Celebrity Birthday of the Day – November 22

I don’t get no respect! Rodney Dangerfield was born Jacob Cohen, but would later use the professional name Jack Roy when he began to perform at the age of 20. He struggled to support himself as an entertainer, and eventually quit, opting instead to sell aluminum siding. In the early 1960s, Dangerfield started trying to revive his career as an entertainer, developing the character that would define him – a man who don’t get no respect. After he proved a big success on The Ed Sullivan Show, Dangerfield began headlining shows in Las Vegas. He appeared frequently on The Tonight Show and The Dean Martin Show, and founded the Dangerfield’s comedy club where standup comics like Jerry SeinFeld, Jim Carrey, Tim Allen, Bill Hicks and Bob Saget got their starts. Dangerfield also recorded a number of comedy albums. In the 1980s he started to appear in films, including titles such as The Projectionist, Caddyshack, Easy Money, Ladybugs, Back to School, and Natural Born Killers. He did voice work on The Simpsons, and even had a video game made from his musical schtick Rappin’ Rodney. In 2001, Rodney Dangerfield suffered a heart attack while backstage at The Tonight Show, and this began several years’ worth of health problems for him. In 2003 he underwent brain surgery to prepare for his heart valve replacement surgery in 2004. In September 2004, Rodney Dangerfield slipped into a coma and died due to complications from the surgery. He was 82.

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