervilles and Supergirl) saw him struggle to make himself as much of a household name in the US as his partner Dudley Moore did.
Cook’s Hollywood career overall mainly amounted to fun cameos in movies such as The Princess Bride and Great Balls of Fire, rather than the leading parts a comedian of his calibre, charisma and matinee idol features deserved. In the case of Cook, while he is of course culpable to a large extent for his own bad choices, it’s also the lack of imagination on the part of Hollywood producers when it actually came to offering him movies which suited him in the first place, meant he never had the proper Hollywood career his talents merited.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is your archetypal successful TV comedian, with more Emmy and SAG awards than anybody can dream of. However, despite starring in, arguably, the greatest American sitcom ever made in Seinfeld and one of the best US sitcoms of the last decade in Veep, for one reason or another movie success has continually eluded her.
Granted she hasn’t starred in very many, with her better cinematic work either coming in voice acting form in projects such as Pixar’s A Bug’s Life or in supporting roles, for example Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry. This is a crying shame because Louis-Dreyfus is a stupidly gifted physical comedian who isn’t afraid to make herself look ridiculous to get a laugh, has enough charisma to make the vast majority of the unpleasant characters she excels at portraying strangely endearing to an audience, and is more than conventionally attractive enough to be given the kind of parts that Julia Roberts and Andie McDowell would typically get.
Thanks to an amalgamation of casting directors not being able to pigeon hole her into specific parts, and a probable contentment with mainly working on sitcoms due to her film work producing spectacular duds like Rob Reiner’s North, (literally nobody involved with that production’s finest hour), her TV career, by contrast, has seen her either starring in, or making guest appearances in, high quality sitcoms such as Dr Katz, 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Arrested Development.
Given that her next spate of movies includes a recurring role in the stagnant and declining Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s safe to say that Hollywood in all its vacuous empty headed glory has no idea whatsoever about getting the best out of a comedienne as accomplished as Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Will Arnett-Portia de Rossi
I’ve grouped these two together, because it’s my list and I can do that. Will Arnett and Portia de Rossi (who has now sadly quit acting) are two very funny people, who for some reason or another, apart from the brilliant and unjustly cancelled Arrested Development, have never seemingly been given the right scripts by the Hollywood powers that be.
Now, when looking at Will Arnett’s career people will, justifiably, say he’s an incredibly successful voice actor and his performance as LEGO Batman in both LEGO Movies is hilarious (because it absolutely is). However, Arnett’s calling card show, the extremely overrated animated tragi-comedy BoJack Horseman, is everything that I hate about millennial humour in a nutshell, and the fact that since starring in it Arnett has been perpetually typecast in similar roles is a crying shame.
With a breathy, yet stentorian voice and an incredible knack for physical comedy Arnett should be a far bigger star than he actually is- with his performance as the narcissistic illusionist Gob Bluth being one of the funniest American sitcom performances of the last 20 years, delivering quotable line after quotable line. Put simply, an actor of Arnett’s talent deserves far better live action work than Show Dogs, When In Rome and Jonah Hex.
Portia de Rossi has also had a frustratingly underwhelming career relative to how funny she is. Although (like a lot of the people on this list to be honest) she found great success on TV both with Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, with her turn as the equally narcissistic and spoiled sister of Gob, Lindsay Bluth, showing a lot of comic nous.
De Rossi’s movie career on the other hand has been far, far less successful than it should have been. Boasting such magnificent classics as Who Is Cletis Tout? and Cursed, it’s mind boggling to think that nobody could find an actress, with a combination of both beauty and a funny bone, material that isn’t completely below her dignity. Because of this, it’s no surprise that de Rossi has quit acting all together, a crying shame – because whether in one-off or recurring roles in shows like the also cruelly cancelled Santa Clarita Diet, she was a performer I was always happy to see get work.
Nathan Lane
When it comes to Nathan Lane’s career it’s harder to find something that he can’t do rather than things he can. Skilled at dancing, singing, dramatic acting, and, most importantly for this list, making people laugh, Nathan Lane has received a tonne of justifiable acclaim for his work on stage.
Movies, on the other hand, have been a bit of a mixed bag for Lane. Admittedly he has had some very funny cameo roles in movies such as Austin Powers In Goldmember, or in Addams Family Values, but when it comes to starring roles it’s hard not to feel that Lane’s abilities have been short-changed.
While Lane has had some fantastic roles both as a lead in Mike Nichols and Elaine May’s The Birdcage, as well as a dramatic supporting part as F. Lee Bailey in The People Vs OJ Simpson, he has mainly been relegated to kid’s movies such as Stuart Little, or the abominable Nutcracker 3D, rather than landing meaty starring parts which showcase his gifts.
This could be down to that good old fashioned pesky lack of imagination on the part of Hollywood as an institution again, or the fact that Lane is so versatile that very few directors and casting agents who aren’t as intelligent as Mike Nichols and Elaine May simply don’t know how to use him properly, like a musical theatre Roberto Baggio.
What makes this all the more frustrating is that Lane’s current filmography seems to be showing no signs whatsoever of this trend reversing, with his next few upcoming projects, such as what looks to be a godawful animated movie for Netflix, entitled Spellbound.
Martin Short
The problem with Martin Short, is that to many people he is synonymous with his close friend and fellow comedic powerhouse Steve Martin. Unlike Steve Martin, however, whose work in the late 1970s-1980s has left an indelible legacy on American comedy, Martin Short has never really had a run of comedy classics with himself as the main star. To be fair he did have a leading role in the then panned, but now reappraised, cult favourite Three Amigos, but was still third billing behind Steve Martin and Chevy Chase.
With Martin Short it’s hard to gauge whether his lack of leading roles is down to him being happy to be a supporting actor and provide comic relief, or because Hollywood executives don’t think that he can carry a movie on his own, so they try to make him a part of an ensemble cast of bigger names such as his roles in films like Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks.
The other issue is that Hollywood seems to have this strange obsession with constantly putting Short in children’s movies, and while Treasure Planet, Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, and Prince of Egypt (perennial winner of the R.E teacher has given up Palme D‘Or) were all childhood favourites of mine, the vast majority of the children’s films Short has starred in are the kind of fare you used to find in a Somerfield 3 for 2 bargain bin e.g. 101 Dalmatians II.
After years of work with 15% on Rotten Tomatoes critic aggregates, or lower, Short has defied the odds and is currently having something of a late career surge with the critically acclaimed Only Murders In The Building, a well-received dramatic guest role on The Morning Show, and working with Paul Thomas Anderson on his Thomas Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice. It’s ridiculous that Short is only really getting work commensurate with his talent level now, but as the old saying goes it’s better later than never.
Garry Shandling
Garry Shandling was one of the great unsung heroes of American comedy. Although critically acclaimed during his career, authoring two monumental achievements, the groundbreaking sketch comedy It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and the six season comedic masterpiece (co-created with Dennis Klein) chat-show satire The Larry Sanders Show. Regrettably Shandling has been overlooked by subsequent audiences, a bizarre fate for a driving force behind two game-changing TV shows in back to back decades.
Put simply, The Larry Sanders Show was and is a seminal sitcom. Although the prison drama Oz was seen as HBO’s first step into what has come to be called prestige TV, Larry Sanders beat it to the punch a whole 5 years earlier by breaking down every traditional facet of the American TV sitcom.
From its use of intimate single camera, as opposed to its contemporaries such as Frasier or Seinfeld, to its sharp dialogue and use of bad language (due to it being on HBO, which because it’s a premium cable network has no restrictions on swearing), as well as its use of a constant self-referential humour that was a decade ahead of its acolytes Curb Your Enthusiasm and 30 Rock – Shandling’s sitcom re-defined what was possible when it came to TV comedy.
In spite of Shandling’s TV success, however, after The Larry Sanders Show ended in 1998 the movie career that should have been practically gift-wrapped for Shandling never materialised in the manner which he deserved. Shandling would spend the next two decades in semi-reclusion mainly choosing scripts that would go on to be panned mercilessly, starring in two back to back duds in What Planet Are You From and Town and Country both of which, despite one being directed by Mike Nichols and the other starring Warren Beatty, failed in spectacular fashion.
Understandably burned by this experience, Shandling subsequently spent the rest of his career making cameos as himself in movies such as Zoolander, or in the Adult Swim TV show Tom Goes To The Mayor and enjoying his success from Larry Sanders on his own terms. It’s still ridiculous however that nobody could find Shandling a leading role suitable for his comic talent better than a voiceover in Over The Hedge.
Norm MacDonald
Canadian comic Norm MacDonald was a complete one off. With a distinct softly spoken Canadian accent, combined with absolutely brutal punchlines, sweetened by the turn of phrase of a 1940s radio host. Macdonald’s intellect, sharp timing, and ability to misdirect an audience, as well as a constant use of strange and surreal imagery marked him out as a truly gifted comedy mind.
MacDonald’s accomplishments through TV and podcasting are numerous, from his acclaimed time as a news anchor on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment, to a host of great Late Night Interviews on Letterman and Conan, recurring voice roles and cameos on a variety of sitcoms, and hosting one of the best podcasts of the 2010s in Norm MacDonald Live, MacDonald contributed more than his fair share to comedy.
When looking closely at his career however, it is a shame that his talents never fully crossed over into movie success. While he did play a supporting role in Milos Forman’s critically acclaimed Andy Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon, alongside fellow Canadian Jim Carrey, more often than not MacDonald found himself starring in a long procession of terminally unfunny Adam Sandler comedies. He also appeared in Screwed, a film so woeful it manages to waste not only MacDonald’s talent but that of Dave Chappelle, Danny De Vito, Sarah Silverman, and Elaine Stritch as well, and Rob Schneider’s Deuce Bigelow – with frankly, the less said about that the better.
These decisions were probably down to MacDonald wanting to work with his friends, but also because his style of comedy was so unique that it was difficult to give him a script surreal enough to actually suit him. While MacDonald’s movie career, compared to everything else he achieved, could be charitably described as disappointing relative to his actual artistry, the man still gave us so much comedic gold through his TV, podcasting, and stand up work that it doesn’t define his legacy as a performer one little bit.
Sandra Bernhard
Sandra Bernhard’s longevity, talent, and take-no- prisoners style of stand-up has afforded her a level of cult status among comedy fans since she first began performing in the 1970s. Strangely enough, however, for a comedian who can genuinely act and sing Bernhard’s filmography, save for a few exceptions, feels emptier than it really should be. If, for whatever reason, you think I might be exaggerating about how good an actress Bernhard is, go back and watch Martin Scorsese’s neglected cringe humour masterwork The King of Comedy.
In her role as a fellow obsessive devotee of Jerry Lewis’s chat show host character, Bernhard manages to hold her own in the acting stakes with Robert De Niro in the prime of his career, and also somehow manages both to completely upstage, yet play off beautifully with Jerry Lewis at the same time. Due to The King of Comedy failing at the box office and earning mixed reviews upon its release in 1983, with a sense of humour ahead of its time for both audiences and critics, it failed to propel Bernhard’s career to the heights that the performance she gave merited.
Since The King of Comedy Bernhard has exclusively starred in grade A first in line for Christmas turkeys. From the lamentably unfunny, near Bruce Willis career killer Hudson Hawk, to the disputed worst parody in cinema history (before Epic Movie came along) Plump Fiction, it’s bizarre to see a performer as likeable as Bernhard wasted this abysmally.
It’s a shame that Bernhard never found a Carl and Rob Reiner or a Mel Brooks-like figure that would have understood her talent, and who would have created scripts and roles which were tailor-made for her.
Gilda Radner
Gilda Radner’s first big break would come as a writer and star for National Lampoon’s Radio Hour working alongside the likes of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Chevy Chase. Even in a dog eat dog environment like this, with performers constantly trying to upstage each other, Radner’s intelligent and caustic wit still shone through. Although Radner’s time with the production would earn her a cult audience, Lorne Michael’s newly launched sketch show Saturday Night Live would bring her national fame and acclaim.
While Saturday Night Live hasn’t been funny for decades, credit is due where credit is due, because the live sketch variety show has been responsible for starting the careers of some truly monumental talents. Luminaries past and present such as John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Phil Hartman, Bill Hader, and Fred Armisen have all got their starts through their involvement in SNL.
But even amongst that ridiculously talented line-up, almost all of them would mark Gilda Radner as the funniest, and most important cast member in the history of the show’s five decades on the air. Radner’s character-based comedy, such as her thinly veiled impressions of broadcasters Barbara Walters and Rose Ann Scamardella, as well as Emily Litella, a deaf, malapropism dropping editorialist, made the mould for character based comedy to succeed on Saturday Night Live in the decades to come.
For all of Radner’s many achievements in television and radio however, Hollywood could never quite seem to get the best out of her. The best movie role of Radner’s career would be a small part in Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail as a Buddhist priest, but the other small number of films she made which put her in a starring role made no dent whatsoever at the box office, and were constantly savaged by contemporary critics.
Although largely character-based comedians can often struggle to replicate what works on TV and radio in movie form, the likes of Peter Sellers and Steve Martin came from roughly the same comedic background yet found collaborators who knew how to harness their genius in a way Radner was never lucky enough to do, before her tragic death from Ovarian cancer at the age of 42.
Richard Pryor
Put simply, Richard Pryor is one of the sharpest and singularly talented American comedians of all time. Pryor’s trenchant, confrontational approach to race and class in American society, as well as his willingness to share the highs and lows of his personal life on stage, made him the most incendiary American stand up since the likes of Lenny Bruce and Redd Foxx before him.
Pryor’s honesty and humour about his struggles with mental health and substance abuse issues, as well as the other lows of his personal life, showed that he was a comedian willing to be honest about subjects that very few comedians before him were. For all his brilliance as a stand up, however, when it came to his movie career, despite there being a few gems located in his filmography you never got the sense that Hollywood properly knew what to do with him.
The start of Pryor’s movie career in the 1970s saw him star in the blaxploitation classic The Mack, alongside co-writing the satirical masterclass Blazing Saddles with Mel Brooks, show his dramatic range with the leading part in Paul Schrader’s crime drama Blue Collar, and star in beloved audience favourites such as Silver Streak and Stir Crazy alongside his close friend and frequent collaborator Gene Wilder.
After a horrific turn of events in the 1980s, where both a freebasing accident at the start of the decade slowed down his quick wit and then when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1986, Pryor still continued to perform well up until the late 1990s, yet was only cast in supporting roles or cameo appearances.
This was largely due to his poor health, but it’s still ridiculous how you could watch his performance in Blue Collar and not realise that Pryor had far more range as an actor than he was given credit for, but he was cast in poorly scripted starring vehicles such as The Toy, which relied on the respect and admiration audiences held him in rather than giving him material befitting a once in a generation talent.
Simon Thompson
