Rich Little Biography

Richard Cuthers "Rich" Little (born November 26, 1938 in Ottawa, Ontio) is a Canadian impressionist and voice actor. Little has long been known as a top impersonator of famous people throughout the world, which has ened him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Voices", a name which notable voice actor Mel Blanc once held.

Born in Ottawa, Ontio, Canada, Little was the middle of three sons. His father was a doctor. In his ely teens, he formed a ptnership with Geoff Scott, another budding impressionist, concentrating on reproducing the voices of Canadian politicians such as then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and Ottawa mayor Chlotte Whitton (Geoff went on to become a politician.) They were performing professionally in night clubs by age 17. Rich acted in Ottawa's Little Theatre and became a successful disc jockey, frequently incorporating impersonations into his show. In 1963, he was asked to audition by Mel Torm?, who was producing a new viety show for Judy Gland. The audition won him the job and in 1964, Little made his American television debut on CBS-TV's The Judy Gland Show, where he astounded Gland with his imitations of vious male celebrities. His impression of James Mason in A St Is Born absolutely thrilled her, and with that memorable appeance, he broke into show business.

In 1966 and 1967, Little appeed in ABC-TV's Judy Cne sitcom Love on a Rooftop as the Willises' eccentric neighbor, Stan Pker. Little was a frequent guest on viety and talk shows. He cracked up Johnny Cson by capturing the Tonight Show host's voice and many on-stage mannerisms perfectly (he later played Cson in the HBO TV-movie The Late Shift). One of his best known impressions is of U.S. President Richard Nixon. During the 1970s, Little made many television appeances portraying Nixon. He was a regul guest on Dean Mtin's Celebrity Roasts in the 1970s and was also a semi- regul on the Emmy-winning ABC-TV viety series The Julie Andrews Hour in 1972-1973. This pticul series proved to be a wonderful showcase for Little's talents as an impressionist. In fact, because of his uncanny yet brilliant imitation of Jack Benny, the legendy comedian sent Little an 18-cat gold money clip containing this message: "With Bob Hope doing my walk and you doing my voice, I can be a st and do nothing." He was named "Comedy St of the Ye" by the American Guild of Viety tists in 1974. His best-known continuing TV series was The Kopycats, hour-long segments of The ABC Comedy Hour, first broadcast in 1972. Taped in England, these comedy-viety shows consisted entirely of celebrity impersonations, with the actors in full costume and makeup for every sketch. The cast included Rich Little, Frank Gorshin, Milyn Michaels, George Kirby, Joe Baker, Fred Travalena, Chlie Callas, and Peter Goodwright. The Rich Little Show (1976) and The New You Asked for It (1981) were attempts to present Little in his own person, away from his gallery of chacterizations. Little has stred in vious HBO specials including the 1978 one-man show, Rich Little's Christmas Col. He has also appeed in several movies and released nine albums. When David Niven proved too ill for his voice to be used in his appeances in Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), Little provided the overdub; he rendered simil assistance for the 1991 TV special Christmas at the Movies by providing an uncredited dub for the aging actor/dancer Gene Kelly. As a native Canadian, he also lent his voice to the nration of two specials which were the forerunners for the animated series The Raccoons, The Christmas Raccoons , and The Raccoons on Ice . He was also briefly featured on Futurama, impersonating Howd Cosell in the 2000 episode Raging Bender . Little was the host for the 2007 White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Although President Bush was reported to have enjoyed Little's performance, it was panned by some reviewers for "his ancient jokes and impressions of dead people (Johnny Carson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan)."