John Ratzenberger

John Deszo Ratzenberger (born April 6 1947 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is an American actor. Ratzenberger is perhaps best known for his role as "Clifford C. 'Cliff' Clavin, Jr." in the Cheers (1982) TV Series.

Life and career

Ratzenberger was born to Deszo Alexander Ratzenberger, a German-American, and Bertha Grohowski, a Polish-American, and was raised as a Roman Catholic.

His acting credits include 47 productions and an additional 22 notable television appearances. His first role was a Patron in The Ritz (1976), before appearing in minor roles in movies including Firefox; A Bridge Too Far; The Movie as a missile controller; Superman II as the NASA control man; The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as "Major Bren Derlin"; and Gandhi (1982) as an American Lieutenant.

Cheers

Ratzenberger is best known for playing postal worker Clifford Clavin on Cheers. Ratzenberger had read for the part of Norm Peterson, but was rejected. Sensing an opportunity, he asked if they had written a bar know-it-all, which the producers decided was a great idea. Cliff became known for his outlandish stories of plausible half-truths, irrelevant trivia, and ignorant misinformation, and Cliff and Norm, the primary customer characters, became iconic bar buddies. Though Ratzenberger enjoyed his time on Cheers, he was critical of the series' spin-off, Frasier, which he described as a "snob" show that lacked the working-class appeal of Cheers. While several Cheers cast members made guest appearances on Frasier, Ratzenberger did not appear until a special Cheers reunion episode of Frasier.

Pixar

All of Pixar Animation's feature films include Ratzenberger, who has become something of a "good luck charm" to the studio. John has appeared in the following Pixar films:

Hamm the Piggy Bank in Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999)
P.T. Flea the Circus Ring Leader in A Bug's Life (1998)
The Abominable Snowman in Monsters Inc. (2001)
The School of Moonfish in Finding Nemo (2003)
The Underminer (oddly enough he has the last lines of the movie) in The Incredibles (2004)
Mack Truck in Cars (2006)

He also voiced the bathhouse's assistant manager in the English dub of Spirited Away, overseen by Pixar's John Lasseter. He has become such a stable part of the company that he plays on its softball team. It seemed that luck had come to him when he worked on Irvin Kershner's The Empire Strikes Back as Commander Derlin which George Lucas supervised. Coincidentally, George Lucas would later help start Pixar four years after the release of Episode V.

Ratzenberger had the chance to make fun of his tenure at Pixar during the end credits of Cars, where his character, Mack, watching car-themed versions of Pixar movies ("Toy Car Story", "Monster Trucks, Inc.", and "A Bug's Life" (as in VW Bugs)), notes that all the characters Ratzenberger has played were excellent, until he realizes that they're the same actor, at which point he asks "what kind of a cheap cut-rate production is this?"

Recently, John Ratzenberger indicated he would not reprise the role of Hamm for the proposed movie Toy Story 3 on the grounds that Pixar would not have been involved. However, in February 2006 Pixar took over production following its purchase by Disney, which held exclusive rights to make additional Toy Story sequels.

Other TV and voice work

He currently (2005) is host of a Travel Channel TV series about things made in the USA called John Ratzenberger's Made in America.

Ratzenberger also hosts the Wildcard section in Atari's PC game based on the popular board game, Trivial Pursuit.

Additionally, Ratzenberger appeared on television commercials promoting the Pitney Bowes personal post office. His sign off tag line is "Hey, I look good in red!"

In the first season of fellow sitcom veteran John Ritter's sitcom 8 Simple Rules, Ratzenburger guest-starred in three episodes. He played Fred Doyle, Ritter's character's pesky and annoying neighbor. For the "Doyle Wedding" ex-Cheers co-star Shelley Long played Fred's wife Mary Ellen. For his other two appearances Laverne and Shirley's Cindy Williams played Mary Ellen. Ratzenberger's last appearance on 8 Simple Rules was on the first segment of the Goodbye episode following Ritters's death from an aortic dissection in 2003.

References

External links

John Ratzenberger's official site