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Ron Clark | |
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| Born | Montreal, Canada |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Genre | Fiction, comedy |
Ron Clark (born 1933) [1] is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for several plays that he co-wrote with Sam Bobrick and for co-writing the screenplays for the films Silent Movie , High Anxiety , and Life Stinks with Mel Brooks.
Clark began his career writing for TV during the '60s, including such shows as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Danny Kaye Show . He wrote plays in the '70s with fellow writer Sam Bobrick. Their first play, Norman, Is That You? , premiered on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on February 19, 1970. [2] The two men went on to write several more plays together, including No Hard Feelings (1973), Murder at the Howard Johnson's (1979), and Wally's Cafe (1981).
Clark remained active in writing for television and film up through the early 1990s. His many television credits include That Girl (1970), Silver Spoons (1985–1987), and Moonlighting (1989), among others.
He also co-wrote the screenplays to the films Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977), Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), and Life Stinks (1991).
Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 19 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024.
Ron Moody was an English actor, composer, singer and writer. He was best known for his portrayal of Fagin in Oliver! (1968) and its 1983 Broadway revival. Moody earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for the film, as well as a Tony Award nomination for the stage production. Other notable projects include The Mouse on the Moon (1963), Mel Brooks' The Twelve Chairs (1970) and Flight of the Doves (1971), in which Moody shared the screen with Oliver! co-star Jack Wild.
Barry Lee Levinson is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. His best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as Diner (1982), The Natural (1984), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Bugsy (1991), and Wag the Dog (1997). Levinson won the Academy Award for Best Director for Rain Man (1988). In 2021, he co-executive produced the Hulu miniseries Dopesick and directed the first two episodes.
Silent Movie is a 1976 American satirical silent comedy film co-written, directed by and starring Mel Brooks, released by 20th Century Fox in summer 1976. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters. and Sid Caesar, with cameos by Anne Bancroft, Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Marcel Marceau, and Paul Newman as themselves, and character cameos by Harry Ritz of the Ritz Brothers, Charlie Callas, and Henny Youngman. The film was produced in the manner of an early-20th-century silent film, with intertitles instead of spoken dialogue; the soundtrack consists almost entirely of orchestral accompaniment and sound effects. It is an affectionate parody of slapstick comedies, including those of Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennett, and Buster Keaton. The film satirizes the film industry, presenting the story of a film producer trying to obtain studio support to make a silent film in the 1970s.
High Anxiety is a 1977 American satirical comedy film produced and directed by Mel Brooks, who also plays the lead. This is Brooks' first film as a producer and first speaking lead role. Veteran Brooks ensemble members Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, and Madeline Kahn are also featured. It is a parody of psychoanalysis and Alfred Hitchcock films.
Harvey Herschel Korman was an American actor and comedian who performed in television and film productions. He is best remembered as a main cast member alongside Carol Burnett, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence on the CBS sketch comedy series The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1977) for which he won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.
Bernard Shalom Kotzin, known as Stubby Kaye, was an American actor, comedian, vaudevillian and singer, known for his appearances on Broadway and in film musicals.
The Ritz Brothers were an American family comedy act consisting of brothers Al (1901-1965), Jimmy (1904-1985), and Harry Ritz (1907-1986) who performed extensively on stage, in nightclubs and in films from 1925 to the late 1970s. A fourth brother, George, acted as their manager.
The Twelve Chairs is a 1970 American comedy film directed and written by Mel Brooks, and starring Frank Langella, Ron Moody and Dom DeLuise. The film is one of at least eighteen film adaptations of the Soviet 1928 novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov.
Ronald Joseph Cicenia, known as Ron Carey, was an American film and television actor. The 5-foot-4-inch (1.63 m) actor was best known for playing ambitious NYPD Police Officer Carl Levitt on TV's Barney Miller, in which he was almost always surrounded by male actors who stood at least 8 inches (20 cm) taller. The series' stars all stood 6 feet (1.83 m) or more. Carey appeared in the recurring role for the last six of the eight seasons of Barney Miller's run. He first appeared on the show as a criminal, Angelo Molinari, in season 2, episode 22.
Life Stinks is a 1991 American comedy film co-written, produced, directed by and starring Mel Brooks. It is one of the few Mel Brooks comedies that is not a parody, nor at any time does the film break the fourth wall. It co-stars Lesley Ann Warren, Howard Morris and Jeffrey Tambor. The original music score was composed by John Morris. The film was both a critical and a box-office flop, but has since taken a cult following among fans.
Jack Duffy was a Canadian singer, comedian and actor.
John Leonard Morris was an American film, television, and Broadway composer, dance arranger, conductor, and trained concert pianist. He collaborated with filmmakers Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder.
Rudy De Luca is an American screenwriter and actor best known for his work with filmmaker Mel Brooks. In April 1972, he opened The Comedy Store with Sammy Shore.
Mel Tolkin was a television comedy writer best known as head writer of the live sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows during the Golden Age of Television. There he presided over a staff that at times included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Danny Simon. The writers' room inspired the film My Favorite Year (1982), produced by Brooks, and the Broadway play Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993), written by Neil Simon.
Dorothy Emmerson is an American actress and singer who was active in the New York City theatre scene during the 1960s and 1970s. She first appeared in the ensembles of the original 1963 Vernon Duke musical Zenda and the 1965 Lincoln Center Revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. She next starred for a couple years in the long running Off-Broadway production The Mad Show at the New Theater. In 1968 she portrayed her first featured role on Broadway, Eileen Higby in the original production of Paul Nassau and Oscar Brand's The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N. This was followed by her portrayal of Rita in the original production of John Sebastian's Jimmy Shine in 1968–1969, where she shared the stage with Dustin Hoffman and Rue McClanahan.
Sam Bobrick was an American author, playwright, television writer, and lyricist.
Norman, Is That You? is a 1970 play in two acts by American playwrights Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick about a Jewish couple coming to terms with their son's homosexuality. The work is notably the first play written by both writers. After 19 preview performances, the play officially opened on Broadway on February 19, 1970 at the Lyceum Theatre. It closed after only 12 more performances on February 28, 1970. The production was directed by George Abbott and starred Martin Huston as Norman Chambers, Walter Willison as Garson Hobart, Lou Jacobi as Ben Chambers, Dorothy Emmerson as Mary, and Maureen Stapleton as Beatrice Chambers.
Peeping Times is a 1978 American comedy television special that aired on NBC on January 25, 1978. Co-produced, written and directed by Rudy De Luca and Barry Levinson, the special featured an early broadcast network appearance of David Letterman. David Frost was co-executive producer. The show was a spoof of TV news magazine programs.
Norman... Is That You? is a 1976 American comedy film directed by George Schlatter and starring Redd Foxx and Pearl Bailey. It is based on the play Norman, Is That You? The film version changes the locale from New York City to Los Angeles and substitutes an African American family for a Jewish family in the original play.
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